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NewMavens
NewMavens
Inspiring
August 2, 2016
Question

Mac application performance is terrible!!!

  • August 2, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 252 views

I've recently decided to make the switch from Articulate to Captivate as my primary dev tool for a multitude of reasons, but primarily: 1) Native Mac application option, 2) Subscription pricing model, 3) More frequent product upgrades.

HOWEVER...I'm finding the performance of the native Mac version of Captivate is atrocious. I have an iMac with an i7 processor and 24 gigs of RAM yet working in Captivate feels like walking in quicksand. I honestly think running the Windows version of Captivate via a Parallels virtual machine on my Mac is more responsive than running the Mac native version (though it's still quite sluggish). Is it just me? If not, is Adobe working to rectify the situation?

I still have time to cancel my subscription without penalty and run back to the Articulate world if this will be the state of Captivate on the Mac going forward.

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    1 reply

    BDuckWorks
    BDuckWorks
    Inspiring
    August 4, 2016

    The first thing to consider, after RAM and Processor speed, is the hard drive vs network performance.

    If you're cache files OR source .cptx file is on a network, vs local hard drive, not only will your performance be slow, but you will eventually loose the file you are working on.

    Think about that for a moment, as it's not really easy to find out without experiencing it.

    This can, and will, happen silently, slowly, and (of course) only be apparent when you tell your customer just let me make one more change before the demo.

    BTW, You're posting to a user forum, and we're not paid to evangelize. Most of use are working in the tool on a daily basis and don't have time to tell you how wonderful it is, or pat you on the back for making the decision to switch.

    There are LOTS of details here in the forums, and you're welcome to spend weeks or months using trial and error techniques others have attempted.

    If you are serious about turning from 'try it and decide,' to 'make it my primary dev tool,' do yourself and everyone here a big favor by taking and Adobe Authorized 'Adobe Captivate 9: Essentials' course, then 'Adobe Captivate 9: Advanced,' from  an authorized training center.

    They won't be cheap, but if you are doing this work professionally, you will save money by investing in the training.

    Then you'll be ready to make the decision.

    NewMavens
    NewMavensAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 4, 2016

    "don't have time to tell you how wonderful it is, or pat you on the back for making the decision to switch"

    Well, I'm not looking for either one, thanks. And no amount of "authorized training" is going to change the fact that Captivate runs like tar on my Mac (which is not on a network and which uses an SSD for storage). The fact Captivate for Windows runs better in a virtual machine on my Mac than the actual "native" Mac application tells me there's a serious problem. Hoping some other Captivate for Mac users will chime in to say whether they've experienced the same.

    mattchambers1987
    mattchambers1987
    Participant
    June 5, 2017

    NewMavens, you're absolutely right. Adobe needs to pay attention to users encountering performance issues. I'm having the same thing on my high-end Mac.

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