My copy of Adobe Creative Suite CS2 arrived last night (woohoo!), making me a very happy man. This morning, as I perused my feeds, I came across the great news (via John Nack, via JD on EP) that Apple’s release of the 10.4.8 system update includes significant improvements to Rosetta, the software that ensures older applications will continue to run on newer platforms (like my Intel-based notebook). These improvements, according to Macworld’s benchmarks, provide a 34% improvement for the CS2 suite on the MacBook Pro! The tests specifically relate to image manipulation, so that number actually matters. The same improvements had only a minor impact on non-graphics oriented applications like MS Word, which gained a tiny bump of 3%.
While this isn’t quite as good as Intel-native versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, et al, it is a much appreciated and unexpected improvement. Thanks Apple!
That’s awesome. I’ve honestly never noticed a terrible performance lag on my macbook. Somehow, I think given the raw performance of the macbook over my G4 mac mini it at least feels comparable. Honestly, I think CS and Office (bleh) are the only apps I have that aren’t Universal. Regardless, any push forward in performance is appreciated.
Yeah, I had the same experience when I tested the demos to ensure they’d work well. It didn’t feel slow, but now I can’t wait to try out the full versions to see the difference. Especially as I’m taking next week off with a plan of doing some major site design work!
I had the same experience too. I’m checking out the full versions as well. :)