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Is Adobe Air still actively supported?

Macbook Air powerful enough for Adobe CS Photoshop?

  • Macbook Air powerful enough for Adobe CS Photoshop? I've been researching this but have seen mixed responses. I'm looking for a way to work digitally while traveling. I use Photoshop CS 5 for digital painting primarily. I'm wondering if a 2014 model Macbook Air would be able to handle Photoshop smoothly. I'd be using only Photoshop and not running other programs simultaneously , I'd basically dedicate the computer to Photoshop. The file sizes will not be huge , probably in the 40-50 MB at most. Here are the specs for the Macbook Air: MacBook Air 1.4GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory 128GB PCIe-based flash storage 1 Intel HD Graphics 5000 It seems to me that It could handle it but like I said, Ive read mixed opinions. Any advice or alternative computer/device suggestions would help. Thanks in advance.

  • Answer:

    The 13" Retina MacBook Pro is physically only a little bigger than the Air, and weighs just over half a pound more. Configured similarly, they are roughly equivalent in price, even though the Pro has a much, much better screen (in terms of resolution and glare), much faster processor, ability to get 16GB memory, more ports, etc. The Air's screen, particularly, is low resolution, so I would take a look side-by-side in an Apple store (the screens haven't changed since 2014), especially if your close-up vision is sharp. The Air is really only for people who need extreme portability.

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Photoshop laughs at that amount of RAM. Seriously, you need 8gb minimal and preferably 16. 4gb is barely enough to comfortably run the operating system, which is ALWAYS running, even if you only have Photoshop open. I'm going to disagree with this. Sure, you want the beefiest machine you can get for media processing work. But I have a circa 2008 Macbook Pro that maxes out at 4GB RAM, and in the past I've run Photoshop on it just fine. There's probably some varying mileage in the complexity of your particular document (not hard for me to imagine something with hundreds of layers and masks requiring a beefier machine to work with). If your documents are modest and you're using an older version like CS5, though, I'd guess it's manageable.

weston

4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory Photoshop laughs at that amount of RAM. Seriously, you need 8gb minimal and preferably 16. 4gb is barely enough to comfortably run the operating system, which is ALWAYS running, even if you only have Photoshop open. Get a larger harddrive if possible, be it internal or external

Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher Thanks,. So if I had 8 GB and the other specs were the same, you think that may work?

Liquidwolf

Can't speak for Brandon, but I think with more memory it should work. You will have some slow-downs during heavy processing, but it'll get the job done and it should run in a stable fashion.

Sunburnt

I think it depends on the speeds you are used to, and the kind of work you do. The setup you describe is close to what I use *all the time* as a designer, and while it's not going to be blazing fast, it should be adequate for files under 50MB. BTW I do mostly page layout, not super processor-intensive work.

oxisos

oxisos Thanks. I currently use a newish iMac desktop so a Macbook Air won't be as fast as that. I'm just hoping thee won't be a lag on the brush when Im waiting digitally.

Liquidwolf

Anything will work with enough patience.... But if you want to have a great user experience you want a 13" MB Pro Retina with an i7 Processor and 16Gb or memory. This unit is only 2oz heavier and 2mm thicker than the MB Air. Sure the price is higher but beside the camera its your main tool to do your work. Many people spend more on a desk and chair...

Mac-Expert

Brandon Blatcher Thanks,. So if I had 8 GB and the other specs were the same, you think that may work? It'll work a LOT better. As others have noted, it's run Photoshop on the machine you speced, but it'll get crazy slow sometimes. If you're patient, it might not be a big deal, but it'll probably be noticeable slowdown.

Brandon Blatcher

I have a stock Macbook Air 2012 that runs Photoshop CS6 just fine.

amaire

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