Adobe CS and ibook question

Turns out i'm getting an ibook soon, as soon as they are updated. But my question is (among many others for a different time) when Adobe Photoshop CS says it needs 300 and something mb of ram to work, does that mean that it will be unbearably slow during use? I use it on my 512mb PC sometimes and for the most part its pretty good, though the load time is a little on the HORRIBLE side. Does anyone know from personal expirience if this is going to be enough ram (512mb) or should i just bite the bullet and go for the 1.25gb of ram right away (this means no software purchases for a looooong time) I already have photoshop though so i dont need to worry about buying that.
My photoshopping is mostly light to medium. This ibook is for my next 3 years of highschool so eventually it'll get upgraded but i need (want) to use photoshop as soon as i get it.

Thanks for reading this and taking time to answer i love you guys!

The more RAM the better.... for sure...

But I have used a 1.2Ghz iBook with only 256mb of RAM for a 28" x 22" 300DPI print piece and it handled it really quite well. So even without the extra RAM it is bearable... the question is whether or not you want it to be enjoyable. In which case... I say... Bite the bullet.... Grab a Gig stick for it... just buy it 3rd party to save some cash.

agreed get the extra ram and buy it third party... crucial.com

I have Photoshop CS on my iBook 256mb ram and it runs actually really well at times. As long as your are not running much then it is fast. Once I have the time to make my site, I can show you all of them. :black:

I run Adobe Photoshop CS on my 256MB Ibook aswell and mine seems to run just fine. I dont find it pretty fast

same here...it runs just fine...although i dont have 256 anymore i upgraded to 1.25 a long time ago

i say upgrade the ram bc they were running CS fine with 256, but what if you have other applications open, as you probably will to access photos and things like that

I have a 1.33ghx ibook with 768 RAM

I run Adobe CS, Dreamweaver MX, mail, firefox, safari, IE, Transmit, Preview at the same time. It works fine.

Granted, sometimes to switch windows, it takes an extra fraction of a second (or takes a little while to apply filters in Photoshop, or open/save large files)...it's noticeable to me coz I know my computer. To other users, it wont be noticeable (the apply filters and open/save files is noticeable to everyone though...very noticeable).

Me likey el-iBook

On my new ibook, I have just 256 right now, I run photoshop CS2 trial, dreamweaver, flash, and a few others with no problem. However i have Creative Suite 2 and it will not install unless i put more ram in.

I have a question myself: I was thinking of buying more RAM for my iBook (see Mac Specs) and I was wondering how easy it is to install? I think I am gonna upgade from 256mb to 512mb.

doomzmaster said:

Turns out i'm getting an ibook soon, as soon as they are updated. But my question is (among many others for a different time) when Adobe Photoshop CS says it needs 300 and something mb of ram to work, does that mean that it will be unbearably slow during use? I use it on my 512mb PC sometimes and for the most part its pretty good, though the load time is a little on the HORRIBLE side. Does anyone know from personal expirience if this is going to be enough ram (512mb) or should i just bite the bullet and go for the 1.25gb of ram right away (this means no software purchases for a looooong time) I already have photoshop though so i dont need to worry about buying that.
My photoshopping is mostly light to medium. This ibook is for my next 3 years of highschool so eventually it'll get upgraded but i need (want) to use photoshop as soon as i get it.

Thanks for reading this and taking time to answer i love you guys!

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I run Quark 6.5, Creative Suite 2 (Premium), Premiere 6.5, AE6, Dreamweaver & Flash MX, Blender, FCP4 on 1.256 GB RAM. All this stuff runs better on the Dual G5 but non-the-less, I have no real problems other than it's a significantly slower with rendering in my motion graphics programs and doing video editing. As far as Photoshop though I find it is very fast. I put my gig in right when my ibook arrived so I really couldn't tell you how much faster it is compared to 256. Keep in mind though that even with my RAM maxed out I work the heck out of this book so it does heat up quite a bit. I noticed this after jumping from PS7 to CS to CS2. CS & CS2 versions suck the life out of mine. That said, I would definately recommend the gig stick. You will definately see the difference versus PC versions no matter how much RAM is in there, you will be amazed.

sursuciofla said:

I run Quark 6.5, Creative Suite 2 (Premium), Premiere 6.5, AE6, Dreamweaver & Flash MX, Blender, FCP4 on 1.256 GB RAM. All this stuff runs better on the Dual G5 but non-the-less, I have no real problems other than it's a significantly slower with rendering in my motion graphics programs and doing video editing. As far as Photoshop though I find it is very fast. I put my gig in right when my ibook arrived so I really couldn't tell you how much faster it is compared to 256. Keep in mind though that even with my RAM maxed out I work the heck out of this book so it does heat up quite a bit. I noticed this after jumping from PS7 to CS to CS2. CS & CS2 versions suck the life out of mine. That said, I would definately recommend the gig stick. You will definately see the difference versus PC versions no matter how much RAM is in there, you will be amazed.

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You mentioned a few things about Photoshop that interest me. Is CS2 that much worse than 7 on the iBook (making it heat up and such)? I have 7 on PC and I was thinking of upgrading to CS2 on my iBook. And if I read correctly you mention that photoshop handles better on a mac. How much better?

Mac N00b said:

You mentioned a few things about Photoshop that interest me. Is CS2 that much worse than 7 on the iBook (making it heat up and such)? I have 7 on PC and I was thinking of upgrading to CS2 on my iBook. And if I read correctly you mention that photoshop handles better on a mac. How much better?

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It's not bad, although I have heard others say they prefer 7 for unknown reasons, but I like it just the same. As far as heating goes though yes I have experienced much more heat than when I used 7. I honestly don't know if it's the program or the Adobe Bridge or Version Cue that does it but ever since I got the Suite it heats up before I even start doing hardcore work. All-in-all I would say I love the Suite and prefer not to sit my laptop on my lap plus I have Targus lapdesk so it doesn't bother me even if I do it every once in a while.

To answer your last question, on the PC when you are saving work with many layers or if you have used quite a few filters then lag time is like a couple of minutes sometimes if not more, sometimes less but very rare in my experience. On the PC it also takes forever to even load up the program. On my Mac I noticed right away, I could have many layers or use quite a few filters and lag time was only a few seconds, sometimes 8-10 depending on what I was working on, but that's very rare I have to wait that long. The program as a whole is just faster on the Mac. It is tough for me to put numbers on things but man you will definately notice why the Mac slaps the PC silly when using Adobe and other design programs. All I can say is that in the PC world of design things move a lot slower than in the Mac world of design. From my experience anyways, and I am sure many people in the forum who regularly use both can vouch for me on that.