13" rMBP w/ Adobe CS?

[driftless]

I keep reading posts from folks with 13" MBAs that say they have no problem running Adobe's CS. So I am looking for input from folks who have used the 13" rMBP for CS primarily Dreamweaver & PS, Aperture or FCPX. No Premiere nor serious video work. Also, I am viewing this as a purely mobile device with the heavy lifting done on an iMac. I know that the 15" rMBP is very close in price but my question is specific to the 13". I am currently an iMac + iPad person. Thanks in advance.

 

[Naimfan]

It'll be fine.

Probably not as fast as your iMac, depending on which one you have, but as long as you don't need a discrete GPU it will work.

 

[0x000000]

hi since you have the 13 inch rmbp could you tell me how well final cut and photoshop run ?

I'm sure they run fine considering the ssd.

Exactly. I'm right now working on a photoshop project on the 13" rmbp (i7, 265gb) and it's just like it's used to be. I'm using the scaled 1440px resolution and see no hickups whatsoever. I also expected the non-retina-optimized photoshop to feel worse than on a classic display, but seriously, I don't even notice it.

Also, the mac runs at a remarkably cool 45°C cpu temperature, which is something my old macbook only managed to do when sitting outdoors in a snowstorm - and I'm sitting in my bed and have it running on a down blanket...

Still, for that price the 15" is probably the better deal, because it's basically just as expensive and gets you a quadcore and dGPU. It's just that I don't like 15".

 

[driftless]

I missed your previous post. The 13" form factor really is a nice mobile solution.

 

[dbpharrison]

I was one of the people who was massively disappointed by the 13" rMBP when it was announced (especially by the 8GB maximum and dual core CPUs for the price), but a 1680x1050 display in a slim 13" package won me over, and mine should be with me tomorrow...

I commute about four hours each day, and the 15" is rather an inconvenient size for this (there's not even enough room to open it properly on my trains!), whereas the 13" is a nice compromise. So instead of comparing it against the 15" rMBP, I started to compared against the 13" MBA, cMBP and some of the other ultrabook competitors (which were very disappointing!), and it doesn't stack-up too poorly, especially after including the education discount and 3 years of Applecare.

I spent some time using it at 1680x1050 at the Apple store, and the performance wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected it might be, and the size was quite nice for my needs.

I still have my concerns- it's got to last me at least three years, and I'm worried about how much the external display will hurt performance, but I really couldn't wait for Haswell and I hopefully won't come to regret my decision... Now, where's adobe and those HiDPI updates?

 

[driftless]

I just returned from my local Apple store. They had an Adobe "expert" which surprised me. Aperture and Dreamweaver should run fine on the 13". Apple had those programs plus Photoshop and FCPX on the machine. I was able to download some picture files from the Adobe site and load them into PS. I was very impressed how speedy the machine was. I think dpharrison is right, it stacks up very well compared to other 13" machines.