I’m currently running CS2 on a Dell dimension 8300 with 2G memory. Operating system is XP Pro. The machine is a couple of years old, but still pretty decent specs. Photoshop scratch disks are set to a secondary internal drive that still has 100G free, then an external drive.
Here’s the problem: it’s slooooow. I can work for a while, then PS will freeze for 30 secs or so, then get progressively slower. I have an action I run to increase efficiency to 100%, but in general I’m not getting the kind of performance I would expect and I spend lots of time waiting for PS to process, save, load, etc.
I’ve been thinking about getting a laptop, but I’m also wondering if PS is inherently faster on a mac. Trouble is, I can only afford around $2500-$3000. Do you think CS3 would run quickly on a MacPro? Anyone tried it with the beta?
No, 100GB is correct. It’s a 250GB drive that’s only half full. The external drive that’s my second choice for a scratch disk is also 250GB, but since it’s external it’s slower.
The drives are also defragged regularly. I run SpeedUpMyPC to clear RAM from time to time. I have anti-virus software, and I run spyware and adware cleaning programs weekly. I even shut down every other app before running PS, but it’s still slow.
I’ve disabled all but presets and filters except the ones I run regularly. I’m running out of ideas!
I should also mention that I’m working on files with an average size of 100-150MB. I know that’s big, but it’s not terrible. I’m only using 8-bit and no RAW images.
IMHO with those specs you shouldn’t be experiencing such sloooow edits. In general for most work (other programs includded) once you are in a program, using it on a mac or pc won’t be that much different.
It is everything else that is different. The multitasking, stability, easy setup, ease of use–the list goes on and on.
I am starting out brand spankin’ new on PSCS2 and must decide on what hardware- PC or MAC. All of the users I have spoken with personally say the MAC Pro hands down. They say I’ll never have to calibrate the monitor, the color is better, it is faster. Now I’m not so sure….any thoughts? I have an old dog of a PC , I’ll need new anyway. Especially a new monitor. I am switching from film to digital for portraiture- professional. I really don’t use or need the computer for much more. I have a basic Dell laptop with my accounts using quickbooks. Thanks, Trez
I’m not sure a laptop is the best bet. You’d need a decent sized monitor to use with it, and a couple of Firewire hard drives in order to have enough disk space for backup and scratch space.
I have one 250gb external drive and one 500gb. I also have a 24" LCD monitor, so that isn’t a problem. I would be hooking the laptop up to my existing peripherals, but with the advantage that it’s portable when I have meetings and have to show stuff unexpectedy. I’m more concerned about processing speed on a laptop.
A few months ago, I went to a hands-on Aperture demo. They had 17" MacBook Pros set up for us to use. Performance in Aperture, which has pretty hefty requirements, was excellent.
c’They say I’ll never have to calibrate the monitor, the color is better,
If you are producing images for professional use, prepress, or wedding, portraiture, etc, were good accurate color is important, then you will need a hardware / software monitor profiling set up. And will need to profile your monitor at least once a month. Some do it every 2 weeks, some weekly. Check out www.smartshooter.com You’ll need to register, but its free. Search the site, you’ll find extensive testing done on monitors, CRT & LCD, with recomendations, and testing on monitor profiling equipment.
I switched to Mac several years ago. I’d never go back. Fast, easier to use. Dependable. Not Perfect or Crash Proof….but much more dependable then Windows envirolment. Whin I used PC, I found that things just slowed down after about a year. So about once a year, I’d reformat the drive, and start fresh again. That always gave me back my speed and took care of any "glitches" it had developed. Hey…it’s windows.
In the studio we use G4-400, G5 dual 1.8, PowerBook G4 1.6, i-book G4. I normally would not use a Laptop for heavy duty PS work, but with the MacPro coredual, etc, they are very fast with a lot of horse power. Just keep in mind that PS can’t take advantage of all that power on the MacPro until CS3 is fully realeased. CS2 will run faster on a non intel chip. No need to defrag, OSX does that for you in the background. And have gone several years and the systems are still just as speedy and dependable as when they were new.
Jeff, Thanks so much for the info. I use a spyder to profile my monitor regularly, although I should probably do it more often than the once a month that I do it now.
I’m happy to hear you say that the laptop is fast enough for CS3, since that’s the point at which I’m considering switching. And your experiences with slowing down are exactly what I’m going through now–no real reason for it, but things are just getting slower.
The thing is, I’d love to have a laptop but I can only afford one new machine. Do you think it’s feasible to use a MacPro as my main machine (with CS3 and an external monitor & drives)? I work in PS every day on files that are 100-200mb in size.
Thanks again for the help. This is a big decision for a person who’s spent 20 years using and programming PCs. ๐
I used to be opposed to laptops as primary machines but I bought a MacBook Pro and it’s my main machine at home now. Of course I have a 23" Cinema Display hooked up to it – really helps with colors.
Very good. Of course I was used to a Dual Gig G4. Even with the Rosetta emulation it blows that away. And it only promises to get faster.
Basically I agree with Buko – a proper workstation is always a tower, I wouldn’t dream of using a laptop at work for example.
But this computer is fast and it has enough RAM to handle the type of jobs you’re talking about (I believe you mentioned 100-200Mb files). As long as you have an external drive for a scratch disk and another for storage this is a totally workable situation. Oh and another monitor (preferably a Apple LCD).
I use one of my Firewire drives for this. Works fine.
Don’t get me wrong Buko – a tower is always the first choice for a serious graphics workstation, but what she described is easily handled by a MacBook Pro with enough RAM.
The real reason I went laptop is that I do a lot of recording and was sick to death of the noise from the towers. This laptop is dead silent – the Firewires are louder.
Granted the MacPros are a lot quieter than that honkin’ loud G4 MDD but this is virtually silent. ProTools loves me now.
I just bought a 17" mac book pro with 2.33 ghz and 2 gimp of ram. As far as I’m concerned it’s as fast as my dual 2 ghz G5 tower with 5 gimp of ram and a 160 gig scratch disc, but then I only do illustration work and rarely exceed 200 meg in file size.
An additional issue to keep in mind is the possibility of running a Mac/Windows environment on the Intel Macs. I use a Mac Pro and have a Windows on a separate HD in order to boot up and use PS CS2 and Vue 5 Infinite at native speeds until the new versions are released (plus a PS plugin or two crash under Rosetta). Then there are a myriad of small Windows only apps (mostly 3D modelers) which I use.
More amazing that Windows on a Mac to my mind is the ability to run Windows within the Mac OS via Parallels. It is more than fast enough and powerful enough to run small 3D apps and all 2D graphics Wndows apps within the Mac OS X environment. Your cursor changes from one OS to the other as it moves into and out of platform specific windows. While the technology is cutting edge it works extremely well and will continue to progress rapidly as Parallels has grown it’s software faster than any company I’ve ever encountered.
Here’s a sample screen shot…(What’s wrong with this picture?)
For those extremely rare occasions when I have to run Windoze, a keep SoftWindows98 on an external drive, and that runs in the Classic environment. So I get emulation within emulation. That’s all I need. ๐
For those extremely rare occasions when I have to run Windoze, a keep SoftWindows98 on an external drive, and that runs in the Classic environment. So I get emulation within emulation. That’s all I need.
Try all doing that with Remote Desktop or Timbuktu! ๐
The joke I was trying to make is that doing what you do with Remote Desktop or Timbuktu would make your brain hurt! Think two mirrors on opposite walls…
I figured something like that, and I was just trying to say that I have no insight as to what those suckers do, other than they do something I don’t need, like using a machine remotely.
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