Wife complains "Photoshop in PC much faster"

[sammyman]

I am about to buy my 3rd mac, a MBP. I currently have a 1.9GHz iMac G5 with 1.5GB of RAM. She claims that her PC at work is much faster when using Photoshop. Specifically, when she drags say 15 pictures and drops them into Photoshop (the load time). Her PC is way old, and I think it only has 512MB or maybe 1GB of RAM running on XP.

Is this possible? Will a new MBP run CS3 faster than her old PC with Photoshop 7?

 

[Blue Velvet]

Yes, no doubt at all. Mind you, disk speed does have a bearing on things. But it should be a damn sight speedier.

 

[sammyman]

Yes, no doubt at all. Mind you, disk speed does have a bearing on things. But it should be a damn sight speedier.

She has the same disk speed 5400.

Would getting a 7200rmp drive for the MBP speed up CS3 a lot? Or should I just upgrade the HD later if I want to ($200 seems pricey).

 

[apfhex]

It would help, but RAM is more important.

 

[3nm]

how much free space does the iMac's HDD have?

 

[sammyman]

how much free space does the iMac's HDD have?

I think it has about 40GB left out of 160GB.... Is that bad?

 

[kuebby]

I think it has about 40GB left out of 160GB.... Is that bad?

No, that's fine, but don't let it get a below about 10-20. When it gets too low it will have an impact on performance.

 

[Peterkro]

Consider upgrading your wife.

 

[sammyman]

Consider upgrading your wife.

Maybe I could get some more RAM?

 

[skunk]

Maybe I could get some more RAM?

I was studiously avoiding any "RAM-hungry"-type jokes.

 

[x Shadow Dragon]

is it "universal"?

 

[markcres]

Consider upgrading your wife.

And if you don't want her to crash so often.. hide the car keys!!

 

[Sdashiki]

If you havent experienced this "speed" then I wouldnt believe it.

have you tried to benchmark this yourself?

see if her "speed" is really "fast" or just in the mind.

 

[AdeFowler]

My 2.5Ghz dual G5 with 8gb of RAM, and a 250gb dedicated scratch disk, does sometime feel slow when opening multiple images, but I am normally working with A4+, 300ppi, multi-layered, cmyk images. My point is that there are variables beyond hardware spec. Make sure you're using the same images if you do any benchmarking.