Hi Mark,
Thank you for the very thorough answer. I looked through the links
you sent and feel more confident about making a decision now.
-Julie
On 22 May 2009, at 21:18, Mark A. Metz wrote:
Julie
I've actually done a lot of foot work on this exact question for
both platforms so I'll try to point you in the right direction.
If your primary, power computing need for the MBP is Photoshop, I
suggest you read this article:
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1247538
It's a nice encapsulation of what you can spend days/weeks digging
up from Adobe's technical documents.
Essentially, your priority list for expenses on a MBP is:
1. Memory
2. Memory
3. Memory
4. Memory
5. Processor Speed
6. Hard Drive Speed
7. Open GL supported graphics card
Photoshop CS4 is not 64-bit for the Mac, yet. Hopefully, in CS5.
That being the case, Photoshop can utilize up to ABOUT 3GB of
memory directly. If there is any left over (not used by the OS or
other apps.) it is utilized as a virtual scratch disk before
writing to the hard drive. That is why memory, preferably fast
memory, is so important. Things are a bit different on the Windows
side where CS4 is 64-bit (more direct use of memory over 4GB), but
I wouldn't suggest you switch platforms just for that if you're
happy with Macs. Wait for CS5.
Everything else won't make AS MUCH difference unless you're doing
specialized tasks like using of some of the new 3D or animating
features.
I performed some simple benchmarks at home with my MBP 2.44 Ghz
with 4GB DDR3 against my Vista 64 2.26 Ghz laptop with 4GB of DDR3
with Photoshop CS4 Extended. The Vista Machine ran faster on all
but one benchmark (which was only 0.5 seconds slower). Here are
the caveats. I used a monstrously large, 600 dpi file file with 12
layers and did a bilinear resample up to 1200 dpi to force the
differences between the two machines. The test with the largest
time difference was 1 minute, but most of the differences were
seconds. The take home point is that the higher processor speed in
the MBP isn't making much impact. The difference in performance
between the 2.66 and 2.93 will be minimal. The major advantage of
the 17" as it pertains to Photoshop is not the screen, it's the
ability to add up to 8GB of fast memory (The point of diminishing
returns on RAM for Photoshop, by the way). One of the things I
didn't do was explore whether the 15" MBP can be "forced" to take
more memory. I wonder if it can't be done, even though Apple
doesn't support it. I'll let some of the more hardware savvy
people address this.
When you run out of memory, Photoshop swaps to the hard drive. All
other hardware parameters being equal, the faster the hard drive,
the faster the swap, the faster Photoshop runs.
You will get an NVIDIA card with any MBP and they support OpenGL.
OpenGL will mainly affect video performance (i.e., screen refresh,
zoom, etc.). It may not help with any other tasks you perform in
Photoshop. Check here for clarification:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html
So now I'll give you the SUPER caveat. You can really enhance
Photoshop performance by tweaking your settings just right for your
setup. Certainly, buy all the computer you can afford and prefer,
but learn as much as you can about maximizing performance with what
you have. You can start here:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404440.html
Maybe you can stretch your G4 until CS5 and Snow Leopard. ; )
Good luck and feel free to ask more questions.
Mark
P.S. - Be careful about what the folks at the store tell you, and I
mean any store. Arm yourself with technical knowledge straight
from Adobe first. I've had sales people try to tell me stuff that
is just wrong. They sometimes forget or didn't learn that, "I
don't know," is more helpful than an erroneous answer. Double
check everything I've posted for accuracy, also. Your best tool is
between your ears.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Julie Kubal" <julieku...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:49 AM
To: <COMPUTERGUYS-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
Subject: [CGUYS] Which MacBook Pro?
Moving on from hard drives...
I'm about to purchase a new MacBook Pro.
I'm planning to use this computer for as long as possible,
basically until it dies. My current PowerBook G4 that I bought
back in 04 is still running in fact, but it's now too slow for my
needs. I primarily need to run Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.
Someone advised me to upgrade to the fastest processor available
because you never know in the years to come what programs one
might need to run. In this case, that would mean upgrading from
2.66 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo to the 2.93 Ghz. I think at the moment
2.66Ghz would be perfectly adequate and cost is a big
consideration, but if it makes sense in the long run, I'd be
willing to spend the extra $300.
Thoughts?
-Julie
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