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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > retouchartists.com Photoshop Speed Test.

retouchartists.com Photoshop Speed Test.
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HattoriHanzo
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May 15, 2006, 02:33 AM
 
"This speed test is in the form of an action and test image for photoshop and will perform a series of tests to determine how fast your system can perform them, the test must be done with the included image to insure uniformity.

This test has been tested by professional photographers, photoshop professionals and lowly retouch artists! and all are in agreement that this test represents a large amount of the people that use photoshop, although the action could obviously not cater for every element otherwise it would be far to complex for slower systems."

you can download the retouchartists.com speed test from Here

Please post system specs and software version detail in the thread (rather than "see in sig") so that people know what the system was even when you change your signature. Thanks
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 15, 2006, 02:36 AM
 
PowerMac G5 DC2.3 | 3.5 GB RAM | 6600 256mb

App Disk = 10k 74gb WD Raptor
Scratch = 250GB Maxtor

Photoshop CS2

1m 25s
     
jamil5454
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May 15, 2006, 09:25 AM
 
iBook G4 1.2 | 1.25 GB RAM | Radeon 9200 32mb

App Disk = 4200rpm 30 GB Fujistu
Scratch = FW400 7200rpm 20 GB Maxtor

Photoshop CS2

3m 39s
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 15, 2006, 10:28 AM
 
that (judging by other people who have ran this test) is an amazing score for an ibook.

for example

14 min 32 sec

12" powerbook - 1.33 Ghz - 1.25 Gb - Photoshop CS
     
svtcontour
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May 16, 2006, 01:39 AM
 
This is pretty much an exercise in RAM. With 2gig memory, the system is tapped out and hitting the page file for another gig or so. My guess is that it needs 3-4gigs of memory.
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 16, 2006, 03:42 AM
 
no, it isnt a test of ram.

it test ram, cpu and disk (and the benefits of scratch disk)
     
zmcgill
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May 16, 2006, 09:16 AM
 
Originally Posted by jamil5454
iBook G4 1.2 | 1.25 GB RAM | Radeon 9200 32mb

App Disk = 4200rpm 30 GB Fujistu
Scratch = FW400 7200rpm 20 GB Maxtor

Photoshop CS2

3m 39s
How did I get beat by this guy??

PM G4 Dual 1GHz, 1.5GB, CS2, 80 GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Seagate HD, 64MB GeForce4 MX
4:33
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 16, 2006, 09:20 AM
 
probably because it had a separate scratch disk and yours might be nearly full (the action is demanding)
     
zmcgill
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May 16, 2006, 09:25 AM
 
Capacity: 74.52
Available: 60.48
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 16, 2006, 09:31 AM
 
no idea then - your score sounds inline with every other forum that this has been posted on (its the ibook that isnt quite right )
     
svtcontour
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May 16, 2006, 02:48 PM
 
Like I said earlier. Its a test of RAM and pretty much nothing else. A G4 with like 4 gigs of ram and a single HD will likely finish the test before a dual G5 with only two gigs ram - even if it has a decided scratch disk. HD is so much slower than ram and as soon as you hit it, its game over no matter how fast a processor you have.
     
jamil5454
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May 16, 2006, 02:52 PM
 
Hmmm... maybe I messed up. I'll retest tonight.
     
HattoriHanzo  (op)
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May 16, 2006, 03:59 PM
 
hmmm
     
svtcontour
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May 17, 2006, 02:18 AM
 
Dual Xeon 3Ghz, 2gig DDR400 memory, 3x36gig SCSI drives. Swap is on the first drive, scratch on the second... nothing on the third in terms of swap or scratch.

OS is XP Pro with Service pack 2. Photoshop is CS2.

Time: 2 min 42 seconds


Noticed it was hitting the swap or paging drive real hard about half way through. Not as much activity on the photoshop scratchdisk drive. Needs more RAM
     
chatam
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May 18, 2006, 09:08 AM
 
G4 Quicksilver 2001 - 733 Mhz upgraded to Gigadesigns Dual 1,8 Ghz (7447A) underclocked to 2 x 1,6 Ghz - no L3 cache - 1512 Mb Ram - FW 800 200 Gb scratch Disk - GeForce 2 TwinView

5' 45"

next PowerMac badly needed
Chatam
     
bowwowman
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May 20, 2006, 08:58 AM
 
Sawtooth Dual 450/2GB ram, Radeon 8500/64mb, boot disk= 36gb SATA Raptor, scratch disks= 2x 74GB Raptors:

No other apps open except Activity monitor: 8min 38s
6 other apps open: 11min 21s

Personally I find it hilarious that you have the hots for my gramma. Especially seeins how she is 3x your age, and makes your Brittney-Spears-wannabe 30-something wife look like a rag doll who went thru WWIII with a burning stick of dynamite up her a** :)
     
zerostar
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May 31, 2006, 10:49 AM
 
Quad G5 2.5 - 2.5GB DDR2 - 6600 256mb - 250GB WD2500JS Drive set as swap and scratch.

1:29

Think I need about another gig of ram for this to be less stress on the disk drive, seemed like it was hitting pretty hard
     
zmcgill
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Jun 1, 2006, 12:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by chatam
G4 Quicksilver 2001 - 733 Mhz upgraded to Gigadesigns Dual 1,8 Ghz (7447A) underclocked to 2 x 1,6 Ghz - no L3 cache - 1512 Mb Ram - FW 800 200 Gb scratch Disk - GeForce 2 TwinView

5' 45"

next PowerMac badly needed
How was mine faster? (G4/2x1GHz/single 80GB, 1.5GB RAM, 4:33)
     
Eug Wanker
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Jun 1, 2006, 02:03 PM
 
G4 1.7 GHz Cube (100 MHz bus) with 1 GB RAM: 6'42"
Core Duo 2.0 GHz 13" MacBook with 2 GB RAM: 5'21"

Interestingly, there were MORE pageouts on the MacBook despite having twice the RAM. Rosetta really eats RAM.
     
waxcrash
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Jun 1, 2006, 11:55 PM
 
6m 27sec with my Power Mac in the sig.
     
Eug Wanker
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Jun 2, 2006, 12:28 AM
 
Originally Posted by Eug Wanker
G4 1.7 GHz Cube (100 MHz bus) with 1 GB RAM: 6'42"
Core Duo 2.0 GHz 13" MacBook with 2 GB RAM: 5'21"

Interestingly, there were MORE pageouts on the MacBook despite having twice the RAM. Rosetta really eats RAM.
G5 970FX 2.0 GHz 20" iMac with 1.5 GB RAM: 4'02"

Note that there were NO PAGEOUTS on the iMac. That means the MacBook score isn't *that* bad, considering it had to page out to disk (because of Rosetta). The MacBook does subjectively feel slower in Photoshop though, because of the long load times, and of course pageouts, etc.



Originally Posted by svtcontour
This is pretty much an exercise in RAM. With 2gig memory, the system is tapped out and hitting the page file for another gig or so. My guess is that it needs 3-4gigs of memory.
Not really. See above. It seems that 1.0 GB is not enough, but on a PowerPC Mac, 1.5 GB is sufficient. OTOH, on an Intel Mac, more than 2 GB is needed.
( Last edited by Eug Wanker; Jun 2, 2006 at 12:44 AM. )
     
tillin
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Jun 2, 2006, 01:59 AM
 
Here's Mine - note - I had other programs running, so processors were already under load, and i still haven't set up a scratch disk ( need to desperately )

Setup:
Powermac G5 Dual 2.7Ghz
6.5GB RAM
400GB Hard drive 7200rpm
No scratch disk - yet
Radeon 9650 256mb
Photoshop CS2


Time: 2:37

not too bad considering it was already under load, and i have a mediocre graphics card and no scratch disk lol.
( Last edited by AGoglanian; Jun 2, 2006 at 01:57 PM. )
     
chatam
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Jun 2, 2006, 11:59 AM
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by chatam
G4 Quicksilver 2001 - 733 Mhz upgraded to Gigadesigns Dual 1,8 Ghz (7447A) underclocked to 2 x 1,6 Ghz - no L3 cache - 1512 Mb Ram - FW 800 200 Gb scratch Disk - GeForce 2 TwinView

5' 45"

next PowerMac badly needed

How was mine faster? (G4/2x1GHz/single 80GB, 1.5GB RAM, 4:33)
__________________

Lothar56, Class of 2001: Retired @ 545

Hard to tell.

What CPU are you using? one with L3 cache maybe?

chatam
Chatam
     
tillin
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Jun 2, 2006, 08:44 PM
 
guess mine didnt do too bad! considering i had itunes importing 5000 songs onto my ipod, i was chatting via adium, and sorting photos in iphoto.

i'll try again tonight when i get home with no other programs running and repost the new time.
     
tillin
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Jun 3, 2006, 01:19 AM
 
well i ran two more tests.

1st attempt, right after boot, only CS2 running, -- 2:25
2nd attempt after G5 had been running a couple hours, still only CS2 running - 2:15 ( other time i had posted was wrong. sorry! )
( Last edited by AGoglanian; Jun 5, 2006 at 03:25 PM. )
     
TheMacMan
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Jun 4, 2006, 10:25 PM
 
1min 36 on dual 2.3 / 2.5 gig ram 2 x 300g drives secondary drive as scratch PS CS2 with latest update. For what I can see its a preety good real world test. Plenty of thing in the action that I run in actions everyday. If anyone is interested I could post say ten raw Canon 1 dsMK2 files somewhere to see how our systems compare running camera Raw conversions.
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 12:50 AM
 
i could offer the same, i dont have 1dsmkII, but i have 5D and 1DmkII raw files.
it amazes me t hat the dual-core 2.3 could whomp on my dual processor 2.7
i bet it would be better if i had that scratch disk.. i just know it.
come on. i have 6.5 GB of ram for pete's sake. lol it better!
     
TheMacMan
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Jun 5, 2006, 07:08 AM
 
I run the test a half dozen times to make sure. So yeah might be time to get a scratch disk. Have you gone through all the optimisations http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/317280.html I'm also surprised how close my times are with the 2.3Dc that has 3.5gb and a 10k Os drive
     
zerostar
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Jun 5, 2006, 11:23 AM
 
Originally Posted by AGoglanian
i bet it would be better if i had that scratch disk.. i just know it.
come on. i have 6.5 GB of ram for pete's sake. lol it better!
I doubt it, with 6GB of ram you probably aren't even hitting the scratch on that test.

The Dual Cores have quicker access to each other being on the same chip. Also the ram is 533MHz in the DC as opposed to your 400MHz and thats where most of the action is going on with these tests.

Here is a ram speed conparison...

     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 02:17 PM
 
hmm that makes sense then!

well.. all in all, my time wasn't really that bad lol. my g5 is still very capable of doing everything i need it to do. but i do need an additional hard drive because my 400Gb is filling up fast!

i know getting 6GB is kind of overkill, but i wanted it to have enough to be able to access the max for photoshop ( 2GB ) and still have plenty of room to run while doing other things. which apparently it has done, as i was averaging 2 and a half minutes for the test while doing other things. so i'm content in my g5's capability really.

i'm gonna run the test on my powerbook right now and see how that comes out! haha.
     
zerostar
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Jun 5, 2006, 02:23 PM
 
what photoshop version are you using?

Check out this article:

http://www.barefeats.com/cscs2.html
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 02:36 PM
 
I use CS2 on both my powerbook and my G5, ill check out that site right now.

Here's my powerbook run,

1.5GHz G4 17"
2GB RAM
80GB HD 5400RPM (38GB free )
128MB Radeon 9700 Mobility
CS2
osx - 10.4.6 ( on both computers )

Time: 5:55

i have a Lacie 40GB firewire hard drive that i tote around with me for my powerbook, is there a way i could use that as a sort of scratch disk? (i've not set one up before actually )
( Last edited by AGoglanian; Jun 5, 2006 at 02:52 PM. )
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 03:24 PM
 
from macrumors

"2m 43seconds on a G5 1.8Dual/ 3Gb Ram"

how would a dual 1.8 g5 be so close to mine?? i mean were not even talking 30 seconds difference ( from my average test times)

and just found this as well "1:18

Dual 2.7 PM | 4GB RAM" -- is that just because of a faster hard drive??? I want that speed! lol i have that machine!


and eug wanker's time: "Core Duo 2.0 GHz 13" MacBook with 2 GB RAM: 5'21"
so the macbook, even running under rosetta can outperform my powerbook????

oh man the macbooks are gonna kick ass when the universal photoshop comes out.
i'm so going to get one!
( Last edited by AGoglanian; Jun 5, 2006 at 03:56 PM. )
     
zerostar
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Jun 5, 2006, 04:40 PM
 
possibly, 1:18 is kinda hard to believe, I have a quad with a raptor at work and the best so-far was in the 1:30's range

Actually your score seems really low for some reason, hmm perhaps try crating a new user and see what happens?
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 05:19 PM
 
yeah after further investigation, i discovered that that time (1:18) was from the first revision of the speed test.

his time with the current test was about 1:36 i believe

the originator of the test was able to achieve 51 sec. with the current version of the test

insane huh??
i'll re-run it when i get home from work, and i will check my history states as well.
i think the only solution though is to get a scratch disk setup. but i have to buy a second hard drive.

i dont think the hitatchi is anything special, but i can snag a second one for $150, at least it is 7200rpm


btw - i am writing this from the apple store righ tnow on a 2ghz macbook i want one sooo bad! lol. ( i like the keyboard a lot actually, much better than my powebook. )
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 07:54 PM
 
Ok, so i wanted to really push my powerbook to its max and see what i could squeeze out of it.
same spec laptop as i posted above,
set photoshop history to 1 state
disabled all widgets in dashboard,
rebooted,
opened only photoshop upon reboot.

and i got 3:05!

thats awesome for a powerbook g4! and no scratch disk!
     
zerostar
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Jun 5, 2006, 08:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by AGoglanian
i don't think the hitatchi is anything special, but i can snag a second one for $150, at least it is 7200rpm

How much space do you need on a scratch?, I would think a few gigs would be enough, I was thinking a raptor 10K would be a good fit.
     
Jason Bourne
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Jun 5, 2006, 08:43 PM
 
My Quad G5 (5GB RAM, scratch on a separate 300GB Maxtor HD) ran a 1:24. Would have expected better but I was running a lot of other crap in the background and none of teh actions seemed to take full use of the four cores (was running at like 150-200% of available 400% CPU.
     
tillin
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Jun 5, 2006, 08:45 PM
 
oh i could do that? sweet id rather go that route anyways.

i was under the impression it was best to have matching hard drives. my mistake!
i'm relatively new to the power-user world of computer upgrading. i've never had a chance to before. I'm no stranger to photoshop though

I'll see if i can pick up one of the raptor drives for a scratch. thanks for the tip!

edit: OK - i think i am going to pick up the 74GB Raptor ( the newer 16MB cache model ) i know it will be just a scratch disk.. so i imagine im just going to have to get a very large Lacie FW drive as a backup because my 250GB is already almost full from my last backup! lol.
( Last edited by AGoglanian; Jun 5, 2006 at 09:05 PM. )
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 12:19 AM
 
Well well well!

retested my G5 tonight,
Booted up, Closed all widgets, opened photoshop and set history to 1 state, restarted photoshop,
only user program running was activity monitor.
and the new time for my G5 with no scratch disk is.....
1:07!!!
you were right zerostar, i knew something wasn't sounding right about my time.
i wonder what would happen if i put that raptor drive in? hehe.
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 01:58 AM
 
I reformatted my lacie 250GB firewire hard drive, and set it up as a scratch disk,
and it reduced my time to 51 seconds!! lol suddenly my computer is developing superpowers!
     
zerostar
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Jun 6, 2006, 08:41 AM
 
Reducing my photoshop history to 1 reduced my time to 39sec, that is still with 2.5gb ram and no scratch. what is the default history 20?

Setting it to 5 got my time back up to 49 sec, I had it set at 50 the first time I tested
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 10:49 AM
 
dang! that quad can haul! can you imagine what it would do if you had my 6.5GB of ram in there, and a scratch disk?? ( of course your ram is faster than mine, but anyways ) that would be done in probably 15 seconds! lol

mine was set at 99 the first run ( oops! ) i usually work around 10 states sometimes 20
     
zerostar
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Jun 6, 2006, 10:54 AM
 
yeah same here, i forgot to set it back and just lost a bunch of work, damnit LOL
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 01:49 PM
 
i almost did the same thing, but i remembered just before i started working and set it back to 20 on my laptop. sorry about the loss! it'll just teach you to do everything perfect the first try on photoshop
     
bmizar
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Jun 6, 2006, 03:11 PM
 
iMac 2.0GHz Intel
2GB RAM
Photoshop CS 2
No Scratch Disk

3:12
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 03:14 PM
 
dang thats really good for rosetta! were you hitting any page-outs?
     
bmizar
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Jun 6, 2006, 03:48 PM
 
It did a little bit but not too much. Once I dropped the history states down it sped up a ton. I am going to fire it up on my Quad tonight.
     
tillin
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Jun 6, 2006, 04:23 PM
 
well look at zerostar, he cranked out 49 seconds on his quad with only 2.5GB RAM.

i have 6.5GB on my DP 2.7 and the best i co uld get with no scratch was 51 sec ( which is pretty darn good none-the-less )
     
zerostar
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Jun 6, 2006, 04:35 PM
 
I installed some disk activity monitors and did the test 5 times in a row, there was very little activity, a few hundred K written to the disk total, this could have been other processes and not even photoshop, I still seriously question wether a scratch would improve anything on this test.

Also the ram usage was only at 800MB in photoshop after those 5 tests. (I had around 1.2GB free)
     
 
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