Why is Photoshop 6 so rubbish on Intel based macs?

[Richard Harrington]

Let me get this straight… you want software that first shipped in October 2000 to work on machines invented in the last 2 years.

Uh huh….

It’s called UPGRADE

But you are a bit SOL.. Adobe announced two years ago that you needed to have at least PS7 to upgrade to CS3

I suggest you call them and try to work soemthing out..

But the short answer… you can’t expect 8 year old software to work well (if at all) on the latest hardware and OS.

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork

[Michael Lansdell]

I’d love to upgrade, but I’m not about to spend my own money on software for the company I work at. Especially the way they pay me…

So, there’s no update for Photoshop 6 that will allow it to work correctly on an Intel mac? What about 7? I really don’t think they’re going to enjoy me saying that we need to buy a new copy of CS3. As much as I’d like it to play with.

Just to add to the ridiculous nature of it, After Effects 6.5 works fine, if there was an update for that which stopped it working on my computer so I could get the new version of that, that’d be great!

[Richard Harrington]

AE 6.5 does not run great…

You have multiple processors in your machine and unless you are running AECS3 you aren’t using any of them.

Brand new Intel Macs with 8 year old software is just stupid…

Sorry to be blunt..

I own a facility… software upgrades are part of the business… had they kep up on them… its abouyt $200 every two years for the app.

But like I said… You can’t upgrade 6 to 10… too big a jump. They can get on the phone and beg… but they sound pretty screwed up to me.

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork

[Michael Lansdell]

Well, I’m sure it could be quicker, but it doesn’t crash.

I completely agree with all the comments that it’s ridiculous, to have this spec machine:

2 x 3GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

5GB RAM

512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT

And run software so old I might as well on a base level G5…

So, no quick fixes, huh?
Like I said, the machine is new, but it pre-dates me working as online editor here.

Still, thank you.

If anyone does know of anything that may help, I’d be very grateful. I suspect that getting this sorted is all a pipe dream though.

[Darby Edelen]

[Michael Lansdell] “So, there’s no update for Photoshop 6 that will allow it to work correctly on an Intel mac? What about 7? I really don’t think they’re going to enjoy me saying that we need to buy a new copy of CS3. As much as I’d like it to play with. “

If your employers really care about your productivity they will bite the bullet and get you the latest versions of the software. Even updating from previous versions of PS to CS3 costs money (although less), so there’s no easy way out for the powers that be.

Your software is a PowerPC binary, it is not natively compatible with the Intel architecture of the latest Intel Macs. Apple included a binary emulator in the newest versions of OS X that will automatically emulate the PowerPC binaries in an Intel environment, but the cost is stability and speed… In the BEST case scenario your PowerPC programs are running at about 70% of their potential on an Intel Mac. In the worst case they will crash or not run at all. So the solution is get CS3 which is a Universal Binary (read: both PowerPC and Intel native) and will run natively on your Intel Mac. Until you do you’ll be suffering instability and poor performance… and that’s just the way it is.

All of this, of course, should’ve been researched/considered before any purchases were made.

Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA

[Adolf Witzeling]

I feel for you Michael ( I work in a relatively small business too where there is NEVER money to upgrade , and so far I have always somehow managed to just prove that it is worth to upgrade, by showing how it can improve the workflow). Let me just mention one app. that you really need to check out is Adobe Acrobat 7 or 8., especially in regard to automated work flow.
But Richard is right. There’s NO WAY for a work around.
Bite the dust and CONVINCE your boss how “nonsensy” it is to buy a brand new multi core computer and running old software. Are they aware of how much more productive you can be the way CS3 is build now…totally integrated…saves time….and….money.

How about downloading a trial version of CS3 and checking ou the new features, that are worth the upgrade. And I’m looking at it from both sides….the artistic……and the functionality side of CS3. I hope you can awake the common sense in your boss…give it your best shot.

If I wanted to be sarcastic I would say:”they are trying to run a Porsche by p…ing in the tank”

good luck!
Adi

[Jason Milligan]

it sounds like your employer’s IT or Operations department didn’t do their research. It was well-documented and publicized that when Apple switched to Intel, older software would be forced to run under Rosetta, essentially a Power PC emulator. You can not effectively run Power PC software on an Intel Mac. When AE CS3 came out, it was a godsend for my office because we were using AE 7 through Rosetta on Intel Macs. That upgrade made an enormous difference. My multiple crashes per day disappeared and everything ran much faster, sometimes ten times faster.