Photoshop/Lightroom Users

[Mike49]

I really want to jump on the i5/i7 27" band wagon, and I'd be grateful to hear from other Photoshop CS5/Lightroom 3 users who have received their new units. What configuration did you choose, and how do these two programs respond to the new system?

I'm currently running them (along with various PS plugins) on a March 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac and would like to know if the speed increase with an i5 or i7 would justify an upgrade.

[AmyK]

I got the quad core i5 in all it's 27" glory and photoshop runs great. I'm running CS5. I have never gotten on the lightroom ship, but I run PS and bridge with Dreamweaver all the time and it's great.

Now I also have a 22" (maybe it's a 23") extrnal monitor hooked up to it, that was the hubby's idea I don't think it's really needed. I was running PS on a 14" dell laptop prior to this and that ran it fine but If I had a big job I had to hook it up to then 22"

Really even the low end iMac's can handle PS just fine, it really a personal choice.

[lexvo]

I have the 2009 i5 27" which is a little slower than the 2010 version.

Lightroom and PS are running very smooth and that is with working on 21Mb to 38Mb RAW files from the Canon 5D mark II. I came from a 6 year old PC however, so I don't have a good comparison :)

However I watched a friend of mine running LR3 on his 2009 Core Duo 24" and I could clearly see it was slower (starting LR3 and also with paging through foto's).

LR3 is using all four cores on my iMac so I think there is a noticeable increase in speed compared to a Core Duo.

Last thing: a professional photographer advised me to install 8Gb of RAM, which I did. I don't know if there is a big performance difference between 4Gb and 8Gb, I just took his advice as he had experience editing large RAW files.

[Mike49]

Thank you, Amy, that helps a lot in my research efforts. Good to hear that Dreamweaver runs well alongside PS, I understand it is more of an intense program than Lightroom so that is encouraging for me. I've never had a use for 2 monitors either, and being a photo hobbyist I don't foresee a use for a second monitor.

My main question lies in whether to opt for the i5 or i7 processor....I don't mind paying the extra $$ for the i7, but I don't want it if I don't actually need it. By what you've said it appears the i5 would suffice. Thanks, again.


Anyone else care to offer their experiences?

[lexvo]

Here's an interesting page:
http://www.macworld.com/reviews/product/343881/review/27inch_imac_core_i5266ghz.html

It shows that the i5 (2009) is a somewhat faster in Photoshop, but quite a bit faster in Aperture. There are no numbers for Lightroom unfortunately.

[mjohnson1212]

My wife got her 2010 i7 iMac yesterday and it's night and day running Lightroom 3 on it compared to her 2007 iMac 2.4 core 2 duo.

On the previous machine, trying to scroll through the all photos view would take forever and hang frequently. With the i7 it flies!

I've also printed a 8.5 x 11 sheet of different photos with different sizes and rendering the print image went much much faster.

[Mike49]

Lexvo, appreciate the comments about Lightroom. I'm running 8GB RAM and I've noticed a significant lag time in rendering photos (12MP Nikon Raw files) so I've been thinking that the issue is with the processor, not the RAM...what you have stated in your reply would appear to confirm that. I've also experienced a "jerky" behavior when using the adjustment brush in the develop module, I think that's processor-related as well.

Many thanks for your input.

[Mike49]

mjohnson1212, I think you've just iced this cake for me...thanks to you, lexvo and Amy, it looks like the trip to the Apple store may be sooner rather than later. Thank you for your reply.

Thanks again, everyone....I'm off to see the wizard!

[astigtigas]

Sorry for the OT but where do you guys buy your CS5 and lightroom with educational discount?