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snowrider04 · Feb 15, 2006, 11:15 PM

I am a graphic designer and spend quite a bit of time in Photoshop and Illustrator. From what I have been reading and what people have been telling me, Adobe products and other applications that are not "universal" will run just as fast on the MBP as they would on the Powerbooks. Now, I know that most applications will become universal in the coming years, but how necessary is it to get a MBP now?

I'm of the school that I'll wait to hear how this first run acts and see if new modifications show up later on this year. Are there any other designers out there that are asking the same questions? I've been running a Powerbook for a few years now and haven't had any issues. Of course everyone wants more speed, but isn't it smart to wait and see how these machines perform for a graphics professional prior to pulling the trigger?

mduell · Feb 15, 2006, 11:26 PM

Photoshop and Illustrator are not universal binaries yet. The next release, in 8 - 14 months, will be a universal binary.

Depending on whose benchmarks you look at, the Core Duo iMac/MBP are faster, on par with, or slower than the G5 iMac in Photoshop (running through Rosetta). I'd expect the MBP to be faster than the G4 PB in Photoshop (running through Rosetta) most of the time, but slower for a few things. Once Photoshop is native Core Duo will pull well ahead of the G4, with the possible exception of a few filters (CYMK<->RGB conversions are particularly fast on the G4, but I haven't seen any comparative benchmarks lately).

Ozmodiar · Feb 15, 2006, 11:38 PM

What about those of us still chugging along on an original TiBook? I would hope anything would be faster, native or not.

jeebus · Feb 16, 2006, 04:54 AM

Yeah I'm upgrading from a 550 MHz Titanium Powerbook with a 133 MHz bus and 16 megs of VRAM to a 2.0 GHz Dual Core MBP with a 667 MHz bus and 256 megs of VRAM. I'm sure almost any application in rosetta will run much faster than it would natively on my 550 ti, especially anything that uses the video card.

ururk · Feb 16, 2006, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by jeebus

Yeah I'm upgrading from a 550 MHz Titanium Powerbook with a 133 MHz bus and 16 megs of VRAM to a 2.0 GHz Dual Core MBP with a 667 MHz bus and 256 megs of VRAM. I'm sure almost any application in rosetta will run much faster than it would natively on my 550 ti, especially anything that uses the video card.

Same here. I got the 550mhz RIGHT when it was released, which meant I only have a DVD-ROM drive, instead of the combo drive they released as STANDARD a month after I got mine : (. That's the progress of technology.

I am seriously hoping Apple doesn't rev the 2.0 significantly for at least 4 months after they ship in quantity.

I do have a backup plan - since I am ordering via Amazon, it will take a bit of time to get to me. I'll have plenty of time to cancel my order if tests @ the Apple store turn out to be just as fast as the Ti.

Ozmodiar · Feb 16, 2006, 01:22 PM

Yeah I got my Ti 400 when it came out. That means 100 MHz bus, 8 mb VRAM, CD/DVD ROM, 10 gig hard drive (which, after five years, only has ~700 mb free) and 384 mb of RAM. I can't imagine anything would run as slow or slower on a Mactel than it already does on this computer.

Funny thing is, though, I'm completely satisfied with the machine I have now.

snowrider04 · Feb 16, 2006, 03:06 PM

I was pleased with the AlBook that I had until it got stolen out of my house the other day. I'm weighing the pros and cons of purchasing another AlBook or waiting for the rev of the MacBook. I was fine with the speed of my AlBook, but of course everyone can use a little more speed!

jeebus · Feb 16, 2006, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by ururk

Same here. I got the 550mhz RIGHT when it was released, which meant I only have a DVD-ROM drive, instead of the combo drive they released as STANDARD a month after I got mine : (. That's the progress of technology.

It's funny you should say that. That sucks, but fortunately for me I got lucky and was able to pick up the DVD-ROM one like yours the day after they updated them to DVD/CD-RW drives for about $300 less cuz it was "old". I wish I could have gotten the CD burner anyway but I was only in gr. 9 then and I'm in college now and at the time I could really barely afford even the discounted one.

ururk · Feb 16, 2006, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by jeebus

It's funny you should say that. That sucks, but fortunately for me I got lucky and was able to pick up the DVD-ROM one like yours the day after they updated them to DVD/CD-RW drives for about $300 less cuz it was "old". I wish I could have gotten the CD burner anyway but I was only in gr. 9 then and I'm in college now and at the time I could really barely afford even the discounted one.

It was a very traumatic experience for me, but glad you were able to get one so early on (I got it when I first started College). The scary thing is, I remember using OS 9 on this thing!