“I’ve run some benchmarks on Apple’s new MacBook Pro running an application that hasn’t been optimized for the Intel chip yet – Adobe’s notoriously resource intensive Photoshop CS. For the test I ran two Photoshop actions on my PowerBook G4 1.5GHz and on my MacBook Pro 2.0GHz. Both are similarly configured with 2GB of RAM and 120GB (5400RPM) hard drives,” Jason D. O’Grady blogs for ZDNet.
O’Grady describes “a pretty big performance hit in Photoshop CS2 with the MacBook Pro when compared to the Aluminum PowerBook G4 due to the Rosetta emulation” required by the MacBook Pro.
In his tests, “MacBook Photoshop performance falls somewhere between the TiBook 1GHz and PowerBook G4 1.5GHz,” O’Grady reports.
Full article here.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple begins shipping MacBook Pro notebook computers with faster 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processors – February 14, 2006
Adobe: no native Intel Mac support until 2007; Photoshop could be 14 months away – February 01, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
Analyst: Apple seeing strong sales of iMac Core Duo, MacBook Pro, 5th generation iPod – January 25, 2006
Apple: expect MacBook Pro shortages – January 19, 2006
Use the ExpressCard slot to add FireWire 800 to Apple’s new MacBook Pro – January 15, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro, ExpressCard and EVDO – January 14, 2006
Apple introduces MacBook Pro; up to four times faster than PowerBook G4 – January 10, 2006
Is this really even a worthwhile piece of news?
We know Photoshop CS2 is not Intel-ready, we know it relies on Rosetta.
We also know that both Photoshop and Rosetta like lots of RAM.
Why doesn’t someone do a worthwhile comparison like a QuickTime export or an iDVD render? Something where a known Universal Binary exists.
Still, not bad considering it is “emulated”
Some people report faster than G4 performance even with Rosetta.
Give it 10 months, maybe less. CS3 is on the way.
Meanwhile, I think these are great results! Photoshop at least won’t be SLOWER than the machine I upgrade from. Then with CS3 it will FLY!
So Rosetta makes Photoshop slow????
That’s it. I’m switching to WINDOWS!!!!!!!
I think it IS a worthwhile article, If I’m buying one of these puppies I need to know how well photoshop runs.
The “somewhere between the TiBook 1GHz and PowerBook G4 1.5GHz” is actually better than I’d hoped, now I shall get my credit card out…
MCCFR: I don’t see what your problem is. The fact is that there are plenty of people who use Photoshop who would like to know if its at all useable with a MacBookPro. This is supposed to be a “Pro” computer after all and Photoshop is a Pro app.
Yes, nobody expected the MacBookPro to excel at Photoshop, but its performance is “decent” at least. Certainly though people with 1.5Ghz PB who do a lot of photoshop shouldn’t be upgrading just yet.
Would you rather this information be kept secret?
Sounds acceptable to me. But I want a MacBook.
MCCFR, this is of interest to me. I was wondering how much I’d have to take a hit by upgrading.
MCCFR – this is *definitely* a worth-while article. Many people are considering making the switch to Intel Macs but their primary software application is Photoshop. And since Adobe isn’t going to make a universal binary for CS2, Mac users will have to run CS2 through Rosetta and take a performance hit.
This article is helping examine how much of a performance hit.
Dave H – No Rosetta doens’t *make* Photoshop slow. Rosetta does makes it run on non-PowerPC processors.
BriAnimations, I should have ended the post with a smiley. I was paraphrasing the sort of rubbish we’ve been reading in the Tech press in between the details of how the sky is falling for Mac users.
Completely off topic – My ISP is having serious issues with speed this evening and I’m only getting ISDN2 style speeds (about 124Kbps download). How do people cope with today’s web on dial-up? This is painful.
In his tests, “MacBook Photoshop performance falls somewhere between the TiBook 1GHz and PowerBook G4 1.5GHz,” O’Grady reports.
The fact is that there are plenty of people who use Photoshop who would like to know if its at all useable with a MacBookPro. This is supposed to be a “Pro” computer after all and Photoshop is a Pro app
The “fact” is that very, very few people in the computing universe require Photoshop. If Apple were to completly abandon the “Pro” market, it would take a market share hit for about a year.
After that, switchers from the rest of the computing world would more than make up for any share loss.
“Pro” users have been the tail wagging the Mac dog for too long. I’m pleased to see Apple taking steps that aren’t being dictated by a sliver of the computing market.
couldn’t agree more
apple’s future is in the home
MUCH bigger market !!
What I want to know is how the dual nature of the DuoCore improves the SpinningBeachBallOfDeath. I run a bunch of apps on my PB12/876MHz 1.12GB, but I haven’t upgraded because, even though the mini and PB17 1.5 I’ve tried didn’t offer enough improvement to make the sale.
I’ve used dual processor Macs only in Apple stores and they seem much faster and less suseptable to SBBOD, but my exposure is limited.
So how well do these DuoCore machines run laden with apps?
At least we now know the worst. This review was only going to show the MacBook Pro to be as slow as possible. I’ll bet on the next review showing it to be faster than this..
I can say without a doubt that I see the SBBOD far, far less on my iMac Core Duo than I did on my 1.42GHz Mac mini. It’s funny because I sit up and notice when it happens now because it’s so rare compared to the Mac I had before.
This is EXACTLY the type of article I’ve been looking for. I’m a professional designer considering getting a macbook to replace my aging TiBook but I wanted to see the difference in performance due to Rosetta. I have a Dual G5 at the office but my ‘book is only a 667 G4 and it’s tolerable but remarkeably slower. To know that the MBP is LOTS faster even running Rosetta makes it much more appealing, especially knowing that they are going to only get FASTER once Adobe pulls their weight and changes everything to Universal Binaries. I know a LOT of other folks that are in the same boat. Everyone KNOWS how the Universal stuff compares, enough stuff is has been written comparing those. This article addresses issues MOST Mac users care about.
As for the percentage of the Mac market that are designers/creative pros (music, video, etc…), That is probably 60% or GREATER and WE are the ones who’ve kept this platform alive at ALL. If the creative world were to drop the Mac OS for Windows, it WOULD NOT have survived. Also, Adobe would NOT exist today if not for the Mac Creative community. Everyone would be using Corel Draw & Photo Deluxe!!! There is no “Tail wagging the Dog” when the creative community is concerened about Mac issues, we’re the dang HEAD & LEGS & HEART of this beast and it’s US that make it possible at all.
flappo
I agree with your comments however I think the home market is the addressable market. I haven’t see figures that indicate that it is a bigger market (would love to see them if you have them).
The large biz/enterprise market unfortunately is chained to MS and windows only apps.
Last I heard, Photoshop was supposed to be nearly unusable on an Intel Mac. So this is great news to me… I believe I’ll just go ahead and throw down!
this is exactly what i wanted to know too… I use photoshop somewhat frequently, but not professionally. i’m replacing an 800 mhz ibook G4 and I was waiting for someone to compare photoshop to something other than a 2 month old top of the line G5 to see what MY experience would be like.
Now I know, it’ll be a small improvement for now and a huge one when the universal PS comes out… just the info i was looking for!
Apple is going after the websurfer, read my email, digital camera photo emailer, blogger, myspace, print out something, play a gamewaste of time, ipodder market.
Most people don´t want pro software – most people probably have no software (other than games) and the software that came with the computer.
Me – I use Photoshop. I will wait until the prosoftware is ready then I will decide whether to get another Apple or get another Windows computer.
The test I want to see is the same software run on a Windows and Mac on the same Intel chip. Which OS gives the fastest software performance on the same processor?
Why do people insist on running these tests? It seems fairly obvious to me that anything under Rosetta will be slower.
“Pro” users have been the tail wagging the Mac dog for too long. I’m pleased to see Apple taking steps that aren’t being dictated by a sliver of the computing market.”
What planet have you been grazing on? Graphics pros use photoshop. Web designers use photoshop. Video editors use photoshop. Some educators use photoshop. Architechs, 3D annimators, illustrators, advertising firms, photographers on and on.
A huge chunck of Apple’s market share are “creative” pros. I’m sorry but Apple even has an entire class of computers for “pros” to feed this “sliver” of their market. The entire mac communitiy can’t live on iMacs, Mac minis and iBooks. Apple knows this and yes, it is extremely important to them.
You drop the creative pro community, the scienticific community, and even the gaming community (which also need high performance PowerMac computers) and see Apple profit margin shrink to zip.
Gregg do you really think Apple can survive off of iBook and Mac mini profit margins? Give me a break.
And don’t get me started on Adobe! The mac market MADE Adobe and Photoshop the main players in the graphics world decades ago. Not only does Adobe criple advancements of their mac versions of software by NOT FULLY taking advantage of the mac os feature set (they can’t do this MAGIC with Windoze and need to keep mac software in parity with the pc version), but now they’re acting like they’ll do universal CS2 releases when they get to it.
Funny how they IMMEDIATELY came out with with Lightroom in universal to combat Amperature and to keep Apple from running away with that new market. So they “can” do fast universal apps when they feel pressured. Boy oh boy, don’t get me started!
I hope The Steve launches a direct competitor to Adobe Photo$hop at the “Special Event” next week. Then toot sweet you’ll here Adobe change it’s tune about release date for Intel chip.
Bastards, I mean they only had twelve months (if not more) to port that resource pig. It’s all politics and lame ass marketing strategies. Fsk the loyal user base that’s fatten their asses for so many years.
Rock on Steve!
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MDN Magic Word: “Step” as in, ah, whatever.
“Funny how they IMMEDIATELY came out with with Lightroom in universal to combat Amperature and to keep Apple from running away with that new market. So they “can” do fast universal apps when they feel pressured. Boy oh boy, don’t get me started!”
3rdKidney, you’re not that stupid, are you? How can you compare rewriting an app with the complexity of Photoshop with an app that has been coded from scratch within the last six months? It’s not a big secret that most large “must-have apps” of today would benefit from a rewrite. But do you have an idea what kind of costs and time such a feat would mean? If you think that people would be prepared to pay for an update where basically the only thing that happened was a more efficient code, trimming loads of prehistoric junk, then you’re naive. Adobe can only sell their apps by adding more features. Sooner or later this will cause a situation where a complete newcomer in a field will beat the crap out of one of the dinosaur apps – due to code efficiency etc. Actually, one example of this is the 3D app Modo. Hastings&co;. did what their former house (Newtek/Lightwave) didn’t – rethink, optimize etc. And now they’re sitting on one of the best modelers ever. I wouldn’t be surprised if some nerds are tinkering away with a Photoshop killer somewhere out there (supporting CoreImage and what not). Matter of time. Don’t count on Apple doing this though…for obvious reasons.
I know for a fact that MacDailyNews won’t cover the MACBOOKPRO hissing and whining issue that is being plastered all over Tuaw.com, Discussions.apple.com, and macintouch.com. You know why? Because MDN only reports good news and never the bad.