ART121.rev imacART121.rev imac, DESIGN, March 2006 Computer Arts Issue 121 PDFs, CA121
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//-->REVIEWS|MACYesPRICEPCNo£1,229CONTACTApple0800 039 1010www.apple.com/ukFEATURESThe first Intel Mac offersimpressive performanceimprovements, but fewprofessional apps will runeffectively on it at present20-inch 2GHz iMac Core DuoWITH A POWERFUL INTEL DUAL-CORE CHIP AT ITS HEART, IS THE IMAC NOW A PRO MACHINE?• 20-inch LCD, 1,680x1,050resolution (17-inch modelalso available)• 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo with2MB shared L2 cache• 512MB, 667MHz DDR2SDRAM• 250GB Serial ATA hard drive• Slot-loading 8x double-layerSuperDrive• ATI Radeon X1600 graphicswith 128MB GDDR3video memory• Built-in AirPort Extreme andBluetooth 2.0• USB 2.0, FireWire, Ethernet,mini-DVI• Built-in iSight video cameraFORpple’s iMac has never reallybeen aimed at creatives. Despitethe studio-friendly looks, it’s alwaysbeen more of a consumer machine,leaving the Power Mac to take careof the pros. But in January, Appletook the wrappers off the iMac CoreDuo, the first Mac to get one of thenew Intel dual-core chips.Apple claims its new iMac is twiceas fast as the old iMac G5. So doesthis massive performance gainmake the iMac, at around two-thirdsthe cost of a Power Mac, a viablechoice for design professionals?In a word, no. It’s true that undersome circumstances Apple’s iMacCore Duo is twice as fast as theprevious iMac. Apple’s package ofbundled applications, iTunes forexample, runs twice as fast. Butthere is some way to go before thisspeed will become available forgraphics apps, too.Design applications originallywritten to run on G5 systems,including all the industry-standardtitles, will need to be rewritten to runon Intel chips. You can still run thecurrent version ofPhotoshopon theCore Duo, but only through anAemulation app called Rosetta, and,as you can imagine, the emulationprocess slows things right down.We ran benchmarks to see justhow much of a performance hit CoreIT TOOK 4X LONGER TOSTART PHOTOSHOP ONTHE INTEL CORE DUORESOURCEAt present therearen’t very manyprofessional appsthat will run on anIntel Mac withoutperformancepenalties. For acomplete list ofprograms thatcan run natively,take a trip tocom/universalDuo owners could expect. Side-by-side with a similarly-specced G5iMac, the first thing we noticed wasthe speed of the native Apple apps.But in non-native pro applicationsthings slowed right down.Photoshopstart-up times werefour timesslower.Nearly everycommand we benchmarked wasslower against the iMac G5, exceptfor applying a Radial Blur to a JPEG.It was the same withInDesign.Outputting a page layout to a 6.6MBPDF was 2.0 times slower on theCore Duo than it was on the iMac G5.It will be interesting to see howQuark takes advantage of this.QuarkXPress 7is a Universal Binary,meaning it will run natively on eitherthe IBM or Intel chips, and will beavailable, we guesstimate, thissummer. But unless Adobe speedsup its normal production cycle,Photoshopis unlikely to see a nativeIntel release until mid-2007.Aside from the processor,everything else is much the same asthe November 2005 iMac. Essentiallythis is the same curved-shell design,with remote control, built-in iSightwebcam andFront Rowsoftware.The only new features worth amention are an updatediLife ’06,which is a very friendly, if not pro-level, bundle for publishing sites,editing movies and storing photos;and the Mini-DVI out port, whichallows users to extend the desktopto a second monitor, whereas the G5would only mirror it.Nice as these features are, thelack of native applications that cantake advantage of the Intel chipmeans that those unable to afford aPower Mac are probably better offwith an older iMac G5 and shouldwait till the native apps becomeavailable before upgrading.• Excellent display• Built-in iSight• Fast native applicationsAGAINST• Too few native applicationsVERDICTThis is the future of the Mac,but slow-running applicationsare the price you pay for earlyadoption. If you need an iMac,future-proof yourself and buy aCore Duo. If you’re thinking ofupgrading, hold off until appsthat can take full advantage ofthe Core Duo’s speed appearN/ABETA PREVIEW★★★★★April 2006|81ART121.rev_imac Sec1:8127/2/06 6:48:43 pm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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