Are Macs better for graphics than PCs?

Question

Given that a Mac is way more expensive than a PC, does the difference justify the price? It seems as though Macs users are militantly loyal to Apple. I know apple has done a great advertising job associating it's brand as "cool, hip, young, trendy" and all that stuff while the PC is for boring accountant types. But is this just marketing or is there any real reason why designers prefer Mac?

Answer 1

Yes, the difference definitely DOES justify the price.

I bought my first Mac 7 years ago, and sold both my PC's the very next day. And guess what, that same system, 7 years later, runs all the latest software, the latest version of OSX... the latest everything, just as fast as it did the day I bought it. Try that with a 7 year old PC. You can't. Apple actually writes their software and OS to optimize system resources, and not be a bloated turd of a memory hog like Microsoft does. Also, I've never (or known anyone to have) had a PC last me more than 2 years.... so in hindsight, it was more money on the front end, but it's lasted me almost 4 times as long. Seems like a wise investment to me!

Designers prefer Macs because they are stable and fast. Try the same operations in any design program on a PC and compare it to a Mac... the PC can't keep up. Despite now both having the same Intel processors, the difference is in what's running the computer.

But, even though it's the system preferred by designers and creatives, it's the best system out there for students and business. MS Office runs better and faster on my 7 year old Mac than it does on my wife's 1 year old Dell. What's even better is iWork is a sweet "Office" suite from Apple that is REALLY cool. Pages is a sweet word processor and Keynote is a presentation application that makes PowerPoint look like a joke!

Another thing that makes Macs worth their weight in gold... my 7 year old system has never crashed ONCE, it's never had a single virus... Nothing. The only problem I ever had was well after the 3 year extended warranty had expired, and they fixed it in the Apple store for free. You don't get that kind of service from any other manufacturer... EVER... And I can attest to that becuase I've worked for one of the major PC manufacturers and have family that works for another one.

OSX is the most user friendly and stable system available.

Yeah, Mac's are "hip and trendy" but they're functional and they JUST WORK.

When I bought my first Mac, the amount of time that I spent working on the inside of my PC's, troubleshooting problems, got traded in for actually working ON my computer creating cool stuff! This is another reason that designers (good designers) prefer Mac... they're no-nonsense and they JUST WORK.

And don't worry about needing to buy a lot of overpriced software (like MS Office), you can download OpenOffice for free from OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice.org... both are free for download and are 100% compatible with MS Office.

Macs are definitely the way to go. After many demonstrations to many people on my own Mac, I've convinced almost half of my family to switch and they are all so very glad that they did and all have said they wished they would have done it sooner.

You won't regret it.

Oh, and yes, there is a right click. If the person above had been paying attention to anything in the last 2+ years they would know that they came out with their own mouse capable of a right click quite a while ago. They didn't do it for so long because most of their users didn't care. And the ones that did could buy a mouse from someone else and use it with no problems. You do have to change the settings for the Mighty Mouse, it default to one button.

Answer 2

You've already read all the above arguments - pro and con.

So all I'll add is this: Mac are NOT more expensive when compared pound-for-pound and feature-for-feature to ANY brand of PC out there.

And it's not just marketing hype about being "cool, hip, young, trendy." I am none of the above. I'm a 64 year old professional photographer. I've owned nothing but Macs since 1984.

Being cool and trendy has never been a priority. I just want a tool that works! Macs Just Work!

Answer 3

It's just marketing, Macs and PCs are pretty much built using the same hardware anyway (back when they used different CPUs Macs were really underpowered compared to PCs (though that didn't stop Apple advertising that Macs were faster or Mac cultists from claiming that a Mac equivalent to a low end PC could outperform a Cray)).

The designers prefer Macs because that's what they've used for all those years and they've got a lot of Mac software around that might not run under other OS's, that's really all there is to it.

Answer 4

I'm not really sure about the technical side of things, but I think the Mac handles graphics differently than PC's. It may also be that it has more appropriate programs for designers. I am a recent convertee (although I don't have enough money for a Mac yet). I got tired of crashing computers when I open folders and even unresponsive Task Managers (which is ridiculous). I totally think Macs are worth it. Even if you don't like the OS, you can run Windows on it via the BootCamp program (which is included)

Macs do have the same hardware as PCs, however it's their OS that makes them more efficient. Even 5 year old Macs can handle cool animations like Expose which would make PCs slow down considerably.

As for not being able to right click on Macs: it's not fair to say Macs are inferior computers because they are not what we're used to.

You always hear about Windows users switching to Macs, but you hardly ever hear about Mac users swithching to Windows which must be saying something!

Answer 5

I've used both and Macs are easier to use. Graphics are dependent on the computers graphics card, which are typically the same between PC and Mac.

And yes, you can right click on a Mac. Simply buy a two/three button USB mouse.

Answer 6

What the hell are you talking about? What are graphics? How nice the colors and everything looks? That's the lcd quality. That just depends on who made the lcd. Apple doesn't make any lcds. Neither do HP/Compaq/Dell/whatever. The same companies like samsung, lg, sharp, etc make them for both macs and pcs.

Do you mean the graphics the machine is capable of rendering? That just depends on graphics card inside. Again, neither apple or any pc companies make them. ATI, Nvidia, etc make them for both macs and pcs.

The truth is almost all computers are the same thing in different cases. It doesn't matter whether it's a mac, dell, sager, hp, or whatever. They all just make them using the same parts from the same manufacturers, which they can all order from. It's just different names on the same stuff.
The only real difference is mac's operating system. Do you prefer mac's graphics software and find it easier to use? Really, anyone who isn't retarded couuld learn to do the same thing with a PC too.

Almost everyone who posted in this thread is an idiot. Yes rommel, you CAN use windows natively on a Mac. Ever heard of bootcamp? Mac is using intel cpus, nvidia gpus, hitachi or whatever hard drives etc just like everyone else now.

Answer 7

Yes and they are about the same price as an equivalent specd HP, Dell etc.
OS X is also more stable than XP or Vista
Mac users are faster with keyboard short cuts that PC users are with a file menu

Macs now run Windows faster than PCs do

MS Office for Mac or iWork 08 which is better, cheaper and compatible with MS Office.

Once you have used a Mac you don't go back.

Mac market share currently sits at 8% which is almost even with Vista.

Answer 8

I really don't like Macs. I was staying at my friends a few nights ago, and i discovered you cannot right click on a mac. You have to do ctrl + click or something. Its ridiculous. I prefer PCs as they are much more customizable and have way more games and pro grammes which are compatible. I think people go for the image more than anything else. It may also be because they have Ipods.

Answer 9

Yes they are, but unless your getting special offers on the software needed through a school it isn't worth it. Just look for an upper end gaming PC. The Dell XPS-1730 is something I am looking at getting. Plus do you really want to go through the whole learning curve of getting yourself familiar with the Mac world?

Answer 10

YESSS BY FAR!! the graphics on pcs are ****, macs all the way..no virus, no anti virus software, easy use, one click and everythings done, MUCH BETTER graphics, photoshop is mega quick on macs and yeah, you'll find pcs are hopeless