New Mac Pro, Quad-Core or 8-Core?

JL
Posted By
Jay_Light
Mar 4, 2009
Views
463
Replies
5
Status
Closed
I need to decide whether to purchase a Quad-core or 8-core new Mac Pro. Using the computer for commercial and fine art work, in Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2.0, and InDesign CS4. (No video.) Is there any advantage in the 8-core?
Related Tags
mac new pro

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

AR
alan_ruta
Mar 4, 2009
I would thing the more processors the better.

Its not maxiumum addressable ram issue as with 64-bit vs 32-bit. The OS should be able to process more and faster with more processors.

alan
P
PShock
Mar 4, 2009
Photoshop probably won’t benefit much from twice the cores – but they will help when running multiple apps simultaneously. I have a first generation Mac Pro 2.66 and am (still) perfectly happy with the performance.

About the only app in your list that would probably benefit is Lightroom (or ACR), when processing RAW files. My four cores are fairly pegged when processing files from a 1Ds MK II.
J
JimGoshorn
Mar 4, 2009
Another thing to keep in mind is that with the Quad core model you are limited to 8gb RAM whereas with the dual quad system you can go up to 32gb.
AW
Allen_Wicks
Mar 4, 2009
Buying a 2009 tower limited to 8 GB RAM would be a very poor investment. The 8-core or an older MP are the only good tower choices.
DS
David_Sherrill
Mar 10, 2009
8 cores might not be any faster than 4 cores. Remember that the processor’s access to main memory poses a major bottleneck for many operations. The link below provides a nice explanation, even though it is 2 years old and targeted to CS3.

< http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2006/12/photoshop_and_multicore .html>

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections