I'm floating between a MB and MBA, and I'm wondering if anyone has tried running Flash CS on their Air. What about via Parallels or BootCamp?
Cheers
Cheers
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Has anyone tried running CS3?
- Thread starter darngooddesign
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Ive got photoshop CS3 and dreamweaver CS3 running on my 2.4gHz Macbook and it runs fine. Not sure about the Air though...
It should run it just fine, however beware of heat. Keep in mind the air was only meant for light tasks e-mail, Productivity apps, browsing, iTunes and some other apps. So while it will run your better of getting even the MacBook, unless you really need the lighter computer.
I run Photoshop and Flash CS3 on a C2D Mid 2007 2GHz MacBook with 1GB RAM and GMA 950
Given the MBA runs with 2GB and a newer GPU, would performance be noticeably different? If so, better or worse? I'm really considering an MBA.
I use Dreamweaver CS3 and Photoshop CS3 on my macbook air without any problems, however, I don't do any major work on Photoshop, only editing photos, create a few artwork, etc. Largest files I've worked with is 10MB jpg/png/psd files.
I've run Flash 8 (CS2 equivalent) on a variety of low-end PowerPC Macs, so your intel Air should be fine with CS3.
I only start getting lag on files with hi res images during playback, and editing in the timeline, although performance is much better on my G5 (in which I'd say your air is still faster than).
I only start getting lag on files with hi res images during playback, and editing in the timeline, although performance is much better on my G5 (in which I'd say your air is still faster than).
I think some people worry about core shutdowns when they need to get out of bed! Running something other than Address Book does not mean your Air will start to die in your arms!
As for CS3 - its performance is mostly CPU bound, but RAM is important. I think the 2GB RAM will be fine considering you are hardly likely to be making edits to anything significantly larger on a 13" screen - although the CPU will cause longer waits than the Macbooks on anything that requries a render.
I doubt it would be unusable though.
As for CS3 - its performance is mostly CPU bound, but RAM is important. I think the 2GB RAM will be fine considering you are hardly likely to be making edits to anything significantly larger on a 13" screen - although the CPU will cause longer waits than the Macbooks on anything that requries a render.
I doubt it would be unusable though.
I'm sort of "in between" machines right now - at least heavy-duty machines - and I've been running CS3 for design work on a 1.5 Core Solo with 2GB. It's usable. Not great, but usable enough that I've been considering a 1.83 mini+MBA route. I'd imagine that if I can get by on this mini, the Air should be pretty steady in CS3.
I'd just go with the Air+ Superdrive in that scenario. Comparable RAM, but better chip and GPU.
I used it this morning and it worked fine. Had mail and safari open too. Simple task (just edited a small jpeg). Fan wasn't even on. I think it's okay, but not ideal. Like you, this was one of the reasons I was on the fence, but in the end, I just loved usability of the air and for small editing it's fine. But I would never want to use a laptop for big editing anyway. To me, a desk is where you get that kind of work done (ergo: imac), so luckily if I went macbook for bigger editing, I probably would've been frustrated by a whole other collection of problems.
I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Acrobat and Aperture. It's a bit slow when dealing with 130MB tiffs, but it's usable.
For heavy work, I like to use a desktop (for faster CPU, more RAM, and much bigger screen) but the MBA is fine for occasional work.
For heavy work, I like to use a desktop (for faster CPU, more RAM, and much bigger screen) but the MBA is fine for occasional work.
I guess I could; the 1.6 vs 1.8 C2D is relatively negligible, but the extra gig of ram in the mini could make a solid difference. What I'd really like is an updated mini that could handle 4GB of ram, that would pretty much solve my issues (not to open a can of worms there).
That said, I do use a 2nd machine for movies and music as well, so having both wouldn't be bad...
Photoshop and Dreamweaver CS3 run great on my Macbook Air. They run fine with the regular hard drive but it takes them a little bit to load initially. With the SSD its just like on an iMac.
The fans never kick in while I am working in either app. They are just not that intensive unless you are applying some crazy filters nonstop for hours.
The fans never kick in while I am working in either app. They are just not that intensive unless you are applying some crazy filters nonstop for hours.
I was more concerned with Flash CS3 than anything else. I'm doing a lot of actionscipt3 work and, screen size aside, I was curious how the Air handles it all. What I might do is get the 2.1 MacBook and get used to that. Then when the new rev of the Air comes out compare the speeds of those machines.
I'm coming up from a 1.67 G4 Powerbook (which still does everyday stuff very well) so I know it will be a lot snappier in Finder and iLife stuff, but moving from Flash MX to CS3 is putting more serious software demands on the machine.
I'm coming up from a 1.67 G4 Powerbook (which still does everyday stuff very well) so I know it will be a lot snappier in Finder and iLife stuff, but moving from Flash MX to CS3 is putting more serious software demands on the machine.
I think the Air would run Flash far better than your PowerBook, Lots of people are using even less powerful computers for this job.
Not smoothly in comparison to... what? Your MBP? I really hope it's comparable to a regular MacBook, but not expecting anything above that...
With MBA topping out at 1.8GHz C2D while MacBooks start at 2.1GHz, I may just hold out for a MBA spec bump... it's looking like January though, which is still a good half year away.
