Is a 2019 iMac too old for Adobe Programs such as Photoshop

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 29, 2024
3 replies
7675 views

I noticed with the 2024 Adobe Creative Suite (in photoshop) the spinning wheel appears more than usual and loads slower. I'm wondering if that would be an issue with my current work computer being 5 years old already. (macOS is updated to Sonoma)

macOS

Correct answer Conrad_C

Technically, a 2019 iMac isn’t too old, because as long as it has enough memory and storage, it still meets the macOS compatibility requirements for Creative Cloud apps. However, at 5 years old it is starting to reach the typical period where a computer can start to feel sluggish because new software tends to be written for the capabilities of newer hardware.

There is one different thing about the last 5 years on the Mac. In 2020, Apple started releasing Apple Silicon Macs, starting with the M1. Those perform so much better that they rapidly made the Intel Macs look a lot worse and less efficient. So during this transition, Intel Macs can seem slower sooner than they would have traditionally.

If the slower performance starts to bother you a lot, and you can’t afford a new computer soon, one way you might restore performance is to roll back Creative Cloud apps to a version where you were happy with the speed. Mac software developers started writing new versions to take advantage the higher capabilities of the much more appealing Apple Silicon Macs, so for example many newer features that benefit from multi-core processing, GPU acceleration, and AI tend to work much better and faster on an Apple Silicon Mac. Running these types of features on an Intel Mac can be disappointing.

Just be aware that the Creative Cloud installer provides only the last two major versions for installation.

D

daveb75792932

Known Participant

I bought a brand new Apple Macbook Pro with M3 chip, loads of RAM and I am STILL getting the spinning wheel in InDesign! Very frustrating. Seems to be an Adobe issue rather than hardware

Conrad_C

Correct answer

Community Expert

Technically, a 2019 iMac isn’t too old, because as long as it has enough memory and storage, it still meets the macOS compatibility requirements for Creative Cloud apps. However, at 5 years old it is starting to reach the typical period where a computer can start to feel sluggish because new software tends to be written for the capabilities of newer hardware.

There is one different thing about the last 5 years on the Mac. In 2020, Apple started releasing Apple Silicon Macs, starting with the M1. Those perform so much better that they rapidly made the Intel Macs look a lot worse and less efficient. So during this transition, Intel Macs can seem slower sooner than they would have traditionally.

If the slower performance starts to bother you a lot, and you can’t afford a new computer soon, one way you might restore performance is to roll back Creative Cloud apps to a version where you were happy with the speed. Mac software developers started writing new versions to take advantage the higher capabilities of the much more appealing Apple Silicon Macs, so for example many newer features that benefit from multi-core processing, GPU acceleration, and AI tend to work much better and faster on an Apple Silicon Mac. Running these types of features on an Intel Mac can be disappointing.

Just be aware that the Creative Cloud installer provides only the last two major versions for installation.

Park Street Printers

Known Participant

Illustrator and InDesign are still primarily single-threaded. The main benefit from Apple Silicon is the increased IPC relative to the older Intel chips, not necessarily overall multi-threaded capability. My 2018 Threadripper 2950x is still adequate for multi-threaded applications, but it is severely hindered in single-threaded use by its low IPC. My 2020 3955wx is better, but still a far cry from the IPC of a newer i7 or i9, both of which are better for IPC and mult-threading than an M3. The primary benefit of the Apple Silicon versus current AMD and Intel offerings is the incredible efficiency of the chip. The built-in GPU definitely can't compete with a current high-end video card for photo and video editing. All that said, yes, the slow performance in InDesign is due to software optimization failure, rather than any hardware faults.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

Yeah, we’re pretty much in agreement. If someone’s priority is getting a lot of creative media work done on battery, or a compact quiet desktop, then I tell them to consider a Mac. But if you want the highest possible performance and you have power, cooling, and space all taken care of, no Mac is going to beat a tower PC with the latest graphics card in it.

(Some of this may change soon, depending on how well ARM Windows works out on the Snapdragon-based laptops announced this week by many OEMs.)

A $20,000 machine from Puget Systems will be very, very fast but at a cost in $ and in power usage. Many of us can't afford that.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

You are mostly constrained by available RAM, drive space, and video card. I use a 2019 MacBook Pro w/Radeon 5300M at work and it still performs pretty well. I expect to need a replacement in the next 1-2 years.

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