[X4U] Macpro processor choice

[Robert MacLeay]

When I made my own choice a month ago, I opted for the 2 GB solution, and it
turned out best for me.  My memory monitor currently shows me actively using
1.4 GB of RAM (with .515 of that allocated to Photoshop).  The remainder of
the memory is in use but "inactive," and the total VM is a whopping 13. GB
-- I also have ten major programs and a half dozen utilities runnning at the
same time... Safari is claiming 237 MB real/638 virtual(!) and the various
OS tasks total about 360 MB real.

As someone who uses Photoshop mostly for web work, I am hardly stressing the
system.  I will have several photos from a 6 MP digital camera open at once
while working on them as a set.  This is a far cry from someone retouching
drum scans for a magazine cover.

So what are your work habits?  Do you run one and only one program at a
time, or are you like me, constantly switching between Photoshop and a
couple of other productivity programs, with two email programs and three
browsers running in the background?  Not having enough RAM means waiting for
the system to swap memory between RAM and the hard disk every time you drop
out of Indesign/GoLive/Dreamweaver to fix another image in Photoshop. Not to
mention stopping to read all those wonderful offers I receive via email
every day...


On Mon, 4 Dec 2006 18:34:54 -0700, Jens Selvig <lstnmt at bresnan.net> wrote:
> I am about to order a new Mac and am wondering about whether I would
> be better served by getting 2 gigs of memory and the 2.0 GHz
> processor or alternatively getting 1 gig of memory and the 2.66 GHz
> processor.
> 
> I do a lot of photoshop work...