williams | silverpeakarts.ca

The big debate these days is whether or not the new iMac with the Intel Core i7 can perform as a production machine.

Now I am not going to quote SPECfp or SPECint benchmark testing that indicates that the Mac Pro should handle complex tasks better – because it probably can – nor even refer to a recent MacWorld article that showed a significant bias toward the iMac but on simple single-threaded tasks.

Nope, I wanted a real world graphics test and so was privileged enough to get access to both an iMac and Mac Pro tower with CS4 for testing. I am posting these results specifically for the Graphic Artists out there who need to know how these computers will handle that really big PSD file they are working on.

We used a completely unscientific stopwatch (provided by my iPhone) and a couple of actual production files that have given us trouble due to their size and complexity. We ensured all other applications were closed and had both computers in the same room in the same networks.

Here are the results

iMac vs Mac Pro real world produciton environment tests. We loaded up these 2 computers with identical software and opened the same files hand-picked from our archives as being pain in the butt large files. Despite expert predictions of a sweep by the Mac Pro the GOLD MEDAL winner is the iMac.

Question: Why is the RAM config different?

We were advised that by installing 12 GB RAM in the tower in a specific configuration per core that it would perform better than if we installed 16 GB RAM. Again, this is not a technical article so I am not going to get into more detail. Suffice it to say the experts told us it would be no contest. They were wrong as far as CS4 was concerned.

Cost is another factor

Apple has out done themselves. The iMac while not significantly better in dealing with the Photoshop file, more than held its own with the Vector file. For me, dollar for dollar, the iMac i7 is my mid-level production machine of choice. If you have the budget and need super power you could spend more than double the cost of the iMac for the Tower alone (without monitor) before you see better results. The new towers purported to be coming out soon may change all this but for now we have what we have.

iMac Cost – Canadian Dollars $3,859

Mac Pro Tower Cost (as configured above in the chart) $4,180

Add a 24″ monitor to that = $5,179

That’s an extra $1,320 CAD for a comparable (and yes, more expandable) machine and a slightly smaller monitor. Not a huge difference but consider this: If you have 10 artists that’s $13,320 in savings and the iMacs would make useful admin machines when their production life is over – again, without having to shell out for more monitors for your admin staff if you decided to do the same with your towers.

The Mac Olympics are over and iMac wins hands down!

David

February 22nd, 2010 | Tags: benchmark, Compare, graphic artist, illustrator, iMac, is iMac faster than mac pro, Mac Pro, photoshop, Test, vector, vs | Category: graphic artist's resource, industry notes | Comments (1)

The news of this little freebie has been making the rounds so I thought I would share it here as well. Thus is the way of all things viral. More »

May 21st, 2008 | Tags: , book, download, free, photoshop, sitepoint | Category: graphic artist's resource, industry notes, photoshop | Leave a comment

You can use a displacement map to make a graphic follow every contour or corner of an underlying texture or shape, such as a flag or cloth. More »

May 20th, 2008 | Tags: adobe, channels, displacement map, fit logo to flag, how to, photoshop, RGB, tutorial, wavy, wrap texture | Category: graphic artist's resource, photoshop, tutorials | Comments (6)

I found a nice blog entry on zenfulcreations that suggested we all google our own content to ensure no one is using it unaccredited.

It seemed like a good idea, although I really didn’t expect to find anything. But I did. More »

May 15th, 2008 | Tags: CMYK, content theft, flightcheck, illustrator, indesign, markzware, photoshop, preflight, Production Artist, quark, RGB, Studio Manager | Category: graphic artist's resource, industry notes | Comments (5)

How to stop all the swearing when someone is away.

One of the biggest frustrations I’ve seen over the years crops up when an artist calls in sick and someone has to log onto their computer to continue their jobs… and cannot find files or linked images or the PSDs because of a folder structure (or lack of) which only the original artist can understand. More »

May 9th, 2008 | Tags: artist, client, creative, folder structure, graphic, illustrator, photoshop, production tips, psd | Category: graphic artist's resource, print production | Leave a comment

Note: This Photoshop® tip assumes a basic knowledge of photoshop. I have found that this time-saver has worked over the last 3 versions of Photoshop.

This TIP is one of my most used, and has saved me hours of computer time.

If you have to do the same thing to a great number of files use your ACTIONS palette to record the changes and then BATCH process either an entire folder of images the same way or just one at a time. Either way it’s a great time saver that I have used for watermarking, resizing, adding effects or whatever to large or small groups of images at the same time or – since the action is saved – at a later date. You can even export the actions to transfer to other computers. More »

January 9th, 2008 | Tags: actions, batch, palettes, photoshop, pixels, tips | Category: graphic artist's resource, photoshop, tutorials | Leave a comment

Doing colour correction on skintones can be problematic. Sure, you can adjust them until they look good on your monitor but they don’t print well. The problem is that your monitor may not be calibrated properly, you may be dealing with colour casts on the original photos, or you may simply lack target colours to adjust to. More »

January 2nd, 2008 | Tags: adjust, adobe, calibrate, CMYK, color, colour correction, curves, fleshtone, mid-tone, midtone, photoshop, RGB, skin, skintones, tone | Category: graphic artist's resource, photoshop, print production | Leave a comment