Quote from: Slappy on Today at 04:20:02 PMMy head hurts.

When I read your first paragraph my first thought was "My head hurts". Great minds think alike!

In reality for Prepress work on a Mac you probably need the Mac Studio, $2599 with 64 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD with the 27" Studio Display minimum $1599 so $4198 + you need to buy a keyboard and mouse. That is crazy compared to what we used to get the 27" iMacs for. My old place owners would faint at the thought of buying 10 of them.

And to be honest if I were still in Prepress and making decisions on what to buy I would have to consider using a PC. I'm not a fan of disposable Macs.

Quote from: pspdfppdfxhd on Today at 07:32:44 AMYou think the max 24GB of RAM would be enough? Strange they don't offer room for expansion. I'm using 32GB on the 27 inch circa 2015 now. Sounds like I could more than likely get used to the 24 inch size.

If the M3 chip and the hard drive are so much faster maybe the iMac doesn't need as much?

Using the new M series CPU the new Macs RAM is unified memory. Apple claims you don't need as much unified memory as you did on the old traditional RAM. That argument has had much debate. Unified memory is built into the CPU so whatever you buy is all you can ever have without buying a new machine.

What is unified memory? Memory is RAM; the SSD is Storage. "Unified" is the term Apple uses to denote that the CPU, graphics processor, RAM, and storage are on a single chip. Very efficient. That also means that none on those can be changed after the computer leaves the production line.

Why Apple uses integrated memory in Apple Silicon — and why it's both good and bad

Just remember the new Macs with the M series chips can never be upgraded. Not the RAM...not the GPU....not the SSD storage.

Quote from: pspdfppdfxhd on Today at 06:50:59 AMI think this might be a dumb question but....

Is there any way to hook up an older Imac to use only as a monitor to the new one? We have another 5k one sitting around here that doesn't shut down on its own like the one I am using.

I'm sure somebody would have mentioned this already if it was possible.

For newer iMacs basically no. For older ones yes.

How to Use an iMac as an External Monitor

Quote from: pspdfppdfxhd on December 01, 2023, 07:40:47 AMMac mini with a 3rd party monitor?

Top of the line Mac Mini with the M2 chip, 32 gb of RAM which is the MAX you can go and a 1 TB SSD is $2,200 plus you still have a buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Quote from: Tracy on November 30, 2023, 03:02:32 PMHuh! I thought it was the RAM
yes those are the files! 

Well I mean more ram would not hurt it any but those files send your CPU usage through the roof.

Quote from: Tracy on November 30, 2023, 01:57:41 PMWhen I get bloated files with lots of pages, I wish I had more than 64!

Are we talking about those PDF's with 10,000,000,000 paths of high resolution vector objects? That probably has more to do with the CPU than the RAM.

Quote from: David on November 30, 2023, 02:08:14 PM

QuoteMac Pro is a game-changing combination of Apple silicon performance and PCIe expansion for specialized workflows. And every configuration comes with the incredible new M2 Ultra — our most powerful and capable chip ever.

From $583.25/mo. for 12 mo. or $6999*

oh they got 'em alright....

That is a Mac Pro. They don't make the iMac Pro any longer. Also the M3 chip is out now so they are lying about "with the incredible new M2 Ultra — our most powerful and capable chip ever". Also be sure to get the $4,999.00 monitor to go with that beast.

Also on the Mac with M1, M2, or M3 they say you need about half the RAM as you needed with the Intel Macs so if 32 was enough for the Intel Macs 16 should be enough on the M3. I have no proof other than Apples claim though.

Quote from: wonderings on November 30, 2023, 11:40:37 AMPersonally I would look at the more powerful options out there with M3 Pro chips. Even an M1 or M2 Pro or Max will be an amazing upgrade. I have 14" MacBook Pro M1 Max with 32 gigs of RAM and it is a speed demon, Apple's new chips really make the Intel Macs look antiquated and feel very very slow. I was thinking about going with a 24" iMac for work, but not sure I want the smaller screen, 27" is like the perfect size. I am guessing Apple with have something in the 32" category next year for some new iMac Pro.

The Pro Display XDR is 32". Starts at $4999.

Also they don't make the iMac Pro anymore.

With the 24" iMac you could always buy a 27" or larger display and connect it to the Thunderbolt port. The USB and Thunderbolt ports are just regular USB C ports. Then use the 24" display as secondary monitor.

I just bought a new 24" iMac with the M3 chip, 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD about two weeks ago. The screen is a bit smaller but really isn't an issue. I could still do Prepress on it if I wanted to. I don't. The thing is FAST!

With Apple care and tax it was a bit over $2200 but I have a 10% military discount with Apple so it is 10% more than that at the regular price.

If you want the 27" display you will need to get a:

Mac Studio, starts @ $1999.00 with Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine and 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD and the 27" Studio Display, starts @ $1599.00 with standard glass and tilt stand so the base price is $3598.00 not including Apple Care and tax.

Edit: There are cheaper ones with fewer USB ports (2 instead of 4), lower end M3 CPU, less RAM (8 GB), smaller SSD either 256 mb or 512 mb and the lesser keyboard (I sprung the extra $30 for the keyboard with the number pad).

Excel has no business in prepress! (I have no idea how to get to that)

Quote from: Slappy on October 25, 2023, 08:54:15 AMOhhhhh, wait - once Adobe posts the explanation it all makes sense!!!

QuoteFollowing the latest macOS guidelines, we have completely overhauled the Acrobat scrolling framework for Mac as part of our September '23 release. This fundamental transition from NSView to NSScrollView significantly impacts the behaviour of the Mac user interface. It introduces a modern scrolling experience that is responsive during active use and eliminates the need for excessive space.

So glad they've read all of our collective minds & addressed all that "excessive space" usage!!

You know you wanted that 1/8" of space back!

Quote from: Ear on October 23, 2023, 04:06:34 PMYes, it sees the network and is on the LAN but doesn't have the gateway number and I don't think it can access the "Internet". It's on the prepress network and when I look at network it says it has network access. It has a second network controller and says it has one connection.

It's weird because the controller PC starts the platesetter when you launch the Magness software, gets through part of initialization then shuts the platesetter off and throws an error.

.... hmmm, maybe it is the Araxi server connection and not the platesetter connection? It clearly has some connection to the platesetter but won't complete the init, so maybe it croaks when it tries to access the main Prinergy server...

See where the cable on the second network controller goes.