Two of the most popular developer apps for Mac, Adobe Photoshop and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, now run natively on Apple Silicon. New updates support the M1 chipset in the latest Cupertino models. The native support could mean a significant workflow boost, according to developers, as Apple’s custom GPUs are used for models like the new MacBook Air and Mac mini.
While Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve previously ran on these Macs, the Rosetta 2 emulation was used. This is the system developed by Apple that allows x86 apps, which are used to Intel-based Macs, to run on the arm-based Apple Silicon like the M1.
In many cases it can be surprisingly effective, and Apple has claimed that some apps, even when run in emulation mode, can actually be faster with Rosetta 2 on the M1 than on Intel processors. However, to really maximize the efficiency and performance of the CPU and GPU cores, you need native software. That’s exactly what Adobe and Blackmagic Design are delivering now.
According to Adobe, the performance increases noticeably with the transition. « Our internal testing shows that Photoshop offers customers using these latest Macs significant performance gains across the application, » said Pam Clark, vice president of Photoshop product management and strategy, of the update. In fact, a number of Photoshop functions run at an average of 1.5 times the speed compared to similarly configured last generation systems running Intel chips.
This includes basic functions like opening and saving files, tweaking filters and performing some more system-intensive tasks like « Content-Aware Fill » and « Select Subject ». “Our early benchmarking also shows that some operations are much faster with the new chip,” adds Clark.
Adobe already had public beta versions of the Apple Silicon version in circulation, but this brings the general version up to date. However, some functions still need to be finalized: Invite to edit cloud documents, preset synchronization, and some others are not yet integrated into M1. If you want them, you’ll have to switch back to Rosetta 2 until they are added to the official build, Adobe says.
DaVinci Resolve 17.1 from Blackmagic Design also has native Apple Silicon support. There, the performance improvements could be even more apparent: The company says that « the combination of the M1, metalworking, and DaVinci Resolve 17.1 provides up to five times better performance than previous-generation Macs. »
It can now be downloaded as a free update for existing users.
Ref: https://www.slashgear.com