Intel mac 20'' for graphic design?

S

serenelim

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I'm a new mac user, hope that someone could help me.

Will u recommend the Intel mac for graphic designer? I heard alot sayings about photoshop running slow on them. But will it be slower than running on DuoCore PC? And can I run windows software installer on them?

I'm considering between a PC workstation and this Intel mac.
 
You can, for example, buy the intel iMac 20" and run Windows and your software on Windows for the time being (until Adobe releases a Universal version of their software). Right now, software which is not universal yet, will be slower in Mac OS X than in Windows. But this is not a PC vs. Mac flameboard, so let's stay away from that. How many years do you wish to use this Mac? Next spring, Adobe will release the universal version. And the software doesn't run too badly in Rosetta either. So you'd have all the advantages of Mac OS X still.
 
I recommend waiting for the Mac Pro (the Intel version of PowerMac) because you can't upgrade the iMac a lot, it only supports 2Gb of memory. I believe you will need to upgrade your Mac later... and 2Gb is not enough for hard working.

DO NOT GET A PC, it will be very slow after a year and you'll need to do a lot of maintenance...
 
You'll have to run CS apps in Rosetta (software translator for intel processor chip) until these apps are ported to Universal. In short, don't get an intel based Mac until this happens, unless you like your apps to work slower. :)

2GB and an external hard drive (my choice!) is PLENTY for hard working.
 
"hard working" certainly is not an exact term, then. ;) ... I, for one, can work very hard on a computer with 8 MHz, 1 MB of RAM and a black & white display. It's enough to run MacWrite. :p
 
PippinX said:
DO NOT GET A PC, it will be very slow after a year and you'll need to do a lot of maintenance...
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This is just plain misleading. I have several PCs that are a few years old that run fast as lightning (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) and require very little maintenance.

Perhaps it would be better to say, "Don't get a PC because we're a Macintosh site, and you would not be able to get help here with your PC," instead of saying something that is completely subjective, like "it will be very slow after a year."
 
I have to agree with EDCC on that. I have some PCs running Ubuntu and Slackware with nary a slowdown. :) They may not be Macs, but I also enjoy running Linux on them as much as I love using my Mac. :)
 
serenelim said:
Thanks alot for all the help. But when will the new MacPro to be out most likely? Can predict?
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With the CS apps you need to be more concerned with when are they going to port them to Universal instead of Rosetta. I'm not sure of the answer to this question.
 
I have a 20" IntelMac and several G4s/G5s. For me, I would not want to have to work in the CS suite all day on the iMac right now. I do a lot of design for a living, so I've got the right perspective I believe. It's not horrible, but the speed hit gets old on large files and bigger projects. I hop into CS2 on the iMac periodically and it's tolerable, but that's as much as I can say about it. When CS3 hits, it'll feel like I got a brand new machine I suspect.

I have a coworker who has a 17" IntelMac at home and she claims it's noticeably (but only slightly) faster in CS2 than the Dual 1 GHZ G4 I've got her working on at the office. So if you're familiar with Dual G4 speeds, that might be a point of reference.

It also depends on your type of work. If it's mostly smaller files (sub 50MB) and single page layouts, you might be just fine. If you do high res poster art with lots of layers and 50-page manuals, it's going to be on the frustrating side.

It's funny how relative this all is though. A few years, even Rosetta speed would have been cutting edge.
 
@serenelim: Apple said all their computers would turn to Intel this year so I guess the Mac Pro will come out the same time with Leopard in August.

ElDiabloConCaca said:
This is just plain misleading. I have several PCs that are a few years old that run fast as lightning (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) and require very little maintenance.

Perhaps it would be better to say, "Don't get a PC because we're a Macintosh site, and you would not be able to get help here with your PC," instead of saying something that is completely subjective, like "it will be very slow after a year."
Click to expand...


No I have two PCs and they are really slow now, one of them has the pentium 4 processor.
 
PippinX said:
No I have two PCs and they are really slow now, one of them has the pentium 4 processor.
Click to expand...


This is most likely to Windows getting "arthritis" after much use. It's usually snappy after a fresh install, but after months of use tends to slow down. It's a common thing in Windows even with Windows XP. Usually it's a matter of defragging the hard drive to speed things up, but it's never as fast as it was in the beginning, mainly because of all the leftover registry settings from uninstalled applications.

Again, I have yet to experience such slowdowns on Intel/AMD PC hardware using open source operating systems like Linux or the open soruce BSDs.
 
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