Photoshop: Mac vs. PC

I've been designing using my rather high-end PC (or at least it was when I got it 2 years ago). But, now it seems as if Photoshop is just sluggish and it tends to hang-up every once and a while for short periods of time.

I am thinking about getting a Mac laptop (or desktop, depending on how much I can get) to use for design work. The only thing that concerns me is if there is really much of a difference between using programs such as Photoshop on a Mac rather than a PC.

Does anyone have any experiences that can compare the differences?

You could always just buy more RAM and/or upgrade your CPU, as opposed to buying a whole new computer?

Well, there are other reasons for me wanting to buy a Mac, but I want to know if there are big differences between using a PC and a Mac for Photoshop in particular.

The computer I'm working on right now is P4 2.6Ghz with 1Gb RAM. I think thats pretty sufficient.

May i ask, what other thinigs are you planning to do with the Mac? I'm jsut curious, thats all.

Also, i've heard Photoshop runs SLOWER on a Mac than PC, but that could just be a rumor, so don't take my word on that one.

I plan on taking it to college and using it academically (papers, research, etc.). I also want to try to get into video editing and possibly 3D design/modelling.

I'm guessing having no right click would be a right pain in the arse.

Probably. But, its workable. I'd just have to get used to it. Seriously, I can use a mouse fluently with my left hand... not many people can do that with a right-handed mouse .

I wouldn't get a Mac for Photoshop until Adobe releases Creative Suite as a Universal Binary so it can actually use the extra power that the Intel processors provide.

Originally Posted by Indy I'm guessing having no right click would be a right pain in the arse.

Well, for the huge use of the Apple and Alt key using photoshop, pressing the "Ctrl" key on the keyboard isn't to hard to get the right-click.

There is no difference IMO, but I haven't used it that much. I can say that with Illustrator, I see no difference at all between Mac and PC.

Originally Posted by jono1 I wouldn't get a Mac for Photoshop until Adobe releases Creative Suite as a Universal Binary so it can actually use the extra power that the Intel processors provide.

I agree with that too, that's why I don't buy a MacBookPro right now, and they might be cheaper at that time .

I have a 20" iMac Intel Core Duo with 2GB of memory and 256mb vram.

I was coming from a AMD Athlon64 3200+ with 1 GB of memory, using photoshop cs2 was a question I had myself, once I got my imac in ( got it in January about 2 weeks after it was released from macworld). The performance on photoshop running in rosetta was faster then my windows computer. To be honest, it's well worth the upgrade as photoshop runs faster even tho it's not even supported and has to run in rosetta its still faster then my amd 3200+. I can't wait to see the UB version which will be cs3.

Originally Posted by flez I agree with that too, that's why I don't buy a MacBookPro right now, and they might be cheaper at that time .

Mac's won't get cheaper. They will upgrade the processor and sell out the old units with maybe a $100 discount if that. powerbooks and macbook pros sold for the same price when macbook pros hit the market, same with imac g5, it was the same price. Honestly amazon gave $250 rebate on imac intel core duo as to the G5 imac was a $150 rebate, the older unit cost more then the new unit. Your not going to see a price difference at all, I guarantee it.


Let's not forget you can load windows on intel macs, so your never going to have a loss.

Here are some screen shots of me playing css and dods on my imac 20"

http://www.macovation.com/reviews/dodss1.png
http://www.macovation.com/reviews/dodss2.png

http://www.macovation.com/reviews/csss1.png
http://www.macovation.com/reviews/csss2.png