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Are Macbooks capable enough for Photoshop?

H

hans3185

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 7, 2008
78
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I ask because I've been lurking the forums for a while, looking at all the "Macbook or Macbook Pro" threads, and whenever someone mentions running Photoshop everyone usually hollers out "Macbook Pro".


I wish that were my case, but ultimately I'm going to get a Macbook.

So my question is, is a Macbook capable enough to be running Photoshop? Just slight post-processing, but I usually open huge RAW files which make my current PC cry in agony. Will I have any trouble in a 2.2 ghz Macbook?
 
hans3185 said:
I ask because I've been lurking the forums for a while, looking at all the "Macbook or Macbook Pro" threads, and whenever someone mentions running Photoshop everyone usually hollers out "Macbook Pro".


I wish that were my case, but ultimately I'm going to get a Macbook.

So my question is, is a Macbook capable enough to be running Photoshop? Just slight post-processing, but I usually open huge RAW files which make my current PC cry in agony. Will I have any trouble in a 2.2 ghz Macbook?
Click to expand...

With enough memory, a Macbook will be fine for Photoshop work.
 
hans3185 said:
I ask because I've been lurking the forums for a while, looking at all the "Macbook or Macbook Pro" threads, and whenever someone mentions running Photoshop everyone usually hollers out "Macbook Pro".


I wish that were my case, but ultimately I'm going to get a Macbook.

So my question is, is a Macbook capable enough to be running Photoshop? Just slight post-processing, but I usually open huge RAW files which make my current PC cry in agony. Will I have any trouble in a 2.2 ghz Macbook?
Click to expand...

Drop 4GB of ram into the macbook and it will be perfect.
 
These forums have a tendency to keep upping the anti. Any recent macBook will be fine, and unless you are working with massive files, 2 gigs of ram should be sufficient.
 
If you're charging clients by the hour to do big projects, then no. You'll be up all night and your lap will be red and sweaty.

If you're doing touch-up on your significant other's laugh lines for a holiday card, then you're fine.

For instance, I currently have a 2.0 GHz C2D w/ 2GB RAM running 10.5.4 and CS3. Just tonight I used the Automate dialogue to resize 25 two- to three-MB jpgs (all open simultaneously). The process took about 90 seconds. The fan went full-bore but it got done.

If you're shooting RAW, the place you might suffer is in screen real estate. Get used to scrolling around and zooming in and out. But you'll be fine with enough RAM.
 
idea_hamster said:
If you're shooting RAW, the place you might suffer is in screen real estate. Get used to scrolling around and zooming in and out. But you'll be fine with enough RAM.
Click to expand...


Getting a Mini-Dvi to VGA would fix this right?


And thanks to everyone's replies.
 
i only have 2gb- 1.9ghz Amd turion64x2 core and cs2 in running smooth.. im going to get cs3 soon
 
To give you an idea... I have a Rev A Macbook that is over 2 years old. It is a Core Duo(not even a Core 2 Duo) and has 2gb of ram (the most you put in this machine). I shoot with an Olympus in Raw and the files are about 14mb each. I run PhotoShop CS3 without any problems. I'm sure it is much faster on the new Macbooks.
 
Yeah, I bought a macbook in May...opted to upgrade the memory a little...and I am very satisfied with it using the entire cs3 suite. :)

Have fun with it!
 
I use my Macbook for nearly all of the CS3 apps with very little trouble. The memory upgrade mentioned is a must, but I'm very happy. Mind you I'm not editing multi-GB sized files, but I am a fairly heavy user. One thing to keep in mind though, is that the next version of Photoshop is likely to make usage of the GPU which is obviously going to give a little more advantage to the MBP. You'll be plenty happy with the Macbook though.
 
Well, you can do some Photoshop work on a current macbook with the ram maxed out. The main issue for me is if you need to do any kind of serious work this machine will slow your workflow way down. Also it may not run CS4 or later versions of Photoshop that well.

If you can't afford the mbp and are only using the macbook for recreational and light post work it should suffice.
 
CS4 is supposed to take advantage

of the GPU to take large files and use the video memory to make large files seem small and render quickly.

As the Macbook has no "real" GPU, you might be stuck suffering through with CS3 while all us cool kids are rocking in CS4 :p
 
Brundlefly said:
of the GPU to take large files and use the video memory to make large files seem small and render quickly.

As the Macbook has no "real" GPU, you might be stuck suffering through with CS3 while all us cool kids are rocking in CS4 :p
Click to expand...


Haha, don't worry, I'm still rockin' the CS2.
 
Just to clarify, CS4 probably won't run worse than CS3 if you don't have a proper GPU. You likely just won't get a few of the benefits.

You did say you have CS2 though, which isn't Intel native if I remember right, so you're going to take a rather large performance hit, an upgrade might just be worthwhile.
 
idea_hamster said:
If you're charging clients by the hour to do big projects, then no. You'll be up all night and your lap will be red and sweaty.
Click to expand...

Not relevant at all with CS3. CPU speed is king, regardless of MB or MBP.

If you're doing touch-up on your significant other's laugh lines for a holiday card, then you're fine.
Click to expand...

Even moderate to heavy work is fine on a MB, unless you're using Aperture.

For instance, I currently have a 2.0 GHz C2D w/ 2GB RAM running 10.5.4 and CS3. Just tonight I used the Automate dialogue to resize 25 two- to three-MB jpgs (all open simultaneously). The process took about 90 seconds. The fan went full-bore but it got done.
Click to expand...

A 2 gHz MBP would have taken the same amount of time.

If you're shooting RAW, the place you might suffer is in screen real estate. Get used to scrolling around and zooming in and out. But you'll be fine with enough RAM.
Click to expand...

Like a 15" MBP would be any better? Seriously, for the money saved over the MBP he could get a 24" S-IPS display and have true 8-bit color as display 2.

With this said, Adobe is planning to leverage gpus in future editions of Photoshop.
 
I've a 2007 2GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 1GB RAM and it handles Photoshop and Flash just fine. Obviously it's not the biggest number-cruncher in the Mac lineup so you might be seeing those blue progress bars a while longer than you might on a MBP when performing more intensive tasks.
 
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