Apples to Apples II: Dualies and Droolies
Page 3 of 4

2D design applications
Now, in the category of design applications, we test two programs that exhibit almost no understanding of multiple processors at at: Photoshop and Illustrator. And although Photoshop is almost always held up as the standard bearer of performance on the Mac, it does have some performance problems with OS X 10.2, particularly on my upgraded dual 1 GHz machine. Until these issues are resolved, I'm not comfortable providing benchmark figures for that particular configuration. I do have numbers for the new systems running 10.2 and the old systems running 10.1.4. [an error occurred while processing this directive] The Photoshop benchmarks include six tests, measuring a wide variety of filters and functions strung together as action sequences. They went as follows:

  • Test 1: Resize image 200 percent, Gaussian Blur, Craquelure, Emboss, Sharpen More, Despeckle and Ink Outlines.
  • Test 2: I converted the background to a layer, applied bevel and emboss and satin, rotated the canvas 360 degrees in 90 degree increments and then performed a horizontal and vertical flip of the layer.
  • Test 3: I resized the image 1,000 percent and then rotated the layer 180 degrees twice and flipped it horizontally and vertically.
  • Test 4: Converting the background to a layer, resizing the canvas 500 percent, rotations and flips as in the previous test, scaling the layer 64.7 percent and then trimming the layer.
  • Test 5: I resized the image 500 percent and then applied the following filters: Ink Outlines, Glowing Edges, Tiles, Bas Relief, Lighting Effects, Difference Clouds, Mosaic, Pinch, Colored Pencil, Gaussian Blur and Curves.
  • Test 6: Effects, transformations, text manipulation and adjustments: Convert background to layer; resize image 500 percent; apply Inner Glow; apply Gradient Overlay; make four different adjustment layers (Curves, Gradient Map, Selective Color and Color Balance); make text; set antialias; warp text (arc); warp text (flag); rasterize text; set selection; duplicate; scale 411 percent; save alpha; select inverse; and fill with solid color.


Photoshop 7 Tests
(All results listed in seconds.)
Dual 1.25 GHz
Dual 1 GHz
Dual 867 MHz

Dual 1 GHz
Old Model Running OS X 10.2
Dual 1 GHz
Old Model Running OS X 10.1.4
Single 933 MHz
Test 1
6.5
8
10
NA
8
9
Test 2
2
2
3.5
NA
2.5
3
Test 3
5.5
7
10
NA
5
5
Test 4
4
5
7
NA
6.5
7
Test 5
61
75
95
NA
75
88
Test 6
6
7
9.5
NA
9
10
Totals
85
104
135
NA
106
112


Adobe Illustrator 10 was much of the same: a lack of support for multiple processors and not too much of a performance benefit from Mac OS X 10.2. For Illustrator, I ran three tests, all of them processor-intensive and some memory-intensive. But despite the improved system bus and memory architecture of the new Mac systems, the old 933 MHz G4 managed to outperform the low-end dual 867 MHz G4 simply owing to the multiple processor issue. The tests went as follows:

  • Test 1: I created a rectangle and applied a style to it. It then repeatedly copied, pasted and grouped the rectangles, for a total of 120 polygons. I then applied a drop shadow to half of the rectangles, selected all and cleared the document.
  • Test 2: I created a star and then cycled through five styles, rotated the star, reflected it, roughened its edges, applied Pen & Ink, twisted 45 degrees and cleared the document.
  • Test 3: I began with text; changed its color; scaled it; created outlines; applied a zig zag, drop shadow and shear; copied and pasted it in back of the original, changed the color, rasterized both, pasted again and then cleared the document.


Illustrator 10 Tests
(All results listed in seconds.)
Dual 1.25 GHz
Dual 1 GHz
Dual 867 MHz

Dual 1 GHz
Old Model Running OS X 10.2
Dual 1 GHz
Old Model Running OS X 10.1.4
Single 933 MHz
Test 1
32
40
46
42
42
43
Test 2
12
14
18
16
17
17
Test 3
47
56
67
57
58
61
Totals
91
110
131
115
117
121




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