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Quad 2.5 G5 =)

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
319
0
I recently got not 1, but 2 MacBook Pros, 1 base unibody and a last model non-unibody(the "old" one was from my dad's work). I am still holding onto my PM G5 and I was wondering which machines I should use my copy of Photoshop CS4 on. My PM was recently upgraded with 8GB ram, for a total of 16GB, and a new 1.5 TB 7200RPM HDD. (check out my "hardware" section thing ;)) Should I upgrade the graphics card, if possible? I have a Quadro FX4500 already.

P.S. My MBPs have the 9400M and 9600M GT (uni) and 8600M GT (non-uni).
 

ethical

macrumors 68000
Dec 22, 2007
1,661
1
It'll run well on all 3 of them... so really it just depends which one you will use the most for Photoshop work?
 

iBookG4user

macrumors 604
Jun 27, 2006
6,595
2
Seattle, WA
The speeds will be very comparable according to Geekbench, both are in the 3200-3300 range. Photoshop will not be able to take advantage of the added RAM of any of them, as it is still 32 bit. So, depending on if you have a SSD in either of the MacBook Pros, you'll probably see very similar performance. If you were to do any upgrades, I'd put a SSD in one of the laptops because that will net you the biggest performance increase.
 

Quad 2.5 G5 =)

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
319
0
It'll run well on all 3 of them... so really it just depends which one you will use the most for Photoshop work?

I was thinking of running it on my G5, what component (CPU, RAM, GPU) does Photoshop use most, and would it benefit from the 2 extra (slower) cores? If the GPU is the most used, I will use it on that machine. AFAIK, the nvidia Quadro FX4500 the best available card on a Quad G5, am I correct?
And, if not, what is the best card?
 

Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
Photoshop will not be able to take advantage of the added RAM of any of them, as it is still 32 bit.

We discussed this in another forum comparing OSX to Windows AWE API. Photoshop scratch files will benefit from the extra RAM, indirectly, because OSX will cache them in RAM. Not as good as AWE, but not worthless, either.
 

Quad 2.5 G5 =)

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
319
0
The speeds will be very comparable according to Geekbench, both are in the 3200-3300 range. Photoshop will not be able to take advantage of the added RAM of any of them, as it is still 32 bit. So, depending on if you have a SSD in either of the MacBook Pros, you'll probably see very similar performance. If you were to do any upgrades, I'd put a SSD in one of the laptops because that will net you the biggest performance increase.

Would having extra cores help? I don't have a SSD in any of the MacBook Pros, but I do have 7200 RPM drives, and dual 7200 drives in the PM.
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,151
9
Tampere, Finland
The one figure you want to be looking is DATA THROUGHPUT, and in that regard the G5 Quad destroys the laptops you're comparing it with. No matter how much RAM/GPU/HDD you install into the laptops, they will always be beaten by the G5 Quad.

That's why MBP with similar specs beats MB any day. Internals matter, performance does not always show.

Until you try it yourself.
 

Quad 2.5 G5 =)

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
319
0
The one figure you want to be looking is DATA THROUGHPUT, and in that regard the G5 Quad destroys the laptops you're comparing it with. No matter how much RAM/GPU/HDD you install into the laptops, they will always be beaten by the G5 Quad.

That's why MBP with similar specs beats MB any day. Internals matter, performance does not always show.

Until you try it yourself.

Is it the faster system bus (dual 1.25Ghz vs. 800/1066MHz),or the PPC archatexture, the way the logic board is designed?
 
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