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24" iMac for Photoshop and Illustrator
- Thread starter namria
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I would say RAM is more important than GPU cores in this case, so if you have to pick, get the RAM.
As for performance: your use cases are not really clear but having used both softwares on an M1, you should be fine - Illustrator is not yet optimised (but there's a closed beta, so it's coming).
I would also suggest you try Pixelmator Pro for photo editing: performance wise it runs circles around PS and runs beautifully on M1. I pay for the creative cloud but I simply stopped using PS since giving Pixelmator a go.
As for performance: your use cases are not really clear but having used both softwares on an M1, you should be fine - Illustrator is not yet optimised (but there's a closed beta, so it's coming).
I would also suggest you try Pixelmator Pro for photo editing: performance wise it runs circles around PS and runs beautifully on M1. I pay for the creative cloud but I simply stopped using PS since giving Pixelmator a go.
I ditched Adobe for the Affinity suite: Designer, Photo and Publisher work great on my iPad and 16” MacBook Pro. Not as fully featured as Adobe, but the cash savings are significant.
There is unfortunately no viable substitute for After Effects, which is my main software. For vector design I've tried to give Designer a go, and I might try again, but as far as I know exporting to Illustrator is not possible and for my workflow that's a deal breaker. The fact that Pixelmator saves in PSD makes it easy to switch. I'm pretty sure AI export is hindered by Adobe which doesn't have public documentation of the format.
I have used Adobe CC on my base M1 Mini and works great, but this time when I ordered the new M1 iMac (base), I purchased the Apple Pro Apps bundle for $199v (EDU).
Final Cut Pro is amazing!
Haven't tried out Logic Pro or other 3 apps yet....
Final Cut Pro is amazing!
Haven't tried out Logic Pro or other 3 apps yet....
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I'll have to test again, but sometimes that works 99% and that 1% is the bit you need for the project : )
My workflow also relies on Illustrator extensions to exchange vector paths with After Effects that I don't believe are available for Designer. I'll be sure to give it another go soon, though.
Thanks for the reply. My usual cases are:
- drawing stuff in Illustrator
- editing photos in LR and PS, drawing in PS
Both sometimes include all mentioned apps open at the same time, many browser tabs. The usual workflow when working on a project that requires stuff from different sources.
- sometimes playing some games, but I never expect iMac to handle "heavy" games with any configuration, so it's not important in this case. CIV 5 should work well, anyway
So I am curious what are the most important parts for my usage. I am guessing it's CPU+RAM. We cannot upgrade CPU, so I need to decide whether RAM upgrade is important in this case.
He tests Lightroom. The base iMac with less RAM is much slower and hotter:
Thanks for the tip. They one-time purchase sounds amazing in the era of subscription money milking. What are the the missing features compared to the Suite that you found out when working in Affinity?
For my uses (I’m a graphic and web designer), there’s nothing missing. There was up until a month of so ago, a missing selection feature (select similar) in Designer that was irritating, but they’ve since added this.
I used Illustrator and Photoshop from their first releases, and even ran training sessions for designers, so I was pretty heavily embedded in the Adobe system. But when Affinity turned up, I jumped in straight away. The missing element for a while was a DTP app, and I needed to replace Quark (didn’t get on with the Adobe DTP app), but now Publisher has completed the set and all my work needs are covered.
They’re not perfect - I often cuss at Photo and Designer as they do things differently to Adobe that sometimes aren’t as user friendly, and new versions of Adobe software are packed with new features Affinity apps don’t have, but the huge savings in cost, and the fact they do everything for my own personal requirements, keeps me more than happy.
I think I bought Affinity Photo for the intro offer of £19.99 six years ago, (Designer 7 years ago), and they’ve provided free updates ever since. Throw in similar costs for Designer and Publisher (I’ve got Mac and Pc versions, plus their iOS releases) and compare that to what I’d have spent on Adobe and Quark Xpress, and the money saved has probably paid for my MBP.
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I bought AF when 1st released for £19.99.I wasn’t overly impressed with the raw converter but have to say at where it is now it’s very good .The pixel editor is excellent. What are your thoughts on the Raw converter then and now?
Since it seems the base level iMac is 10-15% slower and gets hotter and louder, I think the case for the mid-tier $1499 unit is strong especially for professional photo editing.
Initially I thought the base was the same performance just missing a few things like ethernet or Touch ID, but since the info came out about the better cooling and performance levels plus the volume of the fans -- it makes it hard to recommend to base model to anyone but the most basic of users (basically those who are likely only to watch YouTube on it and surf the web/edit Office documents like spreadsheets and Word docs).
Initially I thought the base was the same performance just missing a few things like ethernet or Touch ID, but since the info came out about the better cooling and performance levels plus the volume of the fans -- it makes it hard to recommend to base model to anyone but the most basic of users (basically those who are likely only to watch YouTube on it and surf the web/edit Office documents like spreadsheets and Word docs).
In regard to Affinity Designer as a Illustrator replacement, I use Designer and it’s fine for the most part. What it still doesn’t have is the ability to apply outline mode to individual layers which if your trying to draw over a reference rough is a pain. Also the select same colour, stroke, fill, selects those attributes for the entire document not just the layer you have active at the time. There is still some work for Affinity to do.
I'd say the biggest hurdle is investing time and willingness into learning their workflow model. They are very powerful apps, but if you're used to PS for example Affinity Photo will look very confusing at first. So take the time to read up documentation and learn about how they designed the app to fit their idea of workflow.
Always pick the one with more RAM. As the old saying goes: "You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much RAM". It will make your machine do more things at once and add a few years of usage when 8GB won't be enough for macOS in a few years.
Not only that, but next to PDF you can also opt for SVG and EPS, so options enough.
I used to use an old version of Adobe's suite, but with newest 64 bit systems, the old 32 bit versions would no longer be supported, and I was not up for dealing with the huge costs of the adobe suite. As a prosumer adobe user (not used for my base income, that is, but for some small projects on the side I use Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop), Adobe's subscription model is just way to expensive.
I bought Affinity as well, and I love every bit of it. Also one of the first developers that had their M1 versions ready. Affinity also received a well deserved award for their software. Every now and then more features are added that make them more competitive with Adobe's suite.
My fear is that the price differential between the smaller and larger sizes may be larger than in the past. If the larger iMac has a fancier display technology, as some suggest, and a more powerful M processor, as some suggest, it may be prohibitively expensive for many of us, somewhere between the last Intel 27" iMac and the defunct iMac Pro.
I am sure it will be a great machine, but the price tag will be much greater than I am willing to pay now, unfortunately. In EU we are paying significantly more for both base item and each upgrade.
For the 24 iMac I am leaning towards:
€ 1723.02 (8C GPU, 8C CPU) + € 258.00 (+8 GB RAM)
= € 1981.02 ($ 2328.69)
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Does the EU price include taxes? The same computer in Canada would cost about CAN$2350, but that includes about CAN$250 in taxes.
It does.
Here in the Netherlands, the configuration I've selected (top tier, 16/512GB) comes to a whopping €2205,-. In dollars, that translates to $2644... 😭 (21% VAT included). Without 21% taxes, that would be $2185,-
The same computer would cost me $1979 if I would buy it in the US, before taxes. Still a 206 euro difference.
However, if I would buy that same iMac in, say, Florida, the the taxes are only 6%. A customer in Florida would pay a total of $2098,- (incl taxes), whereas we would pay $2644,-.
So it is not completely Apple to blame for. The 200 dollar difference however, that's on Apple.
£1849 in the UK for a 16/512 option. I wouldn’t personally buy a spec lower than that, so still a pretty hefty price.