Only Mac OS X 10.4 and higher

ChocoFlop relies heavily on CoreImage. This is part of Apple’s Mac OS X 10.4 (aka Tiger). Users of previous versions of Mac OS X won’t be able to run it. There are no plans to backport the product to older versions. Before complaining about this please understand that without Tiger and Core Image this product simply would never have existed. Upgrading to 10.4 is always a good thing for end-users. For those still running windows. You can be glad that it’s still running.

Minimal Hardware Requirements: any mac released in 2004 or later. Works without a CoreImage supported graphics card but having one is highly recommended.

This implies:
- 1 Ghz G4 class Mac
- 512 mb of ram
- At least a Radeon or Nvidia - 32 MB Graphics Card

Ok, I am not certain about this. I just happen to start all my mac development (and testing) work on an 12 inches iBook from december 2004. You may very well get it to work on an older machine. I just can’t guarantee it now. So far you know the developer will make it work well on the cheapest hardware available today: a 12 inch ibook, which has the same hardware as the cheapest PowerPC Mac Mini or older e-macs: 1.2 Ghz, Radeon 9200 with 32 MB. I put 512 mb as Ram requirement because I just think it’s reasonable. It would run on 256 mb, but like most other OSX apps it would benefit greatly from a a small upgrade. I never tested it with less than 768 mb.

Update: I upgraded to a MacBook Pro and really if you can, you should too. It makes a world of difference to have a supported GPU.

(Highly) Recommended Hardware

- A CoreImage accelerated graphics card. That is something like a Radeon 9550, 9600, 9800, X600, X800, X1600 or anything newer than that. You will notice a great difference if your card is accelerated, even is the CPU is exactly the same. A 1 ghz G4 with a radeon 9800 inside will totally destroy a Mac Mini or an Ibook at 1.2 ghz with their lowly Radeon 9200 (not CoreImage accelerated). Actually if you have a look at the CPU usage on a machine with an accelerated Graphics Card, it’s usually very low. The CPU only matters much if you are runnng everything off it.

If you have the chance to get your hands on an intel iMac or MacBook Pro with their radeon x1600, then you’ll be lucky to be able to see how powerful CoreImage can be. I personally haven’t got this luck so far but reports from people with those beasts are quite encouraging.