I have an old iBook G3 running OS 10.4.11. It is 900 Mhz PowerPC G3 with 256 MB RAM. I am looking to load the Creative Suite to learn some things I have never used or rarely used in order to find a new job. Adobe's website says for CS3 that I need a G4 or G5 computer. Is this true? Will my computer not be able to run these programs? I imagine I don't have enough RAM either. Should I look at getting an older version of the programs like CS2 or even earlier? A new computer is not in the budget at the moment, just looking to get by until I can get out of the unemployment line before I invest in a new MacBook. Thanks!
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Advice on running Adobe CS on old iBook G3
- Thread starter Wenderzs
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I would say the best version of CS for you would be the first one. CS2 and CS3 will most likely be far too taxing on your machine. You can get them cheap on ebay now.
I would tend to agree. Just make sure you find the cs1 requirements first, just to make sure it will run. If you can find more ram anywhere for that machine, I'm sure it would be cheep. That isn't enough processor speed or ram to do even medium lifting in photoshop. More ram would help a lot.
I would recomend only working on documents in low resolution (72 to 100 dpi) so that you can explore the tools, but not have to deal with so much lag etc.
I would recomend only working on documents in low resolution (72 to 100 dpi) so that you can explore the tools, but not have to deal with so much lag etc.
Any of the CS will run slow. Partly due to your low 256MB ram, G3 processor, and probably 4200rpm drive.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for the advice. I'm getting the programs loaded up at the moment. Hopefully all will go well. I ended up with CS2 because I got a good deal. Hopefully it won't be too taxing on my computer. Probably will just run one program at a time. I didn't get the full creative suite, just photoshop, illustrator, indesign and acrobat. I have Flash and Dreamweaver from Macromedia Studio 8. As long as they are enough to get me by until I can shell out the cash for a new computer. My old iBook has served me well though, running great for over 6 years.
Thanks so much for the advice. I'm getting the programs loaded up at the moment. Hopefully all will go well. I ended up with CS2 because I got a good deal. Hopefully it won't be too taxing on my computer. Probably will just run one program at a time. I didn't get the full creative suite, just photoshop, illustrator, indesign and acrobat. I have Flash and Dreamweaver from Macromedia Studio 8. As long as they are enough to get me by until I can shell out the cash for a new computer. My old iBook has served me well though, running great for over 6 years.
first, buy the max amount of ram that will fit into it.
it really won't cost that much, and it will give you a *huge* speed boost.
Get a fast external firewire hardrive.
partition this and use half of it to store big files, and the other half (or at least a decent amount) to use as a scratch disk.
a fast external scratch disk is *vital*. You can set it as your scratch in photoshop preferences.
then use onyx to do a clean up on your computer and optimize it and all that good stuff.
voila! A decently spiffy computer to do your work on for not all that much money!
it really won't cost that much, and it will give you a *huge* speed boost.
Get a fast external firewire hardrive.
partition this and use half of it to store big files, and the other half (or at least a decent amount) to use as a scratch disk.
a fast external scratch disk is *vital*. You can set it as your scratch in photoshop preferences.
then use onyx to do a clean up on your computer and optimize it and all that good stuff.
voila! A decently spiffy computer to do your work on for not all that much money!
Thanks!
Everything is going well. As some of you mentioned, max out the RAM to as much as I could, which turned out to be 512MB for this computer. It is running so much better now! I also already had a large external hard drive to store photos, music, movies and large files on, so I moved the rest of what I could to make room for the new programs. I now have Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign CS2, Acrobat 7, Flash 8 and Dreamweaver 8 and so far they are running well. Hopefully this computer will last me a while longer now until I'm ready to invest in a new MacBook.
Everything is going well. As some of you mentioned, max out the RAM to as much as I could, which turned out to be 512MB for this computer. It is running so much better now! I also already had a large external hard drive to store photos, music, movies and large files on, so I moved the rest of what I could to make room for the new programs. I now have Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign CS2, Acrobat 7, Flash 8 and Dreamweaver 8 and so far they are running well. Hopefully this computer will last me a while longer now until I'm ready to invest in a new MacBook.
I had that same machine. You can max the RAM to 640, and then it will run CS reasonably well. I did PS and AI work on that iBook for a good year or so. And the idea for a firewire scratch disk is a great idea.