How slow is Rosetta?

[chuckee]

Hey... I'm sure most of you know that I'm looking into buying a macbook pro (made numerous posts/threads about it ) and am wondering how much of an affect Rosetta has on the mbp (speed-wise).

I know Rosetta is the emulation software that runs non-universal binary applications, but does it actually hinder performance that much?

Is there a way to avoid this slowdown by adding more RAM?

Thanks.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

It really depends on what application.

We could be talking about Word or Photoshop.

And yes, RAM is a great thing to add to InteliMacs.

 

[trainguy77]

I know Rosetta is the emulation software that runs non-universal binary applications, but does it actually hinder performance that much?

Is there a way to avoid this slowdown by adding more RAM?

From what I have heard it can cut your performance by as much as half. It can be better then that. However Rosetta take lots of RAM. So if your short on RAM it will be even worse. But it all depends on what app you want to run in Rosetta.

 

[benthewraith]

How well does Appleworks run in Rosetta?

 

[chuckee]

It really depends on what application.

We could be talking about Word or Photoshop.

And yes, RAM is a great thing to add to InteliMacs.

I'm thinking about running apps like Photoshop and other graphic intensive software, but I also want to run apps like MS Office:Mac too. Is it too hard for the intel macs to run two Rosetta apps at once?

 

[benthewraith]

I'm thinking about running apps like Photoshop and other graphic intensive software, but I also want to run apps like MS Office:Mac too. Is it too hard for the intel macs to run two Rosetta apps at once?

You can get 2 gigs of RAM from OWC for about US$215. I'm getting this for me birthday.

As an alternative, you can download a universal binary Gimpshop. It's open source, so they're constantly striving for it to be as good as Photoshop.

 

[dmw007]

I think that Rosetta does a great job. More RAM definitely helps, but for say
M$ Office, it runs at about the same speed as it does on a PowerPC based Mac.

 

[chuckee]

You can get 2 gigs of RAM from OWC for about US$215. I'm getting this for me birthday.

As an alternative, you can download a universal binary Gimpshop. It's open source, so they're constantly striving for it to be as good as Photoshop.

I'm looking into buying Corsair Valueselect RAM.... 1GB stick is 80$ (a LOT better than the 300$ upgrade through apple )

 

[apunkrockmonk]

I think that Rosetta does a great job. More RAM definitely helps, but for say
M$ Office, it runs at about the same speed as it does on a PowerPC based Mac.

It seems to take longer booting, but after that its more or less the same speed.

 

[bbrosemer]

I have not noticed a huge difference in the opening of the Apps or how well they run under Rosetta, however what I did notice is that Photoshop runs pretty well under rosetta and it is my feeling that it runs better then Office, I mean they both run well its just well is MS office encoded that badly or something...?

 

[aaron.lee2006]

If it is word processing you are talking about, download NeoOffice. it is free and has an intel compatible version. It is also compatible with Microsoft Word Documents.

 

[arcobb]

...I mean they both run well its just well is MS office encoded that badly or something...?

Duh!