A technical document discovered on Apple’s developer website details a new Video Decode Acceleration framework within Mac OS X 10.6.3. The framework provides developers with low-level access to the GPUs of the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M and allows them to tap into the hardware to accelerate the decoding of H.264 videos. A potential benefactor of this capability would be Adobe and its Flash player which has known performance issues on the Mac platform. Mac models expected to see this boost include the MacBook Pro, the Mac mini, and the low-end iMac, each of which rock one of the above graphics cards.
[Via Daring Fireball and Michael Tsai]
