Would the current MacBooks run Photoshop nearly as well as the MacBook Pros? It would be sweet if $1099 would do the job nearly as well as the $1999 MacBook Pros! Anyone have any experience with this?
Would the current MacBooks run Photoshop nearly as well as the MacBook Pros? It would be sweet if $1099 would do the job nearly as well as the $1999 MacBook Pros! Anyone have any experience with this?
I ran PShop CS2 on a G4 iBook, and it ran nearly as well as it did on my iMac. I think if I were you, I'd save the 900 bucks, but of course - YMMV.
I suspect that the main issue you're going to encounter running Photoshop on either machine is overheating.
The MacBook's fans constantly kick-in - even reindexing the drive will send it into hairdryer mode. Photoshop is almost certainly going to push it over the edge. Given 4GB of RAM, the MacBook is certainly capable of handling Photoshop, but it'll create some noise!
Likewise, the MacBook Pro isn't keen on running Photoshop for any length of time either. I used to use a MacBook Pro as a portable workstation, complete with 23-inch Cinema Display. The fans on the Pro weren't so bad, but on a number of occasions the MacBook Pro kernel panicked during Photoshop & Illustrator sessions.
All of the usual causes of a kernel panic were investigated, and it turned out that the MacBook Pro was simply overheating!
I was told a while back that Photoshop doesn't actually benefit form a discreet graphics card ? so the main selling point of the MacBook Pro is kind of redundant in your case.
If you aren't bothered about the screen size, and you're simply looking for a neat little portable CPU, then I'd say the MacBook will perform as well as the MacBook Pro.
Just bear in mind that both machines can get really noisy!
I was told a while back that Photoshop doesn't actually benefit form a discreet graphics card ? so the main selling point of the MacBook Pro is kind of redundant in your case.
If you aren't bothered about the screen size, and you're simply looking for a neat little portable CPU, then I'd say the MacBook will perform as well as the MacBook Pro.
Just bear in mind that both machines can get really noisy!
I second this opinion - 14 years experience with Photoshop teaches that the most important things for good PS performance are RAM (lots and lots of RAM) and a fast HD for when RAM runs out and the files are paged to the free space on the HD. The HD options available between Macbook and Macbook Pro are a big deciding factor - can you get 7500 rpm drive in the Macbook? Even if you could, would cooling be a problem in the smaller space? Screen size may also be a factor - unless you're planning to hook up a big external monitor, the extra pixels on the MBP screen might justify it for you. But for sure, the video card is a non-issue; until/unless PS starts to use the GPU for stuff like real-time transforms or effects which to date it does NOT do (though I'm hearing there are plans afoot for that in future version). Hope this helps.
Current versions of Photoshop do not benefit from a discreet graphics card, but that is going to change if I understand correctly. At Photoshop world Adobe announced that Photoshop CS4 will take advantage of them.
I dont know if you are planning on upgrading to CS4 or not, or what you plan to use PS for. But for some of the new features of CS4 (3D images, spherical/panoramic images) I'd suggest the pro.
Thanks for all of the great feedback. I'm leaning toward the 15" MBP (hoping it will take longer for me to outgrow than the MB). I hadn't planned on upgrading RAM from 2 to 4 GB right away. Hopefully I don't regret this decision.
I may wait until the middle of October, however, since there are rumors there are changes coming for the Apple laptops. Hopefully it isn't a move backwards, like the iPod Classic going from 160GB to 120GB!
Comments
Would the current MacBooks run Photoshop nearly as well as the MacBook Pros? It would be sweet if $1099 would do the job nearly as well as the $1999 MacBook Pros! Anyone have any experience with this?
I ran PShop CS2 on a G4 iBook, and it ran nearly as well as it did on my iMac. I think if I were you, I'd save the 900 bucks, but of course - YMMV.
The MacBook's fans constantly kick-in - even reindexing the drive will send it into hairdryer mode. Photoshop is almost certainly going to push it over the edge. Given 4GB of RAM, the MacBook is certainly capable of handling Photoshop, but it'll create some noise!
Likewise, the MacBook Pro isn't keen on running Photoshop for any length of time either. I used to use a MacBook Pro as a portable workstation, complete with 23-inch Cinema Display. The fans on the Pro weren't so bad, but on a number of occasions the MacBook Pro kernel panicked during Photoshop & Illustrator sessions.
All of the usual causes of a kernel panic were investigated, and it turned out that the MacBook Pro was simply overheating!
If you aren't bothered about the screen size, and you're simply looking for a neat little portable CPU, then I'd say the MacBook will perform as well as the MacBook Pro.
Just bear in mind that both machines can get really noisy!
I was told a while back that Photoshop doesn't actually benefit form a discreet graphics card ? so the main selling point of the MacBook Pro is kind of redundant in your case.
If you aren't bothered about the screen size, and you're simply looking for a neat little portable CPU, then I'd say the MacBook will perform as well as the MacBook Pro.
Just bear in mind that both machines can get really noisy!
I second this opinion - 14 years experience with Photoshop teaches that the most important things for good PS performance are RAM (lots and lots of RAM) and a fast HD for when RAM runs out and the files are paged to the free space on the HD. The HD options available between Macbook and Macbook Pro are a big deciding factor - can you get 7500 rpm drive in the Macbook? Even if you could, would cooling be a problem in the smaller space? Screen size may also be a factor - unless you're planning to hook up a big external monitor, the extra pixels on the MBP screen might justify it for you. But for sure, the video card is a non-issue; until/unless PS starts to use the GPU for stuff like real-time transforms or effects which to date it does NOT do (though I'm hearing there are plans afoot for that in future version). Hope this helps.
I dont know if you are planning on upgrading to CS4 or not, or what you plan to use PS for. But for some of the new features of CS4 (3D images, spherical/panoramic images) I'd suggest the pro.
To each his own though.
I may wait until the middle of October, however, since there are rumors there are changes coming for the Apple laptops. Hopefully it isn't a move backwards, like the iPod Classic going from 160GB to 120GB!