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Rosetta vs. Classic

mac 2005

mac 2005

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Can someone pls share some insight on how well Rosetta performs in the real world? I'm sure this topic has been raised before, but my search of the site didn't yield the information I need. Pls provide perspective vs. an insult on my search abilities. 🙄

Anywho, I would like to know if Rosetta handles apps as well as Classic does. I really want to purchase the new 24-inch iMac; when I make the purchase, I'll be buying Studio 8. A combined purchase approaching $4,000. Hence the reason why I want an answer about usability with Rosetta, please.

Thanks!
 
Rosetta vs. Classic = apples vs. oranges. Two completely different technologies that accomplish two completely different things. 🙂 Rosetta is a CPU emulator, and nothing else. Classic is an OS "emulator" (sort of) that contains no CPU emulation of any sort. (Although the OS being emulated does have a 68K emulator....)

Anyway, CPU emulation is a tricky business, and you can't really give an absolute answer. How well Rosetta performs depends very much on the program. Some code lends itself to being emulated relatively fast, and some doesn't. In other words, the "real world" performance is quite variable, which is probably why you couldn't find a satisfactory answer....

--Eric
 
I don't know about your particular software, actually this is the first time I've heard of it. However, the other demanding editing software, let's say Photoshop, usually performs at best as well as the old G5 models. Thus, if the performance of that particuar program is important to you, you might want to buy a second hand high end G5 Mac, such as a PowerMac, and use that until intel binary version comes out. That way you save quite a bit of money. BTW, some programs don't even run under Rosetta, so I would contact the software house to make sure it actually works.
 
"Classic" mode actually runs Mac OS 9 in the background and allows you to run software from the 20 years or so of Mac software that requires Mac OS 9 or below.

Rosetta emulates a PowerPC processor which allows you to run Mac OS X software that is only compiled for PowerPC.

Basically, they have literally nothing to do with each other.
 
Hi, thanks for the info. I suspect my question wasn't clear, so I'll rephrase.

Does anyone know how well Studio 8 works with Rosetta? A graphic designer where I worked didn't seem to have much luck with Illustrator and Photoshop on his iMac, but I don't know if the problem was caused by Rosetta or our Exchange network.

Any insight is appreciated.
 
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