Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: New PC recommendations needed for graphic-intensive programs

You cannot get a better bang for your buck than the Hanns-G Full HD 1080p monitor.

I used both and went to Mac because rendering playback. PC was always choppy and slow, and couldn't solve the problem of programs kept loading on tool bar in use on toolbar. Claiming that I am using them when I wasn't, even when I closed them. I tried all the reccomended fixes.
I chose Mac because I have less problems all around. Both have problems upgraded operating systems with old software. So if you already have to buy new software then why not go Mac?

Because all the major players in graphics write their programs for Windows first because that it where the business is.

Don`t get me wrong, I`m not Mac or Linux bashing. I`m referring to the market shares between all of the OS`s out there. With Windows being the predominate OS, it seems to always get the "First Crack" when a new piece of heavy duty software arrives.

Any OS can run efficiently written software and any software can run on an efficiently maintained computer. Neglect in code writing and maintenance knows no boundry.

You don't actually believe what you just said, do you ??

Anyway, I'm not going where you wnat it to head to. Enjoy yourself.

I have used Photoshop and Illustrator since version 2 came out so have some experience, actually making a living mostly from Photoshop.

There are two companies I am a big fan of, because they have devoted years of R&D to making my work easier, Adobe and Apple.

Earlier in the thread the PC "market share" was put forth as a reason for doing graphics on a PC. The one field where PCs have never matched the Mac's market share is the Graphics industry! All of the ad agencies I've worked at/visited were Mac based with maybe a few PCs to run accounting programs. The last agency I was at with maybe seventy Macs, the IT guy spent most of his time working on the 3 PCs and everyone loathed working on them.

I have worked in non graphics oriented companies where PCs were the rule and I was surprised how few people were really proficient on them even after being sent on numerous training courses. The word intuitive really does translate into dollars and cents. Did you know that Microsoft used to use Macs for its advertising?

Enough of that. Let's talk money. Illustrator has never made much of a demand on my computer. Maybe there are processes I don't use that would hit the processor harder, but in a pixels vs. bezier competition, bezier is way ahead, just look at the file size for a clue. I have had Photoshop poster files reach a couple of gigabytes where an equally large Illustrator file might be a couple of megs so I think if you get a setup designed for Photoshop, the other software will be well taken care of.

Since time is money, moments where I wait for my computer to catch up are big irritations and I think they relate to three computer parts, RAM, processor and hard drive.

Starting with the last, opening large files can be a sit and wait, and Photoshop loves writing/reading temporary files as you go so the faster the drive system, the better. Macs used to have faster SCSI drives compared to the PCs and that was one of the reasons they cost more; now it looks like SATA drives or a good RAID system is the way to go.

When I do a gaussian blur or use the smudge tool with a huge brush size you can sit while you watch the blocks of pixels being rendered one after another till you reach the bottom right corner of the image. This is probably a combination of processor and RAM. I'm told that many new graphics programs are shifting processing from the CPU to the graphics card so while people usually say a high end video card is more for gaming and 3D, I'd recommend putting money there. You don't want to wait when you're turning an effect on and off to see the difference.

I'm enough of a techno geek to know how a longer processor pipeline with "Complicated Instruction Set Computing" is slower even with faster processors than RISC and short pipelines, I haven't had to learn that stuff as a Mac user. I've just concentrated on the magic of Photoshop. I was pleasantly shocked to find my new MacPro has eight processors as standard equipment, that it can access more RAM than I can afford for a while, that I can just slide in a new hard drive and it's so quite I don't know if it's on unless I'm looking at the screen, but when Apple and Adobe have been working hand in hand to make software and hardware play nice together, I shouldn't have been so surprised.

i see your point: windows are good for kids who like to play games. Mac is for productive power users

for a little kid who plays games, you seem to be very angry... relax and go see a psychologist, LOL

...tell the truth, you never even touched a Mac

Seriously, you mac people think because you overpay for a computer, a mac, that its better at running programs, I say bullcrap! Apple uses the same parts that can go into a pc. Except they make their own motherboards and cases. The difference is that apple does the assembly and ups the price tenfold! You could build a pc with the same hardware as in a mac for a quarter to half the cost! That is an incredible savings! Also you get to actually use a library of million plus applications and games. With a mac, you are limited to what apple allowed to be developed for their system(but not before they take a cut of the money) Apple is a lying two-faced company, that specializes in fooling the average non-tech person into thinking they are superior, while taking their money.

The fact is you can do anything on a pc you can on the mac, you can't do everything you do on a pc on a mac, because mac is a closed system. There is a lot of programs that aren't on macs. And if you are a gamer, apple has a tiny library of games, mostly 5+ year old titles. You are also limited to hardware that mac allows, so upgrading is very hard, they would rather you ditch the machine and pony up the cash for a whole new system, while on a pc you can upgrade old parts for new and save a lot of money! Graphic programs don't work better on the mac. Maybe they loaded faster when mac used power pc's but who knows, that is not the case today, as both machines use the same parts...they both do a good job. Don't buy into apples horrible tv marketing. If you do, you must be very gulable and buy into anything you see on tv.

For gaming apple sucks there are 10000's of games on windows pcs, not to mention content creation and programing, your options are limitless on a pc and you can use 3ds max, all the adobe products, visual studio and every other content creation product out there. Mac limits what they want you to buy. You are also limited in what you are allowed to access on the platform in terms of programing, apple is stingy with everything and wants to keep it a closed system so they can rob people of hard earned money. The last good apple system was from the era when Wozniak was still on board and that computer was the apple II series, ever since the Macintosh, its been run by Jobs who is not a tech person, but a marketing person, and hence the super closed system, and lack of content. All so they have complete control. Its ironic as that was what they criticized IBM for doing in the early 80's...Look how things have changed.

If you had trouble with your pc, you probably bought a junky pc with low ram and integrated graphics, you can't say all pcs are bad because you don't know what you are doing or bought a crappy rig. Do some research, use your head and build it yourself or have a friend give you advice. Just buying a mac because you are brainwashed from advertising, is not being smart. And if you are going to buy a pc, please don't buy an overpriced dell!(they are almost as bad as mac for overcharging!) If you must buy a p rebuilt then at least get an HP, sony or acer if on a budget.

And Apple's OS is like a piece of swiss cheese. Nothing is perfect ! That's the unfortunante nature of the beast. At least Microsoft doesn't run silly TV ads that insult all with an IQ higher than their shoe size !

What an typical, defend-to-the-death useless response ! Guess I should not have expected much better. Take the blinders off Junior, no one has said that we should bow down and kiss the feet of XP or Vista in blind reverence. You're the only one kissing anything.

You keep going out of your way to prove my point about the shoe size and IQ comparison. Your immature rants and responses, totally ignoring the original question(s) asked, lack of any sense of deciency or respect towards anyone and mindless fanatism about something that is only a tool to be used to accomplish a task with, paints a pretty poor picture of yourself.

Your constant tirades are an insult to Mac users as well...but you obviously have not figured that out. At times I think of selling mine just so I can distance myself from your type. Grow up Junior. Untill you can show some objectivity and reality about the tools you are using and able to contribute in a positive manner, you do a disservice to all that use the forum.

My apologies to those within the forum for the utter waste in bandwith and web page resources that I have contributed to while lowering myself to other peoples' level by even bothering to reply to their off-the-question posts. Hopefully taking a shower will help to wash some of "that" off and I can, again, become a member of the human race.

Good night and pleasant dreams.

It's not that Mac people are on a high horse, so much as Windows users are on a slow one... with a broken leg... with some viral infection... It only seems high in comparison... All about the perspective my friend...

Word69Star is right Mac can't do everything Windows can do. You can't blue screen of death on a Mac... oh and you also can't get about 240,000 viruses either

To blame Windows for having problems on some systems is bogus. Windows will run on just about everything. My system has never had a problem running windows. Mac's claim to fame is that it designs the entire thing. On both my Brothers and my Sister's Mac, they have to run Windows to use certain programs. While on my Window machine, I can run any OS I want to. Not because I have to use a certain program, thats not compatible with windows, but just because I can. While Mac rules the roost for Video editing, at least IMO, that's about all it rules. The rest is ruled by the other OS's.

I sentence you to life in Vista... with no chance of support for 15 years.!

could not be put any simpler... I think even a Windows user could understand