Sean DeMerchant
Inactive
New Mac Pro models with Intel's latest quad core/octo-thread processor are out:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro
So, is the CS4 disk either Mac or PC or cross-platform? We can always run PS in emulation mode.Albeit, from a practical standpoint for photographers they are of little value as Photoshop will not support 64-bit on OS-X and cannot well utilize 4 cores, still yet 8 core w/ 16 threads. For video work it is likely a dream machine. But for the time being all high end Photoshop machines run Windows Vista.
So, is the CS4 disk either Mac or PC or cross-platform? We can always run PS in emulation mode.
PS CS4 is either Mac or Windows AFAIK, so you have to buy a Windows copy if you want 64-bit (i.e., large memory) support. 64-bit also provides a small performance boost (8-12%) on small memory (<4 GB) operations.
On top of that, 64-bit PS is only supported on Windows Vista (it may work in XP-64, but it is not supported).
The worst part is these new systems are even more expensive than the previous generation of Mac Pros (well the bottom of the line is cheaper IIRC, but the dual CPU version is more expensive).
The systems look nice, but in practice one can get a Core i7 based system running Vista for half the cost of a Mac Pro making a new Mac Pro a questionable value at best as one could buy a new system today and a new faster system in year or two for the same amount of money.
some thoughts,
Sean
Albeit, from a practical standpoint for photographers they are of little value as Photoshop will not support 64-bit on OS-X and cannot well utilize 4 cores, still yet 8 core w/ 16 threads. For video work it is likely a dream machine. But for the time being all high end Photoshop machines run Windows Vista.
separating my opinion from the facts,
Sean
So Sean,
We now have to add the cost of Vista itself and an extra license for CS4 to go the fastest on a PC machine. What PC would you suggest that would end up a better deal than sticking with a Mac? How much faster would that be than using a latest version Mac but not the top of the line?
Asher
Let's not forget that "as photographers" we may utilize several programs other than Photoshop where the newer Mac Pro machines help significantly. Even then, CS4 currently smokes through massive operations on my MacPro, benchmark times right up there with the fastest Vista64 machines.
The bigger issue in my mind is that CS4 is burdened with a bunch of old code (I heard over 80 million lines total) and things like scratch disk utilization are still a major bottleneck regardless of platform.