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Archive 2013 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?

  
 
CreativeStudio
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


1. All civil opinions welcome. I don't want to start a scuffle here...
2. I am considering moving my LR4 and PS6 to the Mac. However, I remain undecided. I have a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor, so maybe a used Mac Pro? or a mid-2011 iMac?
3. I am currently using a Dell Precision Workstation PC - Xeon processors, 12 GB ram. Even with a Samsung SSD boot disk, it seems LR4 is sluggish - and yes, I've deleted the preferences file, etc. These things help incrementally, then it gets lackluster again.
4. Some say the Mac is more efficient and will outperform an equivalent spec PC. Is this true?

I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who made this move. Would you do it again? What benefits have you found? What drawbacks?

I have noticed that many of the training/tutorial stuff out there is done on macs. Maybe that's because they once held an edge they no longer do, but have built a brand loyalty. I like the simplistic layout and user interface, from what I have seen of it.

It would also be interesting to hear if anyone has moved from Mac to PC - maybe that would scratch the itch for me.

All right, what are your thoughts?

Gerald



Feb 14, 2013 at 09:31 PM
gpchase
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


You don't say which processor you're using but I doubt you'll be overly impressed. I run a MacPro loaded with ram and ssd's (3) in raid0 for applications with a quad core...
if your pc is healthy and properly configured (of which I suspect) as I say I doubt you'll gain anything substantial speed wise. You may consider touching up your ram and possibly adding another ssd in raid depending on your sata speed.Also maybe a fresh install may help and you don't say but a faster file storage drive ?
Could you provide a bench speed test of your system ? (64 bit I trust)..



Feb 14, 2013 at 09:44 PM
CreativeStudio
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


Yes, 64 bit of course. Bench speed test - let's do it. Can I download a program to do this?


Feb 14, 2013 at 09:51 PM
gpchase
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


try geekbench..


Feb 14, 2013 at 09:54 PM
CreativeStudio
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


I ran geekbench - score is 8073 - however, running in 32 bit tryout mode. I guess that works for a point of comparison.


Feb 14, 2013 at 10:46 PM
gpchase
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


Nah ya gotta run it in 64 for true performance


Feb 14, 2013 at 10:50 PM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


CreativeStudio wrote:
1. All civil opinions welcome. I don't want to start a scuffle here...
2. I am considering moving my LR4 and PS6 to the Mac. However, I remain undecided. I have a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor, so maybe a used Mac Pro? or a mid-2011 iMac?
3. I am currently using a Dell Precision Workstation PC - Xeon processors, 12 GB ram. Even with a Samsung SSD boot disk, it seems LR4 is sluggish - and yes, I've deleted the preferences file, etc. These things help incrementally, then it gets lackluster again.
4. Some say the Mac is more efficient and will outperform
...Show more


1) All opinions are civil. It's not until one person starts challenging the opinions of another that things get messy. If everyone gave their own opinions and considered the opinions of others without challenging them it would always be smooth sailing.

2) For sure a used MacPro over an iMac... For all the obvious reasons. You can more easily trick out the hardware, expand, and etc. iMac seems so closed off to customization.

3) LR just has problems - it doesn't matter what platform. If your main goal is obtaining a speed-up in LR-like image editing then just switch applications. 12GB is a little small for ultimate speed - 16 or 24 would be better if you can swing it. What speed and model are those Xeons?

4) For what? Windows 7 will be faster and some things and OS X 10.7.5 will be faster at other things - given the same hardware spec. I guess we can say the same things about Win8 and OS X 10.8.x. For LR... hmmm, I dunno, I would guess that without tuning the systems they're both about the same. A lot of OS X is based on unix/linux and is more tunable to various types of application execution than Windows. Of course learning how to do this and what things affect what will take a bit of on-line research because OS X (like Windows) doesn't come with a manual which outlines how to tune your OS for specific tasks. So for these topics community support matters quite a lot. For OS X you'll find a wealth of system tuning advice which stresses OS customization and using the given facilities. For Windows PCs I mostly see infos about hardware upgrades and not much meaningful info about how to tune or use the OS optimally. The logical organization of OS X is much simpler and more sensical so it's much easier for an end user to learn and control - I suppose that's another critical factor given your stated concerns.

Etc.)
I didn't necessarily move from one to the other but I have and use both and I've maintained just about every kind of system commonly available: Solaris, IRIX, Next, DEC/unix, OSWarp, OS2, OS9, AmigaOS, MacOS, Windows, Linux, Human68k, DOS, CP/M, TOS/GEM, GEOS, Pos, BeOS, and so on.

Would you do it again?:
Sure...
What benefits have you found?:
Simpler easier to learn, use, upkeep, and optimize OS X. It's also more stable than Windows in many circumstances.
What drawbacks?:
Developer support. There are still a few applications not available on OS X which are available on Windows. And I mean industry leading apps which are extremely well suited to their respective tasks and often extremely expensive too.

"I have noticed that many of the training/tutorial stuff out there is done on macs. Maybe that's because they once held an edge they no longer do, but have built a brand loyalty. I like the simplistic layout and user interface, from what I have seen of it.":
I think when after easily assembled multi-media presentations Mac still has a considerable lead over Windows so that's probably why you still see this. Remember, part of "easy" means you don't have to go out and research different 3rd party applications, and whatever you make can interact or interface with a host of other system/subsystems components. A simple user-ish example of this would be dragging and dropping a video from an OS X's quicktime application (like the player) into OS X's text editor or Mail. Of course the examples are multitudinous and I'm not even sure that one is exclusive but interprocess communications on OS X is generally more robust.

"It would also be interesting to hear if anyone has moved from Mac to PC - maybe that would scratch the itch for me.
All right, what are your thoughts?
"
It sounds to me like you should get a used 2008 or 2010 used MacPro and use the heck out of it for three to six months and then draw your own conclusions. It kinda sounds like you're not even sure WHY you're considering this - only that you hate the performance of LR4. There's nothing wrong with that IMO but it makes discussions like this one a little more difficult as there are fewer specific points to focus on and maybe too many general ones. So if you really want to know what to do before just doing it then maybe some more specific goals would be nice to define for yourself. My advice is always just to try it and see - then you'll know for yourself and of course it's a lot of fun learning.



Edited on Feb 14, 2013 at 11:50 PM · View previous versions



Feb 14, 2013 at 11:40 PM
abqnmusa
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


I switched from PC (win 7) to 2010 Mac Pro XEON 4 core
I use the 27" LED Cinema display (IPS).
The 2011 Imac would likely make a nice system.

I like the Mac OS (OSX) better and has given me reliability Windows could not match.

You can get Adobe to transfer your CS6 license from PC to Mac for a small shipment fee. You sign an agreement to stop using the PC version and they ship you a Mac disc and license. Signup on the Adobe website with your Adobe ID.




Feb 14, 2013 at 11:45 PM
WAYCOOL
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


OSX and Windows 7 run about the same on simialer hardware a old mac will not run any better than a old PC. Just as many people on OSX complain about Lightroom performance as do PC users. I don't think a OS change is going to do you any good other than a clean install of your programs. I boot both OSs' on my pc and they both run Lightroom very fast of course I get Geekbench 64 bit score around 17000.


Feb 14, 2013 at 11:49 PM
gpchase
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


If you wanna really step outta the box build yourself a hackinstosh and run either os


Feb 14, 2013 at 11:54 PM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


Waycool,
An old Mac Pro (2008 for example) performs like a desktop PC from 2011. So there is like a 4 year performance equalizer here. The Geekbench 64 score on my 2006 MacPro for example is near 12000 which if you know Geekbench is very close to your score. Current MacPro 5,1 scores are up past 40000. And a few of the current killer DIY systems are hitting 60000 - mostly Xeon E7- 4870 systems running 64bit Linux.

gpchase,
You can run either OS on a MacPro or a roll-your-own PC. So it's either way there....



Feb 14, 2013 at 11:55 PM
morganb4
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


N O T H I N G Y O U W I L L D O W I L L M A K E L I G H T R O O M P E R F O R M B E T T E R


Feb 15, 2013 at 12:58 AM
WAYCOOL
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


Depends on which apps and if they are multithreaded and how many cores. A current i7 or a 3930K(6 core sandy bridge) chip especially if overclocked will run circles around your MacPro running Photoshop and to deny this is apple fanboy nonsense. As far as geekbench is concerned the more cores you throw at it the higher the score so for most apps it doesn't mean much, that being said 12000 is not near 17000 more than 25% slower and if your mac pro is one of the overpriced 8 or 12 core versions real world apps would be even slower than that 25%. Maybe come September a $4000+ haswell powered MacPro will be released and bring them up to date and competitive again. Until then the Hackintosh community will keep growing to fill the need for up to date hardware for the OSX users.

Current MacPros are closer to 26000 with 12 cores, I know you apple men like to lie and exaggerate.



Feb 15, 2013 at 01:14 AM
15Bit
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


What do you gain? Why do you *really* want to change? Honestly answer these questions to yourself before you move.

Ultimately the arguments here are just a game of swings and roundabouts. Bifurcator makes a good point about getting older multi-socket hardware, but you could do the same for a PC system - dual socket workstations are not hard to find on ebay. Waycool is also probably correct that an overclocked i7-3930K is going to be pretty close in performance for many applications and faster in some too. The bottom line here is that because both systems use the same Intel hardware there will be little difference in performance between equivalent systems.

To me, buying Apple means sacrificing hardware flexibility and upgradability in favour of a different OS and more stylish hardware. In part compensation for your flexibility loss, the hardware tends to hold more value on the used market. You also become part of the Apple software ecosystem, which you can view either positively or negatively.



Feb 15, 2013 at 01:44 AM
Michaelparris
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


I switched about a year and a half ago, my conclusion? Both systems are the same....but different.


Feb 15, 2013 at 02:11 AM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


WAYCOOL wrote:
I know you apple men like to lie and exaggerate.


You're probably just sore cuz your geekbench score sucks ass but just to clarify: Im not an "apple man" whatever that is, and I doubt apple users lie any more or less than windoze users. Really, what a retarded thing to say...




Feb 15, 2013 at 02:33 AM
15Bit
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


Are we actually having a "my computer is bigger than yours" argument here? Then for what little it is worth, when i need serious CPU processing i can get access to a 467Tflop 22k core Xeon cluster. I don't know what the geekbench score for that is, before you ask...




Feb 15, 2013 at 02:50 AM
gabimaster
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


CreativeStudio,did you did a test of Win 8 Pro 64 bit vs Mac OS ? Do that and you'll see you have no reason to do that, you better use your money to buy some lenses !!!


Feb 15, 2013 at 02:59 AM
morganb4
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


15Bit wrote:
Are we actually having a "my computer is bigger than yours" argument here? Then for what little it is worth, when i need serious CPU processing i can get access to a 467Tflop 22k core Xeon cluster. I don't know what the geekbench score for that is, before you ask...



Love to see how it handles the noise slider bug!

Anyway, it was easy. I would do it again. I saw a good improvement in stability and performance, especially with the fluidity and snapiness of the OS.

There are a few little gotchas that you need to watch out for. I still use windows for some things.



Feb 15, 2013 at 05:20 AM
aubsxc
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · PC to Mac - your thoughts?


CreativeStudio wrote:
1. All civil opinions welcome. I don't want to start a scuffle here...
2. I am considering moving my LR4 and PS6 to the Mac. However, I remain undecided. I have a Dell Ultrasharp 24" monitor, so maybe a used Mac Pro? or a mid-2011 iMac?
3. I am currently using a Dell Precision Workstation PC - Xeon processors, 12 GB ram. Even with a Samsung SSD boot disk, it seems LR4 is sluggish - and yes, I've deleted the preferences file, etc. These things help incrementally, then it gets lackluster again.
4. Some say the Mac is more efficient and will outperform
...Show more


3. LR4 is poorly coded, and will run sluggish when using certain functions no matter what the platform. There is very nice thread in these forums that discusses LR4 performance issue and you want to read through that.


4. Modern Apple computers and PCs use the same core hardware, namely, processors, memory, GPU, and storage. An Apple computer and a PC using the same hardware will perform very similarly. An i7 2600K running at 3.4 GHz will provide the same number of flops and DDR3 ram running at the same speed and timings will provide about the same memory bandwidth on both systems. CPU architechture and clock speed along with ram speed and timings have a significant impact on LR4 performance. The advantage of buying a custom built PC (over the equivalent Apple machine) is that the PC can be overclocked easily to provide a 30 to 40% performance increase over stock, which will not be possible on the Apple. Also, the PC will be somewhat to significantly cheaper, and offers you much more room to customize the system to your specific needs.



Feb 15, 2013 at 11:51 AM
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