Adobe's Flash Player 'Gala' OS X preview tested: results may vary
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 28th 2010 11:30PM
posted April 28th 2010 11:30PM
| Gala1 | Flash 101 |
| 2.40GHz Core i5, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256MB2 | ||
| Safari 4.0.5 | 95.4 - 152.8 | 74.2 - 123.5 |
| Firefox 3.6.4 | 83.5 - 148.4 | 89.4 - 130.5 |
| 2.66GHz Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB2 | ||
| Safari 4.0.5 | 59 - 64 | 96 - 132 |
| Firefox 3.6.4 | 69 - 79 | 111 - 140 |
So we just put a few minutes aside to put Adobe's new "Gala" build of Flash 10.1 through its paces on our latest-generation Core i5 and i7 15-inch MacBook Pros here, and the results are a little confusing to say the least. On our i7 equipped with the high-res display and 512MB GeForce GT 330M, processor utilization playing a 1080p sample video on YouTube dropped by a third to a half on average -- not bad -- with Safari 4.0.5 besting Firefox 3.6.4 by a smidge. Our i5 saw strangely different numbers, though, with Gala actually increasing the load on the CPU by as much as about 20 percent. Adobe is quick to note that this is nothing more than a rough preview release; Apple just unlocked access to the necessary hardware a few days ago, after all, and we're sure the company still has plenty of optimization to do. Ultimately, if our i7 figures are realistic, it should make high-def Hulu a decidedly less drama-packed experience down the road.
Notes:
1 Performance measured by processor utilization (note that numbers greater than 100 are possible on multi-core machines).
2 15.4-inch high resolution display, 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM
@boe
Here is your shout out: http://gregoire.org/2010/03/31/stop-complaining-about-flash/
@boe, incidentally enough Flash haven't crashed my FF since I don't even remember when, and that includes Win7 as well, and I'm using the heavier debug player... As for the old Flash Player versions, you can find them all right at Adobes page: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/142/tn_14266.html
@boe Using it now. The only thing that has crashed Firefox on Win 7 64bit as been a funky Javascript page and (ironically) I think Silverlight crashed it a couple times in 2009.
@boe Its a problem with your computer. I've only had maybe 3 Flash related crashes in total on my PC since buying it a year ago. Furthermore, I know exactly how they happened... they've only been induced by hot switching graphics cards while a youtube video was actually playing. For kicks I just opened opened up 15 tabs of actively playing youtube videos and got minimal slowdown, and no crashes. (FYI all videos were different and chosen off the Youtube homepage, and I still had a few random other apps running... CPU usage hovered around 80% with occasional spikes into the low 90s). Ohhh, and no crashes.
I use Win 7, and Opera on my Sony Vaio Z.
@hated one
Off subject but here's your answer
www.google.com
Macs with an SSD? TRIM support?
@shoman24v
word.
Anyone tested this with 2009 Macbook Pro 2.53Ghz Core2 Duo ?
@Peacock I tested on my 2.88Ghz
http://tinypic.com/r/n56m0x/5
1080p Dark Knight Trailer
I definitely saw no choppiness. I don't care if it's using a a smidgen less CPU.
@InKahootz Thanks for that, I install it on mine too.
No more choppiness as you said.
But my cpu still heat up.
May be the 9400M + 2.53 Ghz Core2Duo ain't power enough.
It's good to see that they're at least trying to address the performance issue. There's been a lot of to-and-fro between Apple and Adobe lately, with Apple calling Adobe 'lazy' and Adobe claiming that Apple doesn't give them access to the necessary API's to leverage hardware decoding for H.264.
But when they can't even make an installer properly, they're not really helping their own cause.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/4558410520/
@Mr Lizard
Lazy referring to their inability to make a no-crash=feature version for mobile phones.
iPhone was released in 2007, and still no Flash... that's the laziness.
Flash on Macs is decent, but still crashes... pain in the arse.. Apparently this Gala thing just makes it faster.. Cool..but not there yet.
@Wesscoast ... ok...i'm gonna bite becuase its early morning and my sarcasm detector hasnt booted properly yet...
adobe are lazy becuase they haven't written a flash player for the iPhone?
is that REALLY how you think this thing has played out?
@dsignet
They are lazy for delaying flash for mobile devices for who knows how long.
On my Core2 2.26ghz 9400m MBP I saw a similar performance increase as to the i7 MBP.
After installing the Flash 10.1 on my MacBook Pro 13" with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, the CPU and RAM usage has gone up.
Okay this 'Gala' update was extraordinary!
I am on an old Macbook Air with a 9400m graphics card and i cant believe i can actually go youtube and not have my macbook air slow down to a crawl.
I mean its insane how little processor i am using when youtube is not fullscreen. Its about a constant 15% while watching youtube videos for around 15 minutes.
It does jump when i full screem to around 45%...but on a macbook air i am actually used to both cores hovering close to a 100% when viewing videos.
I am extremely happy right now. My macbook air can actually last a little while longer.
@exoram
wow. Both cores close to 100% when viewing videos?
The MBA has a decent Core2Duo onboard, so this bad video acceleration
has to be Apple's laziness not Adobe's. Even my 5 year old CoreDuo with 1,6 Ghz and 7600GT Graka Notebook just has 30-35% with full screen 1080p and with a player like MPC HC only 25-30%.
So probably Apple just isn't allowing enough hardware access, because the platform should be very capable.
Another reason for me, not to buy a mac.
Here are my results: http://tinypic.com/r/htsej5/5
17" Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo 4GB ram
Sorry, guys, Apple is going to need far less fanboys blowing hot air from now on.
Why for the love of god is there no 8600GT support? Are we for real Adobe/Apple?
I love how everyone is debating who is more lazy, Adobe or Apple.
next time test them on a computer, not a mac.
Too bad there's no solution for a g5...
This beast has dual 2ghz g5 ppc's and 4gb of ram and it barely plays 720p flash full screen on 10.5.8.
In my own test with 2.4GHz C2D, 4GB of RAM, running on the 9400m, CPU usage went down from 90% range to 60% while watching 1080p youtube. But is the 9600m gt not supported?