Will the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium run well on the "new" old white MacBook?

[FieryFurnace]

Hi,

I hope some of you can help me out.
I want/need to get a Mac (will be my first Mac since the late 90s) and the Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium.
The new MacBooks are out of my league - I can only afford the white MacBook for $949 plus software.

My school still uses CS3 and I couldn't get any real infos on when they are changing to CS4 yet.

Do you think the white MacBook is capable of running CS4 well?
I read CS3 should be alright, but CS4 seems to use the GPU more, so I'm not quite sure,...

Will the MacBook be able to run my 1680x1050 LCD PC display and CS3 or CS4?

Thanks to all for your input,

FieryFurnace

 

[Eidorian]

1. Buy the old 2.4 GHz Macbook
2. Get 4-8 GB of RAM
3. Upgrade the hard drive
4. ??????
5. PROFIT!

 

[angelwatt]

Will the MacBook be able to run my 1680x1050 LCD PC display and CS3 or CS4?

Well the laptop won't run a monitor, it just sends the video signal, but yes that should be fine. I don't know that it will have that exact screen ratio, but the Mac is pretty smart about these things.

I don't use CS* so can't help with that part of the question.

 

[FieryFurnace]

Thanks for your replies!

I would upgrade the memory to 4GB - that's sure.

My concers are the resolution - Adobe requires 1280x900 but the MacBook only has 1280x800 - and that CS also requires OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 and I don't think the "new" old white MacBook has those.

 

[Eidorian]

Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0

It doesn't mean it won't run. You just won't get support for all of the GPU accelerated features.

While the GMA X3100 isn't that amazing it does support Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

 

[FieryFurnace]

While the GMA X3100 isn't that amazing it does support Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

Thanks for pointing that out, I just checked the guides here on macrumors and there it says the X3100 only does OpenGL 1.5 also the Intel Datasheet only lists 1.5, but the Windows driver for the X3100 seems to supports 2.0.
That's getting confusing now,...

I was also browsing some threads on macrumors about the X3100 and what I read kinda shocked me - most people complained about the performance, mentioned almost no support for OpenGL and even said that the GMA950 was better,...

What's that all about???
Is that fixed now?
And does MacOSX has OpenGL 2.0 support with the X3100 now too?

 

[Eidorian]

Thanks for pointing that out, I just checked the guides here on macrumors and there it says the X3100 only does OpenGL 1.5 also the Intel Datasheet only lists 1.5, but the Windows driver for the X3100 seems to supports 2.0.
That's getting confusing now,...

I was also browsing some threads on macrumors about the X3100 and what I read kinda shocked me - most people complained about the performance, mentioned almost no support for OpenGL and even said that the GMA950 was better,...

What's that all about???
Is that fixed now?
And does MacOSX has OpenGL 2.0 support with the X3100 now too?

Apple's support of the GMA X3100 has been mediocre at best. There are still some continuing compatibility problems that haven't been addressed.

 

[FieryFurnace]

Apple's support of the GMA X3100 has been mediocre at best. There are still some continuing compatibility problems that haven't been addressed.

Do you think there is any chance that Apple will release another driver sometime?

And, is it still true today that the GMA950 gives you somehow better graphical performance in MacOSX then the X3100?

 

[Eidorian]

Do you think there is any chance that Apple will release another driver sometime?

And, is it still true today that the GMA950 gives you somehow better graphical performance in MacOSX then the X3100?

You get better performance in Quake III and that seems to be it.

It's up to Apple on how they're going to support their hardware.