Photoshop Speed Test: Gaming PC vs. iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro

How does Apple’s top-of-the-line computers for creatives stack up against a formidable gaming desktop? In this 12-minute video, photoshopCAFE pits a $6,400 iMac Pro, Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro against an Alienware Aurora R6 PC.

The configurations of the computers being tested were as follows:

Instead of using benchmarks, this test looks at performance in Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and other tasks.

First off, the speed at which each computer could open an Adobe Premiere Pro project file that had lots of different formats and effects already applied inside it. Surprisingly, the MacBook Pro was the winner here at 14 seconds, whilst the Mac Pro came in last at 38 seconds. The Alienware and iMac Pro were the same, at 24 seconds.

Rendering a finished project, of about 12 minutes in length, the iMac Pro was the clear winner at 7 minutes and 38 seconds. The Alienware came in second at 15 minutes and 29 seconds.

When rendering 4K files, at a speed slowed down to 50%, the iMac Pro again came out on top with a 14.26 seconds render time. The Alienware was third place at 54.2 seconds.

However, the iMac Pro did not perform the best when using Adobe After Effects and Photoshop – with the one exception of when applying the radial filter, the iMac Pro won at 1 minute and 40 seconds vs. the Alienware at 3 minutes and 52 seconds.

Here are the results:

“The iMac Pro does hold its own when it comes to video with time-intensive tasks. It really did crush the competition,” says photoshopCAFE. “But that little Alienware PC really held its own for Photoshop tasks.

“If you’re working in Photoshop, is [the price] really worth it?”