Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

WOPR · Jun 30, 2006, 10:44 AM

I have the very last of the G4 iMacs, the one with USB 2, and I have the 80gb drive and 768mb of RAM. I'm tempted to sell it (despite the design being far superior to the newer iMacs) and get a 17" Core Duo iMac instead.

I do need to use Adobe CS1 and DreamWeaver MX 2004 a fair bit, so what I want to know is how they run speed-wise on the Intel iMac. I know they'll run under Rosetta, but is the huge speed increase of the Intel chip (I'd have 1.5gb of RAM in the iMac) enough to compensate for the speed loss of Rosetta? In other words despite having a fairly old Mac now are these apps going to be even slower on the new iMac?

Sorry to ask this again and be so specific!

iREZ · Jun 30, 2006, 04:32 PM

id say that than an intel imac with maxed out ram is on par with a 1.5-1.67g4 with rosetta apps. with universal apps, they're noticeably faster.

WOPR · Jun 30, 2006, 05:35 PM

That sounds promising...

parsec_kadets · Jun 30, 2006, 05:53 PM

I think that might be streaching it a bit. I don't run CS1 or DreamWeaver, but Word is noticibly slower in some situations when compared to my 1GHz 17" PowerBook. 90% of the time I can't tell any difference between the two machines, but when I open large files scrolling becomes difficult. But by large I mean several hundred pages. You're the only one who can determine how critical running these apps at a normal speed is, but don't expect ANY performance improvement when running in Rosetta. I'd also consider myself lucky if apps ran as fast as they did on the system you describe.

Now don't get me wrong. I bought one, but I also didn't have a desktop Mac and I don't use CPU intensive apps every day except for games. Unfortunetly I have to work in a Windows world, so my Mac is the fun computer and it's very good at that.

gooser · Jun 30, 2006, 07:47 PM

there are those who would say you already have the best imac ever made.

WOPR · Jul 1, 2006, 03:16 AM

Design-wise I agree, but at some point I will need more power. Maybe I should wait for Adobe CS3 before upgrading.

dowNNshift · Jul 2, 2006, 09:55 AM

I just upgraded this weekend from a 1.33 G4 iBook (with upgraded 7200RPM HDD) to an 17" iMac 1.83 Core Duo -- let me tell ya, night and day difference. The new iMac screams! I am so impressed.

My recommendation though is to get 2 GB of RAM from Crucial, UB apps scream, all my rosetta apps run just fine, and Parallels runs XP faster than my P4 2.8 w/ HT PC.

All-in-all I am VERY impressed -- so in short, Intel iMac Core Duo + 2 GB RAM = Awesome!

dowNNshift · Jul 2, 2006, 09:57 AM

Oh, BTW -- Adobe CS runs about the same performance wise in Parallels vs Rosetta in my experimenting.

eddiecatflap · Jul 2, 2006, 04:39 PM

i went from an 800 mhz imac 17" to the imac dual core

let's just say i was impressed

Eriamjh · Jul 3, 2006, 10:34 PM

I would just wait for the Intel version of the software you are using. Then buy the Intel iMac/whatever and get the best of both upgrades.

EasyMac · Jul 3, 2006, 11:52 PM

I would say you got a good enough computer to get you by. Photoshop CS on my iBook G3/500 isn't all that bad, its a bit sluggish when I paint large areas with a large brush. I will make the stroke, then the computer lags for a second and makes the stroke. Im sure that it wont be like that on a new iMac, but you have a good computer already. I would just wait until the universal comes out.

blackstar · Jul 4, 2006, 12:00 AM

yeah i am also waiting to upgrade, my pb g4 867 is getting slow for all those new apps!
but remind yourself that it is always better to wait, youll get the next revision less bugs etc...

Chinasaur · Jul 27, 2006, 07:37 PM

I just upgraded from a DP 1.8 with 2.25GB to an Intel iMac 2.0Ghz with 512MB. Before I put in 2GB into the iMac, it was FASTER, in everything (Rosetta/Uni) than the DP. Now that the 2GB is in, it's just simply even more faster.

The Intel iMac is an eye-opener.

No shiznit.