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Apple admits that some Intel apps are slow

Metrogirl

By Metrogirl

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In today's Information Week podcast here Johanna Ambrosio says that Apple's CFO reports more than 1,000 applications have been ported to the Intel platform but admits that some key applications are 'experiencing performance challenges'. Photoshop is mentioned by name. Translating his politically correct statement ("... users may or may not find that acceptable") into real language suggests that Photoshop users are not exactly thrilled by the transition to date.

 

In a related story in the same podcast a "Hack my Mac" contest ended with the Mac Mini (didn't say whether PPC or Intel) unscathed.

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guilliamo

guilliamo 0

Posted

Well...there IS good news in the pace of porting. Apple has to keep pushing Intel-based Macs out because many are waiting to buy, and some of us won't buy until Rev2 !

 

With respect to apps like Photoshop that may be confined to running in Rosetta for a year or so after release of the first Intel Macs, I suspect that if you make your living in Photoshop you already have a fast G5 and can easily wait for a Universal version before buying new hardware.

 

G

Mr. Bond

Mr. Bond 4

Posted

The problem is, I don't think the average Mac user realises the performance hit they'll have in Rosetta. When they see a Mac with Intel in it, their reaction is most likely "so what?". It still looks like a Mac, acts like a Mac, and according to Apple, there is essentially no difference. Unfortunately, there is a difference, and they don't seem to want to to make that point clear to users. I mean, they do state that everything that worked on your Mac before will still work now. What they don't clearly state, is that many programs that previously ran on your "old" mac, won't run as hot on your "new" mac. Don't get me wrong...most software runs reasonably well in Rosetta. But it's high-end programs that take the biggest performance, and it seems that Apple doesn't communicate this point well enough. It really is misleading, when people glance at the Benchmarks, and say "Wow...the Intel Macs are 4x faster than new macs!". Some people may believe that apps like Photoshop will get this performance boost as well, when really, it's only Native apps that benefit from this.

suleiman

suleiman 0

Posted

Bond, I agree with you generally, but on the whole I have to take Apple's side on this one. Jobs went on the air at the MacWorld Conference this January and ran a demonstaration for people to see what the Photoshop experience would be like, and that video was on Apple's frontpage for weeks prior.

 

I'm also siding with Apple because I think they're between a rock and a hard place on this one. On the one hand they've got hardware in their new machines that in most respects is definitely much faster than its predecessors. On the other hand there's a handful of, as you pointed out, high-end applications that don't run as well and may even run worse than the previous machines.

 

How do you advertise that? "4x Faster Except On Occassion"? To me this is where the real problem lies, and whilst I agree with you the vast majority of new intel mac owners don't have a clue why their Photoshop is running slower on their new machine, the people that really need to know the specific performance of those specific apps should really have enough consumer savvy to go lookup a few reviews, google a few benchmarks, and drop by a few forums (present company included)

 

Just my two cents!


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