ned1 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I'm sick and tired of the sluggish batch performance of Photoshop on my PC. I've got 2 gigs and a single core AMD 3700 processor. I've priced things outand I can build myself a nice PC for $1500 or a Mac with similar hardware for$2500 (plus a Mac version of Photoshop). How much of an improvement will I seegiven the same hardware? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 If CS is sluggish, then there is a problem somewhere in your setup. Find out what that is first. I use CS2 on PC (windowZe XP) and Mac (G5 dual processor) and it's plenty fast. What is 'sluggish' to you? I can, and do, process up to 3,200 images during a good coffee break. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhite3.0 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 No need to make a switch that is based on operating systems as both Apple computers and Windows-based PCs can handle Photoshop with ease. I use an Acer laptop (2 years old) that has an AMD Turion 64 with 2GB RAM. I never have an issue using Photoshop. I don't run a lot of other applications while using PS but I'm sure I could. Switch to Apple for other reasons than PS but not solely because you think PS will run better on an Apple. $1500 for a PC will go a long way. I'm not an Apple basher but they are pricey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Wonder what I'm doing wrong. It takes overnight to do a simple auto-levels/convert to jpg on 1,000 raw files. I've got 2gb ram with 4gb virtual memory, a 3700 Athlon and a 7500 rpm disk. Any hints as to what I'm missing? Maybe I have a virus? Ran Norton on it and found nothing. Must be a hardware problem or does anyone else have similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhite3.0 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Whoa, out of my league. I thought you might be batch processing less than 100 RAW files in CS2 or normal editing of single photos in PS. Processing 1000 RAW files would definitely make my computer sluggish. Sounds like you may need a larger computer upgrade than I originally thought. Good luck, I'm sure the techies here will be able to find you a suitable computer without breaking the bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beckyh Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Is your present computer sluggish any other time, or only when using Photoshop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephen dohring Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 go to your start button then click on run, type in MSconfig - go to the startup tab and look at all the stuff checked - that is what is running in the background. Unckeck the stuff you don't need or try disabling all - restart and see if your performance is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puck Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 hello, a dual core processor would help but i think for your need it might well be worth going for a dual processor setup. perhaps 2x athlon 64 X2 processors, a motherboard that would take it. i would recommend at least 4 gig or ram and a raid setup of 7200rpm hard drives unless you can put up with the noise of those raptors. the whole setup should be around $2000 if you buy stuff on the internet and build it yourself. to get this level of performance on a mac you are looking at around $4000 perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 That's pretty close to what I priced out. Single dual core but with 4 disks, two mirrored and two striped for virtual memory and PS temp directory. 4 gb memory. If I cannibalize my existing system I can do it for $1500. Mighty expensive on the Mac. My concern is that I've got these wonderful 64 bit processors with a 32 bit operating system. If only there was PS for linux. I used to use Bibble but it doesn't support my new camera (Fuji S5). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoneguy Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 What do you have allocated for photoshop in the system cache, and ram? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annealmasy Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Keep in mind: Photoshop (and other applications) are emulated on the new Macs with the Intel chip - until they come out with new versions. This could keep things on the slow side, even with a Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_saunders Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Further to Steve D's answer, see what processes are currently running on the PC (Alt-Ctrl-Del then select Task Manager, processes tab) then order them by Mem Usage) this is for XP by the way. You may be able to kill some familiar processes (QuickTime, ITunes for example) if they are using memory but not needed-if you cant identify one though, leave it alone). Sometimes an app will be closed but still use memory, this will slow the PC.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliot1 Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Using a 2nd hard drive as your scratch disk helps improve performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kari douma Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 FWIW I heard if you call adobe, they will trade your photoshop for the mac version one time only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrodgers Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Multiple CPUs/Cores won't help much unless you are doing two things at a time. If you are running this overnight, I'm guessing you are only running one thread for major work. I have a dual core, and it only really helps if I'm trying to export from RAW while I'm also working in Photoshop. The amount of RAM isn't your problem either. 7200 RPM doesn't really say much about your actual disk speed, but converting RAW to jpg is more about memory/CPU bandwidth. Photoshop needs more disk speed when it uses scratch disk, but you are not touching that for RAW conversion. How long does it really take to load a few megabytes from disk, and write back a jpg anyway? Disk is not the problem unless the disk is broken. So, like what was said by others: 1. Is anything else competing for memory/CPU?2. What is your bus bandwidth? How fast does your memory talk to your CPU? If you are going to upgrade, upgrade your bus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted April 5, 2007 Author Share Posted April 5, 2007 Ran MSconfig last night and my God! It seems that every darned thing you install wants to put something running in the background. Removed a bunch and my computer runs twice as fast when running heavy-duty stuff. Thanks! I hate Microsoft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michelle a. Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Steve and Mark mentioned what I was going to say..... you'd be surprised by how much is actually running in the background. The other thing I wanted to mention is the fact that you are running Norton. I have a friend who is a computer tech. He told me that Norton is one of the biggest bloated hogs as far as software go. I was also having an issue with a slow running system at one point. I uninstalled Norton, moved a whole lot of image files to a backup disc, and installed Panda as my virus software.... Went through my start up files to make sure nothing unnecessary was starting..... And it was like have an almost brand new PC...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedding-photography-denver Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 I run both and find the MAC is my preference in all cases for editing. Can't see much reason for it in terms of speed though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timburns Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 One common mistake [maybe not your problem] is not assigning a disk for the scratch file that is different than photoshop runs on, not a different partition but different disk. If PS is on 'C' then a second drive should have the scratch file; and defrag all of your drives every chance you have. I primarily use PC, but have one Mac for Final Cut, and noticed early on that the Mac defrags itself - which is nice. Hope this helps, also I unplug from internet and turnoff all virus/firewall programs when doing any intensive work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_thielen Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 Really that is like asking should I drive a Chev instead of a Ford (or vice versa). I have five PC and 2 Macs sitting in the room and all networked together, and I regularly work at other peoples locations with Mac or PC. They are pretty much identical, anybody that tells you that Macs don't crash, don't have problems etc. doesn't use them. Same with speed - you spend a lot more money to get the same speed on a Mac as on a PC. Programs are pretty much keystoke for keystroke identical. So when it comes right down to it, which machine do I prefer to use? The one that has the biggest monitor, the fastest processor, and the most ram, and I don't care what the logo on it is. Something else to keep in mind - that moving from a 3700 machine to even a 5000 machine really shows little in the way of performance boost. A couple of hundred bucks to max out the ram will make a difference, using a real video card instead of a on-board shared card will make a difference. Pulling the computer off of the internet and killing the virus software and other background apps will make a difference. Larger hard drives will make a difference. Defragging your drives on a regular basis (like weekly at least) will make a difference. Oh, and kill all Norton apps. Get it off your system. Shoot anybody that tells you to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savagesax Posted April 5, 2007 Share Posted April 5, 2007 This is a subject that will never have a true winner! Since I have a degree in computers I have to favor PC's. I just built a quad core, 4gb's of RAM, a 512mb PCI express video card, Vista 64, and I wish it was mine! Graphics are fantastic, but if you get Vista 32, Mac's graphics will probably win out. This quad system is lightning fast. It is interesting that that both Macs and PC's now use quad cores, intel based products, same hard drive companies, same cd/dvd burners, same programs in some cases like photoshop, just coded differently, there really is not a huge difference in the 2 systems. Yes it's still true, PC's get more viruses. The above writers comments are pretty correct. Even though I just built this wicked fast system, my cost $2200, saving files from RAW to jpeg is sadly crippled to the slow hard drive speed of 7200 RPM's. The good news is there is serious research about hard drives becoming solid state; no more spinning drives, just like a compact flash card is. So when this happens speeds will surely begin to blast off. So when hard drives do become solid state both Macs and PC's will continue to be neck and neck. Which one is better? Who knows but for us photographers, I feel it is a must to use a 64 bit operating system to equal the fine graphics of the Mac's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted April 6, 2007 Author Share Posted April 6, 2007 FOUND IT! I had a MASS-MAILING WORM and NORTON DIDN'T FIND IT! A lesson for us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_saunders Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 It's always best to run two types of scanner- although having two AV apps installed at once can cause BIG problems. Our business PCs come with Norton, we uninstall this and use McAfee Virusscan Enterprise instead. For home use I use this plus NAI's Stinger (Google it) which is free and can be run without installation. Although this one doesn't purport to find everything, between them they do a good job. For spyware (another cause of speed issues) I use Ad-Aware (free) and A.N.Other such as Spybot Search & Destroy. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefferson_todd_pals Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 Just a little tid-bit for those of you thinking about switching but frustrated because if your investment in Adobe software. Adobe will do a one time platform switch (pc to mac) for free (plus shipping of new discs). You will have to fax in a form that states that you won't use your previous version any longer though. But that's one less reason to hold back. And honestly it's not about how Photoshop runs on the mac. It's all about the software that comes with your Mac that can help your workflow. It's all of the little things that work together (vs. against each other) that really make the switching to Apple a great decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_hardy1 Posted April 6, 2007 Share Posted April 6, 2007 "FOUND IT! I had a MASS-MAILING WORM and NORTON DIDN'T FIND IT! A lesson for us all." What antivirus program did you use to find the worm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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