iMac Performance
Hi,
I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in General Discussion...I'm guessing here.
I'm going to be buying a Mac as soon as possible, and have a few questions as regards the performance of the 1.25ghz iMac.
The iMac is my preferred form factor, and I'm not keen to wait more than a couple of months, in which time I don't really see Apple updating the line (other than perhaps a bump to 1.5ghz).
There are lots of posts about the G4 being outdated and slow, and I just want to get some feedback about what sort of performance I should expect in the sort of tasks I'd perform on it.
Here's a fairly comprehensive list of what I'll be doing:
1. Microsoft Office (2004 when it's released) (lots of Word and Entourage)
2. Adobe Acrobat (creating/editing/viewing)
3. Managing music - iTunes
4. Digital snaps - iPhoto and Photoshop (CS)
5. Messing around with digital photos in Photoshop (not massive files)
6. Building websites - Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver MX 2004 plus hand-coding
7. Possibly using Lotus Notes client to connect to my work WAN
8. Maybe getting into a little bit of video editing with iMovie or FCE, but not much; it's not a real reason for me buying a Mac
9. Web browsing
Basically, using the iMac as a common-or-garden home PC.
What is important to me is OS responsiveness. A slow OS response grates like little else. I know Mac OS X isn't the world's best for this (hell, I've used iTunes on Windows for long enough!). I'm concerned with ways in which the OS is slow - how are the animations, how responsive is Office on a 1.25ghz G4 (I know this may be as much MS as Apple), how fast are things like Expose, how slow is window resizing. I appreciate that some of the responsiveness issues may be fixed in Tiger or soon thereafter (a lot are just ropey coding after all), but I'd rather wait a while than buy a PC that's going to run like a complete dog. This kind of speed/responsiveness is what's important; I won't be running gaussian blur on 300mb PS files or running 24 tracks in Logic or Soundtrack, so that kind of speed is much less of an issue. I basically want the 'best' OS experience I can get.
Out of curiosity also, how much better would such performance be on a 1.6ghz G5? Most of the measures I can find are for heavy PS work or rendering, which aren't that relevant.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
James
I'm not sure if this should be posted here or in General Discussion...I'm guessing here.
I'm going to be buying a Mac as soon as possible, and have a few questions as regards the performance of the 1.25ghz iMac.
The iMac is my preferred form factor, and I'm not keen to wait more than a couple of months, in which time I don't really see Apple updating the line (other than perhaps a bump to 1.5ghz).
There are lots of posts about the G4 being outdated and slow, and I just want to get some feedback about what sort of performance I should expect in the sort of tasks I'd perform on it.
Here's a fairly comprehensive list of what I'll be doing:
1. Microsoft Office (2004 when it's released) (lots of Word and Entourage)
2. Adobe Acrobat (creating/editing/viewing)
3. Managing music - iTunes
4. Digital snaps - iPhoto and Photoshop (CS)
5. Messing around with digital photos in Photoshop (not massive files)
6. Building websites - Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver MX 2004 plus hand-coding
7. Possibly using Lotus Notes client to connect to my work WAN
8. Maybe getting into a little bit of video editing with iMovie or FCE, but not much; it's not a real reason for me buying a Mac
9. Web browsing
Basically, using the iMac as a common-or-garden home PC.
What is important to me is OS responsiveness. A slow OS response grates like little else. I know Mac OS X isn't the world's best for this (hell, I've used iTunes on Windows for long enough!). I'm concerned with ways in which the OS is slow - how are the animations, how responsive is Office on a 1.25ghz G4 (I know this may be as much MS as Apple), how fast are things like Expose, how slow is window resizing. I appreciate that some of the responsiveness issues may be fixed in Tiger or soon thereafter (a lot are just ropey coding after all), but I'd rather wait a while than buy a PC that's going to run like a complete dog. This kind of speed/responsiveness is what's important; I won't be running gaussian blur on 300mb PS files or running 24 tracks in Logic or Soundtrack, so that kind of speed is much less of an issue. I basically want the 'best' OS experience I can get.
Out of curiosity also, how much better would such performance be on a 1.6ghz G5? Most of the measures I can find are for heavy PS work or rendering, which aren't that relevant.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
James
Comments
I'm using a 800mhz 15" FP imac with Panther and it runs really well. Stuff like iMovie and and iPhoto run perfectly on it and I do use Photoshop a lot as well and it's fine. As regards OS responsiveness.. I'd say that 10.3 pretty much cured any lag that previous versions had, so I guess that an imac with a 50% faster CPU, faster hard drive and faster bus will run even snappier. What you will find is that as long as you have over 512MB of RAM you can pretty much have all your apps open and they'll remain happy and snappy.
Which screen size are you going for? By the way, it might be a good idea to wait if you can and keep your ear to the pulse of AI. The iMac updates surely can't be far behind all the recent updates. If they don't add massive CPU updates then I imagine they'll do something to make them more attractive; cheaper or/and better graphics.
Originally posted by Proxy
Hi James,
I'm using a 800mhz 15" FP imac with Panther and it runs really well. Stuff like iMovie and and iPhoto run perfectly on it and I do use Photoshop a lot as well and it's fine. As regards OS responsiveness.. <snip>
Cheers Proxy - exactly what I was after. iTunes in Windows is real pain as regards lag - resizing the window lags behind the mouse something rotten. I'd heard lots about this all over OS X, so it's good to know it's been improved in Panther.
Probably going to go for the 17". Updates are always hard to predict, though I think you're right - a new superdrive and bumped processors will be along soon (I'm figuring pre-WWDC, but who knows!), so I'll probably wait for that. I'll be mighty hacked off if a G5/new form factor comes out in Q4.
On another note, Appled-installed memory is really pricey. Would I void my warranty by putting it in myself? For Dells that I have had previously, I've been able to put extra memory in and, although technically that voids the warranty, whenever I've had a claim, I've just taken it out. I guess the important thing is: is there a sticker/seal over the access screw/door, so Apple would know if you'd been inside the machine?
Also, does Applecare get voided if you open up the box?
Cheers,
James
Originally posted by James Cocker
Cheer Proxy - exactly what I was after. iTunes in Windows is real pain as regards lag - resizing the window lags behind the mouse something rotten. I'd heard lots about this all over OS X, so it's good to know it's been improved in Panther.
It's much better. Perhaps you'd be best to go and actually have a play with some in-store machines tho', because this kind of thing is notoriously subjective.
Proxy is right by the way: 512MB of memory will help a great deal... in fact, I'd recommend that you buy as much as you can afford: OS X will use it if it's there.
Quote:
On another now, Appled-installed memory is really pricey. Would I void my warranty by putting it in myself? For Dells that I have had previously, I've been able to put extra memory in and, although technically that voids the warranty, whenever I've had a claim, I've just taken it out. I guess the important thing is: is there a sticker/seal over the access screw/door, so Apple would know if you'd been inside the machine?
No, indeed it's listed a a Customer Installable Part on the Apple website.
Provided you don't do something egregiously stupid when you put it in... but it sounds like you won't be doing that.
You might be interested in:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26264 (iMac CIP how-to)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86510 (iMac Memory spec's)
two other things....
first...os x loves ram, so get as much as you can afford....also os x loves "good" ram...so either go with apple ram or crucial ram or someplace that you know has good ram...os x hates cheap/bad ram....your machine will run better with less, good ram than more, cheap ram (if that makes sense...basically bad ram will make your system run crappy)
second...i run iTunes (wonderful, best music player app), office x, browse the web, play games (kinda...nothing too fancy, i'm an old man), use iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and lots of other programs (quicken, photoshop, iChat etc)...this iMac runs them all great, with no problems...the newer iMacs should be even better, and, if you wait a week or two, there should be even another update...i say wait a couple of weeks and then order the updated iMac and never look back...i love my FP iMac...it is beautiful and functional...what more could you ask for??
g
Originally posted by staphbaby
Proxy is right by the way: 512MB of memory will help a great deal... in fact, I'd recommend that you buy as much as you can afford: OS X will use it if it's there.
Is it important to pair-up memory (ie. 512 + 512, 256 + 256 but not 512 + 256)? I've read that you can get performance gains that way, at least in Wintel boxes.
Thanks for your help!
J.
i have a 256 internal slot and a 512 in the external slot
g
Originally posted by James Cocker
Is it important to pair-up memory (ie. 512 + 512, 256 + 256 but not 512 + 256)? I've read that you can get performance gains that way, at least in Wintel boxes.
No, using memory modules of different size is not a problem under OS X. But, if I am not mistaken, you have anyway to use different size modules if you do want more than 512 MB RAM, since only one memory slot is user-accessible in the iMac (the other one is occupied by a 256 MB module).
As for OS X responsiveness: it is true that with Panther, a number of optimizations improved much the system over previous versions, but something important for the user experience could be much better: Quartz 2D. Quartz 2D is the engine that handles all 2D operations and it is still software-based (with the exception I think of scrolling). This is why window resizing, although improved in some cases, is still horrible. The resizing inefficiency made me use more and more the green button to make the window auto-adjust its size according to the contents. Apart resizing, I don't see other serious responsiveness issues under Panther.