Am I the only one that HATES my Intel Mac?

[plinden]

I think if you're paying so much money for a computer, it should work at the base configurations- I shouldn't have to add RAM!

Photoshop is a PRO app, that runs in ROSETTA, and runs better with more than 512MB on any machine anyway. The iMac is a CONSUMER machine.

Apple provide BASE configurations for BASE computer use. They have no control over what applications you run on your own computer, and no control over the amount of RAM any third party application needs. And they have no control over when Adobe produce Photoshop as a UB.

I generally order 4x the base RAM when buying a new computer. When I ordered my iMac, I got 2GB RAM because I knew I would need more (running Apache/Tomcat/Eclipse/Word/Entourage/iLife/Firefox/Parallels will eat up RAM pretty quickly). For the same reason, I ordered 1GB RAM with my wife's MacBook. When I ordered my Dell in 2002, I got 1GB RAM (over the 256MB base) because I knew I would need it for my software development work.

If this makes me sound like an Apple fanboy, then so be it. I don't need to change my response to satisfy anyone else.

 

[hellodon]

This was my thought too. hellodon, why buy an intel machine if you are going to be running all PPC apps?

Because I didnt do my homework...there wasnt much i could research. I watched MacWorld live..as soon as the store was back up, i bought the machine.

Jobs made me and the rest of the world think that those machines were better than the G5 and were going to smoke anything. I was in the market for a computer and actually ready to buy...NEEDING to buy....so that's what i decided to buy thinking "wow, they came out early, it's going to be so much faster".....

No one here knew anything before that.....you guys were saying "oh they are coming out in the summer".......so there wasnt really "research" i could have done. I thought i was buying a solid machine...tell me that MacWorld speech didnt make all of you think the same thing initially?

When I ordered my iMac, I got 2GB RAM because I knew I would need more

Okay..finally someone that has done this and isnt just being a fanboy....seriously...

So does the machine run to your liking? Would you say it's fast? Programs using Rosetta run well?

 

[devilot]

I went from 256 to a gig in my powerbook and I couldnt really tell. That's why I'm bothering to ask/argue this RAM thing....will it really make this iMac run better?

First of all, RAM only helps w/ some processes/ uses. Maybe you were doing different tasks w/ your PB?

Even if you were running Adobe software-- that software has been finely tuned specifically for the PPC architecture! It's been optimized. So you can't even begin to make that comparison.

I don't want to invest in a mistake if it's not going to fix it is what i'm saying, overall.

Then do what we've all been saying; cut your losses. Sell the Intel iMac. Buy a PPC machine.

 

[lonepilgrim]

Jobs made me and the rest of the world think that those machines were better than the G5 and were going to smoke anything. I was in the market for a computer and actually ready to buy...NEEDING to buy....so that's what i decided to buy thinking "wow, they came out early, it's going to be so much faster".....

At MacWorld, Jobs was quite candid that the Intel machines were really only fit for the occasional use of PPC apps. He spent an incredible amount of time talking about iLife 06 (which is Universal, obviously) and boasting about it running on an Intel machine. At no point did he say "if you use Photoshop all the time this machine is going to smoke your G5".

 

[dornoforpyros]

hmm so your (I'm assuming) a professional graphic artist and your whining about needing more ram? Most graphic artist I know are quit happy to get more ram, photoshop, dreamweaver & flash are all pretty heavy duty programs, 512mb is fine...for the AVERAGE user. Being a graphic artist you are not an average user, you are a pro user. Thus, you need more ram.

 

[technicolor]

Okay..finally someone that has done this and isnt just being a fanboy....seriously...

No its called using your brain..unlike you did

Because I didnt do my homework...there wasnt much i could research. I watched MacWorld live..as soon as the store was back up, i bought the machine.

and Jobs clearly said that photoshop would be slower under rosetta, he did that while doing the demo..

fanboyism aside.

Its common sense to increase ram for running intense apps. People did this on the g5 and g4 and g3s.........

Even if all the apps were native, who in their right mind knowing they will be doing heavy work with buy a machine with 512mb ram..
lmao

 

[hellodon]

devilot:

No one has answered the ram question yet. i just want to stop having problems. I know that in the future this is going to be the machine to have...but right now, i need to get some work done on it. If the guy up there that says the ram makes his system run smooth...then great, he's using a lot of software that would run horribly on my machine. Then i know for sure that this is going to be an improvement.

If that's not the case, then I will sell it.

I just need an answer instead of people being sarcastic and cocky towards me because I talked badly about Apple. It's really pretty lame. I'm obviously in the same boat as you guys since I buy their products..but because I'm not satisfied, i get yelled at....hah.

 

[hellodon]

No its called using your brain..unlike you did



and Jobs clearly said that photoshop would be slower under rosetta, he did that while doing the demo..

fanboyism aside.

Its common sense to increase ram for running intense apps. People did this on the g5 and g4 and g3s.........

Even if all the apps were native, who in their right mind knowing they will be doing heavy work with buy a machine with 512mb ram..
lmao

Seriously..you're not helping.

Go write down your apple setups in colored pencil or something. You're annoying.

Why are you being such a jerk? I'm not an "inside the apple" junkie...do you realize that not everyone is? I undestand systems and stuff to an extent...but when i'm using a 667 G4 Powerbook with a gig of ram and not having problems.....do you think i honestly expected them upgrading to a 2.0 intel system ?? I mean..seriously....
Go ask 20 people on the street "if youre doing heavy work LOL ROFL on a mac LOL!!! !ROFL, will it work with 512 RAM?:>>>>?> LOLL OLLLOLO!! ROLF!!!!"

just shut up..you're smarter than me and would have bought more ram. i get it, i'm done with you.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Buy more Ram, its that simple.

 

[devilot]

devilot:

No one has answered the ram question yet.

It's hard to do so because what if someone else's idea of "acceptable computing speed" is still too slow for your wants? Then even if 20 million people respond saying 2GB of RAM helped them run CS2 "well" on their Intel iMacs but that speed isn't fast enought for you, then you'd still be misled, and still be unhappy after a) buying that iMac in the first place, and b) buying that extra RAM.

I just need an answer instead of people being sarcastic and cocky towards me because I talked badly about Apple...but because I'm not satisfied, i get yelled at...

No, we responded by saying you should go for a different Apple product, one that suits your needs/wants more. How is that bad? And if you felt "yelled at" it wasn't because you've expressed dissatisfaction at Apple, it's because you seemed to not read or take in what people were suggesting. These forums are filled w/ unsatisfied comments and they aren't all "yelled at."

 

[technicolor]

my macbook pro with 2 gigs of ram is faster in the adobe suite then my g5 imac with 1.5 gigs of ram..

hope that answers your question

 

[savar]

He has a point though (even if it was put quite badly).

The question is: Should Apple be selling machines at the stock configurations they are (i.e. 512mb RAM) at a time when a lot of the software which defines the Mac - the creative software - doesn't work very well on it?

I personally think that Apple should only be selling the MB/MBP with minimum 1GB RAM, as it sounds like non-Universal apps don't run very well on anything less (all my information is anecdotal, I have not actual experience myself).

If by creative software you're referring to iLife, then yes Apple should be selling computers with enough RAM to run these included applications which are a major selling point of the machine in the first place. I believe the 512MB is now minimum across the board and quite adequate for this.

Keep in mind some people are buying iMacs just to read email and surf the web, not run photoshop, maya, lightwave, Doom VI, and illustrator simultaneously.

Would I use it at the stock configuration? Definitely not, I would upgrade the RAM right away...but I've recommended this to everybody for years, because for over a decade now RAM has been the single most important computer upgrade.

 

[technicolor]

you're smarter than me and would have bought more ram. i get it,.

finally you get it

 

[jhipolito]

I couldn't live with 512 megs of ram... I use CS2, DW, etc... for my design work. Even on a g4 or g5 I would increase my ram. That includes a Mac OR a PC...

I just ordered my MBP 2.16 17" and I maxed out my memory for design purposes. In all of my research and reading, CS2 and DW are pretty good, but you may notice a slight decrease in performance compared to native apps...

Just my 2 cents for what it's worth. Honestly, I think it's worth a lot

 

[hellodon]

my macbook pro with 2 gigs of ram is faster in the adobe suite then my g5 imac with 1.5 gigs of ram..

hope that answers your question

it does...that is seriously a perfect response. I made some comparissons on machines I use/have used and want to get back into that boat with my intel mac...now i realize that 2GB of Ram will most likely really help me and that's what I'm going to do.

Thank you!
(seriously..i'm not being sarcastic..that's the response i needed!)

 

[plinden]

Okay..finally someone that has done this and isnt just being a fanboy....seriously...

So does the machine run to your liking? Would you say it's fast? Programs using Rosetta run well?

Yes, the machine runs well. I don't run Pro PPC apps though. Office is the only PPC application that I regularly use.

I did try out the Photoshop 30 day trials using XP on Parallels comparing to my iMac - the results are here

These tests show that 1GB vs 512MB in Windows generally shows a big improvement, so you could expect similar results in Mac OS X. Photoshop on the Intel Macs is much slower in non-mulitprocessor aware actions, but keeps up well in MP-aware actions.

Also, this webpage shows that apps in Rosetta generally needs 2-3x more RAM than native applications.

 

[sikkinixx]

Because I didnt do my homework...there wasnt much i could research. I watched MacWorld live..as soon as the store was back up, i bought the machine.

Jobs made me and the rest of the world think that those machines were better than the G5 and were going to smoke anything. I was in the market for a computer and actually ready to buy...NEEDING to buy....so that's what i decided to buy thinking "wow, they came out early, it's going to be so much faster".....

OMG! you mean...they...did what all marketers do? They somehow convinced you that you needed a product that you really didn't need? shame on them... you jumped on the new technology bandwagon, did you expect it to be smooth straight our of the gate? And if you couldn't do much research, why not wait a little bit until some was out? did you seriously think your PPC would be ready to throw away the day the Intel switch happened?

 

[Yvan256]

[...] I do graphics work, if I open photoshop and illustrator at the same time, the first one opened will crash. Either one open on its own runs like absolute crap. [...] It was sold to me with 512 ram, it should run on 512...and it doesnt. So i've been told "get more ram"......why sell a product if it's going to run like crap on what you've included? Plus how much improvement am I looking at by spending 240 on 2GB? My G5 at work runs perfect on 512. [...]

I'm sorry, but 512MB is the minimum needed to run OS X and iLife. If you only run pro apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator, which aren't even native apps yet, you're just asking for trouble. Instead of complaining about your iMac (unless it has real hardware problems), go talk to Adobe about their lack of Universal Binaries.

All I know is that I wouldn't even run Photoshop OR Illustrator with only 512MB on a PPC Mac, let alone both at the same time under Rosetta.

The only thing that you can do right now is add more memory to your Intel iMac and get over the fact that it's slower or get a PowerPC Mac with at least 1GB RAM (maybe even 2GB or more, depending on the type of work you do).

 

[hellodon]

OMG! you mean...they...did what all marketers do? They somehow convinced you that you needed a product that you really didn't need? shame on them... you jumped on the new technology bandwagon, did you expect it to be smooth straight our of the gate? And if you couldn't do much research why did you buy it right away?! did you seriously think your PPC would be ready to throw away the day the Intel switch happened?

Honestly, yeah. Thing is, i DID NEED a computer. In the past, when new Apples came out they were incredible vs. the models before them. My first G5 at work vs the G4 I was using was a great improvement. I was in the market for a G5 imac..then these came out and I thought i'd be stupid to bother with the G5.

Anyway...after all this I'm going to buy Ram and go from there. Any suggestions on where/what to buy?

 

[freeny]

This thread has really helped me decide to WAIT for the UB versions of the apps I need to run before buying an intel mac.

Adobe CS
Maya
After Effect
=
Spring 2007

 

[dornoforpyros]

I just need an answer instead of people being sarcastic and cocky towards me because I talked badly about Apple. It's really pretty lame.

It's not that your bad mouthing apple, you have every right to be un-sasisfied (we're all entitled to an opinion) it's just that your reasons are miss-guided.

It seems to me you didn't Do enough research on UB before buying an intel based machine (you said your g5 iMac at work is great) and now you blame apple.

Sell your intel mac and buy a PPC based machine and quit blaming others because you bought the wrong tool for the job.

 

[Yvan256]

No one has answered the ram question yet. i just want to stop having problems. I know that in the future this is going to be the machine to have...but right now, i need to get some work done on it. If the guy up there that says the ram makes his system run smooth...then great, he's using a lot of software that would run horribly on my machine. Then i know for sure that this is going to be an improvement.

More memory will help, that's for sure. How much it will help depends on how more you add. How much more you need depends on what you do with Photoshop and Illustrator. You're the best person to decide how much RAM you need. All I can say is that under Rosetta, your Intel iMac won't seem like a fast computer because the programs run in emulated mode. Your Intel iMac has to run PowerPC code, which slows things down. Rosetta also needs memory for itself. I wouldn't go under 1GB or even 2GB for running both Photoshop and Illustrator at once.

If that's not the case, then I will sell it. I just need an answer instead of people being sarcastic and cocky towards me because I talked badly about Apple. It's really pretty lame. I'm obviously in the same boat as you guys since I buy their products..but because I'm not satisfied, i get yelled at....hah.

If you sell it and buy a PowerPC iMac G5, you'll be happy in the short term. Photoshop and Illustrator will run great (if you have 1GB of RAM or more) because they'll be running native on a PowerPC processor. But as soon as Adobe releases Universal Binaries of Photoshop and Illustrator, you might end up with a slower computer than the Intel iMac you have right now.

All you have to know is this:
- Photoshop and Illustrator are PowerPC (PPC) applications. Right now, you'd need a really fast Intel processor to be able to run those programs under Rosetta and not notice any speed difference.
- Rosetta needs memory for itself (how much, I don't know)
- Photoshop and Illustrator are pro apps. You need more than 512MB, especially if you want to run both at once. Depending on the type of work you do, you might even need 2GB RAM or more. I've seen people complain about their Macs only having 4GB of RAM because they worked with print documents (big posters, kiosk panels, etc).

So, right now, you're using the worst possible configuration for your work:
- running PPC apps under Rosetta
- only 512MB for OS X, Rosetta, Photoshop, Illustrator - the amount left over (which is probably none) is for your actual work (photos, documents, etc)
- with no memory left, the computer has to use the hard disk for swap space, which is at least 10 times slower than RAM.

 

[beatle888]

No, it doesn't. But it makes you sound like an Apple fan boy. I agree with him. If Apple is selling this with 512 then it should work pretty well with that. Apple always skimps on the RAM. These are pro machines so they should ship with more than 512 anyway since even the low end Macbook comes withe 512. I'd return it and let them know why.

your wrong. macs do work well with 512 for basic needs. why should apple over anticipate the consumers need. its a stock system.

and for the original poster. why in the world would you think it would be fine to run pro apps (in rosetta no less) with the basic stock ram?


by the way ive been using 512 of ram for five years on my system at home and for consumer needs its fine. i even returned a gig stick cause i didnt need it.

so whine on.

 

[whooleytoo]

My work Mac is a 2x2GHz PowerMac p) with 512MB RAM (). If running just one or two apps, it's great, but if running with Mail and Safari (in particular) open in background, Xcode, Console, Interface Builder running it's a bit of a pig.

With the current OS, and in particular on Intel Macs with Rosetta, I wouldn't really consider 512 to be adequate for any grade of user, unless you have a lot of patience.

It's a pity Apple don't:

a) Default to a larger amount of RAM. If a user is confident they can manage with less, then let them choose a smaller amount.

or

b) Don't provide any default, and force the user to choose an amount of RAM.

 

[unfaded]

Two ways to increase your productivity:

1. get more ram
2. stop whining.