macbook pro - advice wanted

[joelb51]

hey ppl,

just trying to get other opinions on my little problem... I have just started a degree in Multimedia Design and want to buy a MAcBook PRo. I currently own a RevA IMac G5 but really need something more portable so im selling it.

I was wondering would photoshop/maya/adobe apps run slower on a 2.0ghz MBP than my current Imac (due to rosetta)- i know the apps will be ported over eventually.

One last thing - will the PowerPC version of MS Office run on intel? Some comments seem to suggest it wont.

Any feedback would be great!

PEace

 

[Caitlyn]

Well, you would think MS Office will run on the Intel Mac thanks to Rosetta. That's easy. Plus, MS is going to be releasing a universal version soon from what I assume from the keynote.

What are the specs of your current iMac? 1.8GHz?

 

[joelb51]

Well, you would think MS Office will run on the Intel Mac thanks to Rosetta. That's easy. Plus, MS is going to be releasing a universal version soon from what I assume from the keynote.

What are the specs of your current iMac? 1.8GHz?

Um.. 1.8Ghz 512RAM 20inch REVA IMac... it runs adobe apps fine but just not portable which is what i need.

 

[AJBMatrix]

From the things I have read, it seems that MS Office runs just fine and even faster than on a Mac. As for the Adobe features. It would be best for you to go ahead and get the best now and wait for the UB later. It really will not be that long in all reality before Adobe comes up with new apps. There is even rumor about a patch that will be coming out soon. I have heard about how Adobe runs just as well on a iMac CD as on a PowerBook G4. It seems really funny how people are trying to compare the iMac CD to a Quad. That is really an interesting thought. Comparing the top of the line from yesterday to the Middle of the Road of today. Really, it seems to be doing wonderful.

Edit: Just make sure you get a lot of RAM in it.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Maya, man I would think that going to kill rosetta depending on what you are doing (Syflex, shave and a haircut). I think it would do okay with Adobe apps but I too would want to know how well it does on Cinema 4d, lightwave 3d or Maya.

 

[iPie]

1.83 vs 2.0

Processor 1.83GHz vs 2.0GHz
Memory 512MB vs 1GB
PCI Express Graphics 128MB vs 256MB

Is the $500 difference in price worth it for ‘normal’ users. Will I actually notice a difference in performance or will it make any difference to the useful life of the MBP?

I guess that it is going to be quite a while before one can dual boot windows (for those of us who need to run 'windows only' aps) and OSX.

 

[jsw]

If it were me, I'd spend the money on upgrading the RAM (you can get to 2GB for a lot less than Apple charges... just get the base RAM and upgrade yourself w/3rd party RAM) and getting the 7200RPM 100GB - or the 5400RPM 120GB to hold more but be slower - drive.

Still cheaper. I don't think the small speed bump will be noticeable, and unless you're deeply into gaming on dual monitors, the 128MB VRAM will be just fine.

 

[negz]

PowerPC Office 2004 will run fine. I tried it out on an iMac CD in a store and it was anything but slow. I vaguely recall something about problems with older versions of Office under Rosetta.

Photoshop under Rosetta will see a performance hit compared to the G5. That said, you're looking for something portable, which leaves your (high end Mac) options down to a MacBook or a Powerbook. According to real use results from these forums the iMac CDs, which are essentially the same specs as the MacBooks, perform in Photoshop at roughly the same level as the last Powerbooks, if not slightly better.

So your options are either buy a Powerbook and run Photoshop native at 1.67GHz G4 speeds or buy a MacBook with a GB or more of RAM and run photoshop at essentially 1.67GHz G4 speeds, with a large performance boost when it goes universal and a longer useful life... or get a Wintel.

Just as a note, I haven't heard anything in my (extensive) Intel/MacBook news trawling reflecting the performance of Maya. I would speculate it would be in a similar situation to Photoshop, perhaps even better due to the graphics bound nature. I wouldn't take my word for it though.

Edit - Grammar mistakes I didn't pick up in the preview.