I just got my hands on the third incarnation of Adobe’s Creative Suit, and as all of us Intel Mac users know, this finally means that we can work in Photoshop without having to emulate it through Rosetta. This is because the program is in Universal Binary, and even though I have no clue what that means (I do know that it has something to do with the difference between the Power PC and Intel processor architecture though), I decided to do a small test to compare the start-up times of Photshop CS2 and CS3.
I even went as far as to record them with my camera, so if you want to see the comparison, just click the read more link.
The specifications of my MacBook aren’t all that. 1,83 GHz Intel Core Du with 1GB DDR2 SDRAM. I wasn’t sure what I could expect to be honest, but the results were quite interesting to say the least.
Photoshop CS2
Photoshop CS3
As you can see, it took about 42 seconds to start Photoshop CS2 from when I initiated the start-up to it was fully loaded and ready to use. In comparison, it only took 16 seconds to load CS3! That’s more than twice as fast. Both were started under the exact same conditions, right after a reboot with no other programs opened.
I’m really happy about this improvement, and apart from that I’m also noticing that CS3 is a lot more responsive when I’m using it. This means that working with graphics just got a whole lot more convenient for me at least, and I’m sure other Mac-lovers will feel the same way. Now let’s just hope that Microsoft can come out with a UB version of the Office package, and everything will be good.
the reason for this is because cs2 runs in rosetta i think which means it has to start rosetta to be able to use it which means it is opening and running 2 apps at the same time, with cs3 it is now built for intel that is why the is a significant speed difference.
Hey Joe, yes I’m aware of that, as you can see from what I wrote.
” this finally means that we can work in Photoshop without having to emulate it through Rosetta. ”
yes great new advancement im running the primuim suite its great
I absolutely love CS3. Just the improvements to the GUI alone are enough to make me happy…down right giddy in fact. It’s so much more organized now. I’ve been using Photoshop since version 2.0 and this is probably the happiest I’ve ever been about an upgrade to it.
Now I can’t wait to sink my teeth into Illustrator CS3.
illustrator is fab wow its something else, also i like how they made flash and dreamweaver adobe (after buying Macromedia) its just brill
I’ve spent the last couple days diving into the new Illustrator and it’s just fantastic! FINALLY there’s an eraser tool. That makes me so happy. When you draw cartoons in Illustrator it’s a pain without an eraser. Not anymore
CS2 starts up considerably faster on a G4/400mhz 1.2gb ram than it does on a MacBook 1.83ghz 1gb ram through Rosetta.
Interesting Bongo Bongo, that just goes to show how much of a difference running through emulation actually makes.
Hi, I am going to by a MacBook, but I am conserned about its performance. Is it enough running the Photoshop cs3 ? The MacBook with 2.00ghz and 2gb memory would be my choice. Is that setup enough ? =) thanks! (I couldn’t find a specific forum on this topic. )
Perttu: It depends on your use really. I as a hobby-designer have no problems running CS3 on my MacBook. You can see the startup times above, and there’s not much lagging at all (though I haven’t been working with images with hundreds of layers yet). And with a new MacBook today, which runs on a Core 2 Duo, and with 2GB RAM, I would assume the experience would be even more pleasing.
On a completely different note, Apple just gave the MacBook another upgrade today, so I would say that now’s a better time than any other to buy one
Thanks Lars-Christian! Really appreciate your answer and the speed of it =) I’m a hobby-photographer and I don’t play with hundreds of layers, so the performance should be enough. This was the last (and the only) thing which I was concerned. I’ll soon be a happy macbook owner ! =)
I am a pro designer and photographer who uses a MacBook 1.83 2GB ram - as my travel machine. I have no problems what so even wirking on multi-layered images up to 97MB files with 30+ layers. It can take it’s time saving, but that can be expected. I’m looking into CS3 with a new MacBookPro when Leopard comes standard.
Can’t wait.
Hi!
Just to add a information that could change a bit the perception of the performance difference…
I was in Toronto during a event where Adobe staff where presenting CS3 (mostly for flash).
A big reason why CS3 (photoshop specially) have better starting time is because they have change the loading routines… instead of loading all the stuff from the start, they just load what is needed and then load the other modules when they are called for the first time… So the first time you are using some function, they are a little bit slower (because of initialisation time) and then run full speed…
Hi,
I am really new to this photoshop thing but I love it! CS3 just blows away the competition. And it runs great on my (please do not laugh) Vista Ultimate machine with a 3.0 GHz processor and 1.5 GB of Ram. But seriously people would expect it to be slow on my specs but IT is quite FAST! Yeah I know I do not use 30+ layers but I use big resolutions and mostly 32 bit images. So I am glad that I have photoshop CS3 and CS4