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Photoshop CS5 Runs Better On Win or Mac?

W

Whitelightning

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 21, 2007
219
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Getting Macbook Pro 15'' So just out of curiosity, does Photoshop CS5 run better on the Windows side or the Mac side?

I definitely will be bootcamping to get Windows 7 on the other side... want to get an idea which side photoshop cs5 should land on for best performance/less bugs/64-bit support, etc.
 
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it might be slightly faster in windows, but the overall CS5 experience is actually much better in OS X with a couple of limitations.

Windows CS5 users will probably say there is no difference, and it seems that way at a glance, but the way you work in Adobe programs will be different on a PC, and from my experience, it's just faster to get things done in PS, IL, and ID in an OS X environment.

Flash is a toss-up, and DW is too, but the "trinity" of design apps work better in OS X.
 
A benchmark on a scripted set of functions will be faster under Windows but general usage working with multiple files etc will be faster in MacOS because of better memory management and OS process handling.

Basically it's marginal speed increase vs fluid workflow. That's why most people prefer using Macs for Photoshop.
 
benpatient said:
it might be slightly faster in windows, but the overall CS5 experience is actually much better in OS X with a couple of limitations.

...but the way you work in Adobe programs will be different on a PC, and from my experience, it's just faster to get things done in PS, IL, and ID in an OS X environment.
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by this? I too am deciding between running cs5 in bootcamp or os x after recently purchasing a new macbook pro 15". Working with many of the apps in OS X has thus far felt less efficient, but that's most likely because I am still getting used to OSX after a lifetime on windows.
 
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Whitelightning said:
Getting Macbook Pro 15'' So just out of curiosity, does Photoshop CS5 run better on the Windows side or the Mac side?

I definitely will be bootcamping to get Windows 7 on the other side... want to get an idea which side photoshop cs5 should land on for best performance/less bugs/64-bit support, etc.
Click to expand...

My question is why you would get a Mac to run CS5 under Windows? I have Master Collection CS4 and it runs great under Mac (meaning I have no problems with it).
 
If it's on a Mac, run it on OS X. No question there. Windows drivers are pretty weak in bootcamp, so you may run into issues there (trackpad/mouse specifically) I'd say just the overall workflow of OS X will be beneficial, especially for stuff in Ps.
 
HBOC said:
My question is why you would get a Mac to run CS5 under Windows? I have Master Collection CS4 and it runs great under Mac (meaning I have no problems with it).
Click to expand...

^^^ same here ... I run CS5 apps on my MBP fine ... no need for windows
 
wd40 said:
What exactly do you mean by this? I too am deciding between running cs5 in bootcamp or os x and have yet to settle on a one over the other. Working with many of the apps in OS X has so far felt less efficient, but that's most likely because I am still getting used to OSX after a lifetime on windows.
Click to expand...

Using windows through Bootcamp is not like using windows on a normal windows PC, it's slower, so probably it's faster if you use it in your Mac.

Anyway, since I started using mac i've hated when I use windows, I don't find it easy to use anymore.
 
ssdeg7 said:
Using windows through Bootcamp is not like using windows on a normal windows PC, it's slower, so probably it's faster if you use it in your Mac.

Anyway, since I started using mac i've hated when I use windows, I don't find it easy to use anymore.
Click to expand...

Actually, using windows through bootcamp is exactly like using windows on a PC. It's natively running windows, which any x86 or x86_64 based PC (which a Mac is) can do. Running it through software like Parallels or VMWare Fusion is slower, however.
 
alust2013 said:
Actually, using windows through bootcamp is exactly like using windows on a PC. It's natively running windows, which any x86 or x86_64 based PC (which a Mac is) can do. Running it through software like Parallels or VMWare Fusion is slower, however.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I thought - so in reality, running cs5 in a new 15" macbook (maxed out spec wise) is exactly like running cs5 in a windows machine with the same hardware.

Plus, aren't apple's windows drivers pretty well optimized? Perhaps even more so than Dell's, HP's etc et al since they have so many different model/hardware configurations to support?
 
I thought most designers are OSX based - there-go they would prefer OSX over Windows. Am I wrong? I've never seen a designer prefer to use a Windows machine.
 
From personal experience across both, the Windows versions are quite a bit more buggy, and prone to crashing than the OSX versions.

Though personally, going from my desktop to my Mac, I've noticed large speed improvements in PS, especially now that I have the CUDA driver installed.
 
wd40 said:
That's exactly what I thought - so in reality, running cs5 in a new 15" macbook (maxed out spec wise) is exactly like running cs5 in a windows machine with the same hardware.

Plus, aren't apple's windows drivers pretty well optimized? Perhaps even more so than Dell's, HP's etc et al since they have so many different model/hardware configurations to support?
Click to expand...

The drivers aren't great actually. It's kinda surprising, but the drivers for the trackpad and mouse are especially sucky. One would think they would take a little time to perfect them.
 
Adobe's current programs are pretty much crappy ports from Windows to Mac. Most things are not done in a way that fits OSX, starting from the custom installers (which just use the regular installer anyway) to software going into folders in Applications with all kinds of crap instead of just being the app like every other Mac program.

They also tend to break from time to time due to the crappy Flash-based UI implementation they've had since CS4. What seems to occur randomly is that every UI element becomes its own window in Expose, basically turning it into a huge mess until you restart the program.

Performancewise there isn't any real difference between OSX and Windows versions of Adobe's stuff.

So I think the real answer is that yes, they're equally crappy on both platforms but unfortunately there are no real alternatives.
 
I have to agree with most people here... I work full time with capture one pro and PhotoShop cs5 and my general impression is PhotoShop is better on a windows machine with windows, but when it comes to MAC there's no doubt that ox is better than bootcamped windows. So stick ps on the osx side and use windows for whatever programs you don't have or can get for mac...
 
alust2013 said:
The drivers aren't great actually. It's kinda surprising, but the drivers for the trackpad and mouse are especially sucky. One would think they would take a little time to perfect them.
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, I am having some difficulty clicking and dragging (index finger clicks down while middle finger moves the selected object/boundary-box).

I think that most of my troubles are keyboard shortcut related: the differences between osx and windows is not insignificant! Using my pinky finger to click the ctrl key at the bottom left of the keyboard just feels right... whereas using my (pinky? ring finger? I have no idea!) to click the cmd key located to the immediate left of the space bar just feels super awkward at present.
 
wd40 said:
Now that you mention it, I am having some difficulty clicking and dragging (index finger clicks down while middle finger moves the selected object/boundary-box).

I think that most of my troubles are keyboard shortcut related: the differences between osx and windows is not insignificant! Using my pinky finger to click the ctrl key at the bottom left of the keyboard just feels right... whereas using my (pinky? ring finger? I have no idea!) to click the cmd key located to the immediate left of the space bar just feels super awkward at present.
Click to expand...

I normally use my thumb to press the CMD key.
 
they both run the same, though i do notice that the hardware accelerated panning/zooming seems a touch smoother on OSX than on Windows. that said, i do far more of my photoshop/after effects work on Windows since i have a Winboxen with much greater specs than my MBP (4.4ghz sandycore vs. 2.0ghz sandy core).
 
ssdeg7 said:
Using windows through Bootcamp is not like using windows on a normal windows PC, it's slower, so probably it's faster if you use it in your Mac.

Anyway, since I started using mac i've hated when I use windows, I don't find it easy to use anymore.
Click to expand...

No. It's native.
 
I use Photoshop in Windows and Mac on the same machine. In my experience Mac is faster (barely, just on things like filters). Its pretty much the same experience.

HOWEVER that being said, like others stated there is just something more fluid about working with Photoshop on a Mac that can't be matched by windows. I can't pinpoint it but its there. Also as others have stated having many files open will perform much better under Mac and Windows.

(Also I'm not sure who is saying Bootcamp is slower but thats false. Its the exact same as running Windows on a native machine).

The reason I have to run Photoshop on both OS's is because if I work in certain game engines some are windows only so I have to have Photoshop and Maya set up on both OS's, and both run on the same computer I just boot into whichever OS I need.
 
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