I’ll get one statement out of the way first; Mac’s are better, faster, more efficient and more stable than any XP or VIsta machine I’ve ever used, and I’ve been through at least 50+ computers in my Design Career.
My central workhorse is my Mac Pro Desktop. It is by far the most powerful computer I’ve ever owned. The specs are as follows:
But this means nothing to most people, ultimately users will want to know how fast applications run so I have given short summaries. As the week progresses I will be writing more about these applications in more detail.
Adobe Photoshop
Considered by 99% of the Graphic Design community as one of the cornerstone applications in their arsenal. Quite often power users will push Photoshop to the limits by opening complex files with huge amounts of layers, or large photos big enough to print huge posters with.
Photoshop & Mac Pro
I can give you real world bench marks here. For me though, my endorsement comes from the speed of the interface. There is no lag when opening files. I can manipulate layers and history without any noticeable delay. The speed of which the Mac Pro allows me to pan, zoom, twist, rotate and all the rest is just phenomenal. I am a power user without a doubt; almost every session with Photoshop I have multiple files open because I like to flick between them. The Mac Pro just takes care of all that work for me. Photoshop is a resource hungry piece of software, it practically cripples most Windows based computers out there and I don’t mean just by benchmarks; those kind of tests do not give real world speed as you open, manipulate & save 5 to 6 large files at the same time. The Mac Pro does not hinder productivity at all.
Pros
- Fast handling of large files (my Mac Pro has 7GB of RAM)
- Opening multiple files does cause substantial loss of speed
- Efficient memory handling. I can open 4-5 complex 30 layer files and I can still outrun my XP machine.
- Quick disk accessing; essential when opening & closing files, loading plug-ins, brushes and searching for projects
- Fast workflow with the OSX system (searching with Spotlight) and seamless integration with other Adobe applications especially with Lightroom.
- Powerful harmony between hardware (Mac Pro), Operating system (OSX) & application (Photoshop) allows more creativity and less waiting and administration
- NO random disk accessing or disruptive pauses while the hard drives are reading/writing the scratch files.
Cons
- When compared to Vista or XP, there are no negatives that are noteworthy.
Lightroom
Lightroom is THE staple software I use to file, organize and adjust the photos in mass quantities. The rating and filtering system allows me to check photos very quickly. A real world example is I can go through 400 photos, whittle it down to the best 30 photos, make advance adjustments (exposure, white balance etc) and cropped in under an hour! Even Photoshop cannot let me do that so quickly.
Lightroom & Mac Pro
I have a small confession to make. Until recently I thought my Mac Pro was struggling using Lightroom. All of my photos are contained on 2 x 250gb in a Raid 0 configuration so I thought it should be just blindingly quick but there were slight moments of pause when going though some folders that contained well over 1000 photos. Because I shoot in RAW mode the files are enormous but even so I believed my Mac Pro should be INSTANT! It wasn’t until I tried Lightroom on a XP machine that I realised just how hard the Mac Pro is working. XP really struggled and sometimes would just freeze for several seconds; to me “several seconds” might as well be a lifetime but I demand the best from the tools that I use. In comparison the Mac Pro would only hesitate for fractions of seconds as Lightroom builds thumbnails on the fly.
Pros
- Well organized workflow. The process from import, filing, sorting, adjusting and output is just perfection!
- Clean interface. No clutter or unnecessary menus.
- Logical keyboard shortcuts. Saves huge amounts of time when working with thousands of images.
- Development mode is simply genius. The level of control is nothing new, but it’s logical layout and speed at which changes happen is wonderful.
- Far easier to use than Apple’s Aperture which is cumbersome in comparison. Aperture has a awkward importing system and changing workflow stages (from thumbnails to adjustments) is confusing.
Cons
- Processing thumbnails can take a few seconds to update when changing thumbnail sizes which I do quite often
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