Do I need to upgrade for CS4??

Hi all,

I am currently working on an iMac G5 with a 2.1 GHz PowerPC G5 processor, 2.5 GB of memory and am running Mac OS X 10.4.11 with a 300 GB hard drive.

I use CS2 (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) and find it's sluggish while trying to save files. I need to upgrade to CS4 and am not sure if I need the new iMac to run these programs. I've upgraded the memory already, but it didn't seem to improve much. Is the processor not efficient enough for these programs or is this a problem with memory? I usually have Illustrator and Photoshop open at the same time when I'm working. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

CS4 is going to run slower on that mac

You could try lowering the history and undo steps if you are comfortable with that, and make sure you have a fair amount of disk space on your hard drive

But if you regularly make complex photoshop files then it will be slow. Also. if you have illustrator files that you are not going to place in InDesign, untick Make PDF compatible file, they will save a whole lot quicker

CS4 should be fine, but then so should CS2. What have you tried to speed it up so far?

My Mac ignorance is going to shine through here

but the only thing about CS4 that I find jaw dropping is the new navigation and zooming that relies on something called GL which must be supported by your graphics card. I would want to be sure my graphics card could do the trick before I upgraded-- just my opinion. I have no idea about anything other than iMacs (and precious little about them) so I am not sure about your card.

Off tangent, I know, but thought you might like to know.

Thanks for everyone's help!

As for the GL, I'll have to do a bit of research on that. My graphics card is an ATI Radeon X600 XT, but can't be upgraded because I'm on an iMac G5 (that's my understanding anyhow...I'm not sure if anything can be upgraded other than memory).

I guess maybe I should hold off on purchasing CS4 and a new Mac until I can try the software on this computer. I guess nobody has tried CS4 yet as it was just released last week, although I know some companies have beta versions.

Any other suggestions/tips to speed my mac up?

Thanks again!

CS4 is optimized for intel where as CS2 is optimized for G5 Powerpcs.

It runs perfectly fine on my 2.4Ghz MB. >_>

what photoshop cs2?
i have it on my 2.4 and its a bit sluggish so im upgrading to cs3