Mac Users - How Much is Enough?

[Hugh Sakols]

I use a Mac G4 tower 867 GHZ and 1 Gig Ram. Processing is a bit slow on my large files but I imagine that I need at least 2 gigs RAM . Would increasing to say 1.5 or 2 GHZ really make much of a difference when working with Photoshop CS? I'd to quickly open two files and make side by side comparisions. I would especially like to hear from those who have made the transition from a G4 to G5 (not neccessarily the new intel machine).

[Marko]

Photoshop tends to be both CPU and RAM intensive. Oh, and it can be disk intensive too. So, to answer your question: yes, you would likely see a big boost in performance with a jump to G5, as you would likely be upgrading all three aspects.

If you decide to make a switch, do yourself a favour and get a second physical disk with as much capacity as you can afford and use it for Phothsop scratch only. A partition on the single disk would do, but not nearly as much. Also, get as much RAM as you can. Both disk and RAM are cheap these days and they will speed you up.

Good luck.

[Gordon Moat]

Oddly enough, the most noticable speed increase can often be found by installing a faster harddrive. Another possibility is adding a separate scratch space drive, especially if kept internally (as opposed to an external USB or FireWire scratch drive). The RAM and processor changes are very small incremental changes; some published tests indicate barely 10% to 20% changes in difficult processes from doubling the processor speed. If you are using lots of time consuming filters or doing incremental rotations of images, the a different processor or more RAM might help. With more normal PhotoShop procedures, you might often find just installing a faster drive or a separate scratch disk really speeds things up.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[false_Aesthetic]

I'm pretty sure you'd "feel" an improvement moving from g4 -> g5 even if processor speed and ram stayed the same.

I had your tower (Exactly). and I moved to a souped up g4 tower (1.5 gig ram 1.6 ghz processor)... I did a bunch of work for a commercial photographer on the machine. Frequently the files were 800megs.... it chugged and chugged.

Then the digital lab at school got the "new" Imacs (g5s not intels) Basic processors and 1 gig ram. Totally awesome and totally fast.

Now I work between a g5 tower with 2 gigs of ram and whatever dual processor and my own 20" 2gig ram dual 2.16 gig Imac. . . . even running rosetta the imac is faster (this could just be my head though)


Upgrading would be an awesome idea. You'll def. notice it. But you don't have to upgrade to the new mac pros to feel the difference.

[paulr]

macgurus.com has just put their excellent photoshop performance info into a PDF file. This is the most comprehensive source on the subject that I've seen:

http://homepage.mac.com/boots911/.Pu...nBasics2.3.pdf

[Keith S. Walklet]

Hugh,

You will notice a big jump in performance moving from the G4 to G5. A year ago, I moved up to a refurb dualy with a couple gigs of RAM and some big internal drives and the difference is night and day. Should have done it sooner. I bump all the other recommendations posted here.

[Ken Lee]

Here's a tip: Save your file, close Photoshop often, and restart it.

Every time you make a change (even if it doesn't involve the creation of another layer) additional RAM is consumed, so that you can revert in the History tool. RAM is not recovered until you close the program.

[Hugh Sakols]

Keith,

Good to hear - I may try and look for a good used one. I haven't made a print in over three months because we are settling in to our new home in Old El Portal. One day soon I'll be back up and running. I notice when i don't make images I spent too much time on this forum.

I'm so sorry to hear about Steve Medley - I heard there was quite a gathering for his memorial.

[robc]

Here's a tip: Save your file, close Photoshop often, and restart it.

Every time you make a change (even if it doesn't involve the creation of another layer) additional RAM is consumed, so that you can revert in the History tool. RAM is not recovered until you close the program.

Here's a better tip: Goto Edit/Purge which does the same without closing PS

[QT Luong]

My upgrade from a G4 to a G5 (DP) resulted in very significant speed gains. The G5s currently can be a good bargain, since they are not much in demand with the move to Intel, however I expect PS CS 3 (next spring) on the new macpros to crush them.