Why are Mac's "better" than a PC in Graphics?


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Ok. I have used a PC all my life. Then I start Graphic Design in college and all they use are Mac's. Now, I use the Mac's at school and they're OK (especially now with our G5's and all using OSX) however I still do all my work at home on a PC.

My question is; Why are Mac's used for graphics so much in the industry? I have yet to find a specific reason why a Mac is used over a PC. Is it just a personal preference that has become part of the industry or is there an actual reason? Like, all the printing places I go to use Mac's and PC's. Why? Why not just use one platform for everything? What is so special abou the Mac that it has taken over the entire Graphics industry?

I trully am curious. I am glad to experience the Mac computer as I don't think I would have ever given it the time of day unless I was forced to use one, in which case I was, and in the end, I like them.

Please no flamming, I just want to hear your stories and opinions as to why you think the reason is. I don't need any wars over PC vs. Mac. It's just a Mac question for the industry. Thanks.

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It's a good question that you pose... I've always just accepted it as blind faith with out too much questioning.

I hope this doesn't go to flames... All's it takes is an idiot from one of the sides to light a match and Keldyn has to come riding in with his magic padlock.

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yea, i mean what's the difference of using adobe photoshop on a mac? is it different from using it o nthe pc? guess not. maybe it's cuz macs are easier to use and don't need alot of fixing/upgrading like pcs. maybe the word "altivec" needs to be mentioned too...

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Personally I just like the way Photoshop works on a Mac better. It uses the top menu bar, and you screen space is open for whatever you are working on, unlike my PC where it takes up the whole screen with a grey window. There are many other reasons but I will let someone with a little more intelligence than me answer as to not start a flame war.

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I always thought it mainly had to do with the issue that Mac's used RISC Proccessors, while PC's used CISC Proccessors.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was because Mac's hardware is all specially designed so that it works together seemlessly. I know that for example the new G5's use Radeon 9800's, but it'sa special 'Mac edition' if you know what I mean. I'm pretty sure that's the reason that everything is graphically stunning on Mac's is because of the level of spcialization in the OS and hardware, they're designed to work perfectly together, so they're much more powerful and that's why designers perfer them, is because there's no iffy gray area you might land with certain Windows\Linux applications, and the hardware they're working, it's always going to work right and come out looking good on a Mac.

I would like to say I have next to no experience with anyplatform but Windows on a PC, so I'm only telling you the way I understand, I don't know any of this for sure, it's just what I was led to believe.

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I don't think that there is much of a reason anymore. Long ago Macs had far better support for graphical applications and fonts. Adobe started on a Macs. I guess it's just a hold over thats now more of a matter of personal preference and tradition - or educational discounts.

I've always done my work on a PC except while in the computer labs at college (I was a graphic design major also). The only real difference I noticed was the hot keys - alt key vs option key. Photoshop, Quark and Illustator all worked the same.

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Also Macs had better color calibration and consistancy. PCs have this ability now.

I don't want to think it's because Macs are "prettier" or "work seamlesly." If you by a boxed PC you'd have this as well. A 3 year old graphics card would do fine for design work since it's all 2d. The newest ATI 9800 or nVidia card won't make Photoshop any faster.

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I believe the reason was that since Apples entered the GUI era early, it was natural for graphics companies to adopt them over the old DOS machines. As they moved on, the older graphic artists bought the newer Macs and taught their pupils or new people in the company in Macs. Imagine if all of a sudden they said, "PCs are benchmarking higher this month so everyone has to switch to PCS".

Bottom line, they started using Macs because at the time there was no other good alternative. They continue using Macs because it's difficult to switch over once you've learnedthe ins and outs of an operating system.

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The newest ATI 9800 or nVidia card won't make Photoshop any faster.? ?

Correct me if i'm wrong but I think it does makes a difference. OS X renders your desktop and windows, and basically any graphical operation using the GPU -- the Raison D'?tre of the Quartz Extreme window manager.

This explains how they can afford to add all those cute effects without asphyxiating the cpu.

EDIT: makes me wonder why a Sillicon Graphics SGI box is better than a PC...

EDIT #2: I like how calm and civilised this discussion is up to now. See? People CAN ben mature when the time comes.

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First a disclaimer, what I am going to say only applies to the publishing and low end graphics work market. Serious CAD and other high end graphic work has been done on SGI or other workstations for several decades now. That being said... the Apple vs PC graphics debate...

I believe the answer to this question is in history. In the beginning, Apple made a microcomputer and playing catch up IBM quickly made the PC. IBM didn't do graphics, because the PC was "for business". Apple did do graphics and went the "IBM is evil" route by pushing creativity etc. Skipping ahead, Windows 3 comes out and finally is a half way viable PC graphical OS interface (barely). Meanwhile, Apple has had the Mac doing graphics for years and anyone wanting to do serious graphic/desktop publishing work hasn't had much choice but to use their stuff. Skipping ahead again.. Windows 95, 98, 2000 comes out.. Mac forges ahead, etc. These days, Microsoft has a strong solid OS in Windows XP. Apple has a strong solid OS in OSX. Both can do just about any job just fine. However, most of the artists/publishers that started using a Mac 10+ years ago are still using one. That industry really hasn't stuck it's head up to look at the rest of the world for a long time, and to their knowledge "only an Apple can do the graphics work they need to do".

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it's mainly because macs are natively better at colorsyncing so what you see on the screen is exactly what you are going to see in print without having to worry about weird colours in the final product

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So basically up to this point in the thread, the general consesus is that originally Mac's out performed PC's in the GUI and Graphic's Platform as well as with font managing systems. Ok, understandable.

Now, is it just designers being stubborn and not wanting to switch to PC's that has kept them using Mac's? Or are there still reasons at to better performance and/or speed that keeps them there now?

What would really be cool would be something to show that "this image looks like this on a Mac, but will look like this on a PC." I wonder if that is possible or will you in fact see a difference at all?

Also, I am quite pleased to see that this has been kept civil. Good work all. This is the way a forum thread should go.

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I agree, if consumers could see the difference in real application and product quality comparison, then maybe your average home user may consider a switch whether if be from mac to pc or pc to mac.

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I always saw it as macs being used more so by amateurs, who like to play around, for graphics, etc..while huge companies or professional designers still prefer to design in maya, 3ds max, etc in windows. Most game designers still, I think, prefer windows to design ingame characters, GUI, etc, also not to mention many interior designing companies I know use windows for their work.

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I always saw it as macs being used more so by amateurs, who like to play around, for graphics, etc..while huge companies or professional designers still prefer to design in maya, 3ds max, etc in windows. Most game designers still, I think, prefer windows to design ingame characters, GUI, etc, also not to mention many interior designing companies I know use windows for their work.

professional 3d designers use neither platform, most use SGI Boxes

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professional 3d designers use neither platform, most use SGI Boxes

And now Linux ^_^

That said, uhm.. well honestly I feel like Photoshop runs smoother on my 800mhz G3 than it does on my Athlon XP 1800+ @ 1.8ghz

The windows version of photoshop always felt like a second grade port to the mac version, I think it has to do with how things are displayed on the screen...

For video editing, macs are better in my opinion because they all have built in firewire, DVI and all those nice stuffs, plus high end macs all use either SCSI or SATA...

Also, we all know that Final Cut Pro gives Adobe Premiere the boot any day of the week ;P (or so I heard)

As for colorsyncing that is not true, the G4 downstairs where I work is used to do all the graphical work, but we're having problems making it show colors the same matching the print company's standard.

... then again, I don't think it would be any better on a PC.

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Much of the supposed Mac "superiority" is due to two main factors:

(1) Harkening back to the old days when much of the publishing/animation/video editing software was either unavailable on the PC or poorly ported

(2) Benchmarks which are lies, damn lies *AND* statistics, all rolled into one

Seemless hardware architecture and closed house developement are good things, to an extent... especially if you like sky-high prices for systems that simply can't compete with the average PC, but certainly look much prettier.

The worst thing is that many PC "fanatics" such as myself would love for there to be a much more robust Mac platform, with real-world pricing. Competition is always a good thing, and with AMD faltering (though possibly making a nice comeback with the Opteron and A64FX), there is precious little stopping Intel from going back tot the good old days of > $1000 high end consumer processors. And don't even get me started on the Xeon (anyone else remember the PII 450 2mb version that retailed at $3980?)

Sadly, crap like the many benchmark debacles that have surrounded the G5 (which is a damn fine chip in it's own right, or at least the PC970 is) just makes it all the more likely that Apple will be relegated to the ignominity of an ever shrinking market share (currently 2-3% worldwide).

And no, I'm not just bitter that they abandoned the Apple // platform... really, I'm not :crazy:

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okay i just had to enter this one since i have been on a mac now for close to 5 years, and I just recently built my own windows machine, strictly for gaming on my end although i do have graphics applications installed, so i have seen and been on both sides of the fence.

first off i think the most logical argument so far has been the one of history. it is what the majority of graphic designers have learned on, so it is still why the majoirty still use a mac. you know the saying "you cant teach an old dog new tricks"... same theory in concept...

since i do use both OS's throughout a day, this is why i can say i personally prefer the mac. i am not sure if it is because i learned on a mac so i am biased, or if it truly is the simple fact that the overall GUI and OS just makes more sense on a mac. the mac OS in my opinion, its almost "dumbed" down, but not in a bad way (although i realize the term can have a negative feel to it.) for example not once in the history of my mac usage have i ever had to worry about updating a graphics card driver or sound card driver, etc. etc., so that fact alone makes it a more pleasant experience in my opinion. everything just works and you rarely have to worry about updating anything. truly plug and play. i often try to explain it to my friends who are windows users that to me personally, and granted i am not the most experienced windows user but im defintely not a basic user, it seems as if what takes 3 steps to get somehwere on a mac takes 4 steps to get to the realtively same place in the windows os...

and i have used lets say for example photoshop, on both OS's, and as someone pointed out earlier it just seems so much more user friendly on the mac. why? i really do not know but i can just say it does... again i can possibly attribute this to the fact that i did learn on a mac, or that mac just again is more user friendly a at the end of the day makes more sense for tasks speicfically related to graphics since thats what it is more or less tailored for...and also i would like to state believe there are more reasons than not why i truly hate apple, price and no customer loyalty being two that come to the top of my head, so its not like im a fanatical mac fan at all.

now getting back to the whole history thing, and why i have personally not made the switch to pc... although i now know i can make a powerhouse of a computer for a fraction of the price of a powerhouse mac. it goes back to the old dog tricks quote again. i cannot tell you how frustrated i get at the little simple fact that when i am pressing alt on a windows keyboard i naturally think it is the apple key command. this drives me crazy to no end because it is an innate behavior for me to just press where the apple command key is which happens to be alt on a windows keyboard. we all know it is actually the option key that is equivalent to the mac apple key. that small two keys away difference frustrates me to no end so much that i will not make the switch simply because of that, and i know it sounds silly but let me explain: i cannot afford the time or luxury of making the switch and "re programming" my brain per say for such little tasks, as i have deadlines to meet. i am assuming the rest of the graphics community for the most part feels the same way which is why so many are reluctant to make the switch as well... its the little things that matter after all.

i know my post has not really answered any questions, and was quite lenghty, but it is my perspective on the matter and take it for what its worth if anything at all...

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i know my post has not really answered any questions, and was quite lenghty, but it is my perspective on the matter and take it for what its worth if anything at all...

*BUT* your post did illustrate one point very well.

It all comes down to what you like. If you prefer to use a Mac, more power to you. The same for the PC.

'nuff said.

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Macs arnt really any better then pc... it's just because Mac was the one that had high resoultion and high color graphics first, so the art people stuck to it and now refuse to learn anything new... they are equal in ability today.. some people try to say color calibration is better on a mac, which it really is the same on pc and mac if you know about color calibration and how to do it.

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*BUT* your post did illustrate one point very well.

It all comes down to what you like. If you prefer to use a Mac, more power to you. The same for the PC.

'nuff said.

couldnt agree more to each his own, plan and simple...

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