Opinions on GIMP Performance?

[techieMoe]

As some of you might remember from this thread I made the switch a while back to use the GIMP exclusively for my comic creation and general photo editing needs. While I was using it for my simple, black and white 0n the Fr1tz comic, it performed admirably despite the fact that in order to run the GIMP on OS X, you have to use a different GUI (X11) than the rest of the OS.

Recently I've noticed that when I do the editing needed for my newer, full-page color comic A Change in Format that there is a noticeable slowdown in the GIMP after the first half hour or so. Menus don't pop up for several seconds, select boxes take forever to show up or register when I drag them. Has anyone else seen performance issues like this in a native environment such as Linux? I suppose I could test the theory by editing a comic on my desktop machine, but I'm curious if my operating system is to blame here or not. Does the OS X version of GIMP just not handle resources well?

[a12ctic]

I have never noticed that problem when using gimp in linux or windows. Although i cant say that ive used gimp for more than 45 minutes at a time.

[fingal]

I've used the GIMP for graphics editing on a Linux box before and never seen any slow down in performance. Never used it on a Mac ... I'm stumped.

[techieMoe]

In the previous thread, stubbe mentioned having performance issues. I'm curious to hear his perspective on this. Specifically, when using it for a long period of time (greater than half an hour) or when using it to edit very large files (1200x2400 dpi).

[ImNeat]

My girlfriend is a Photoshop nut. We both use it on macs at our job. She always spoke of wanting Photoshop at home so I installed GIMP on her windows laptop (not very powerful). She absolutely loves it - and is constantly playing around with it - but she is always saying that she could never see herself replacing Photoshop with it in the workplace. Not sure if it's because GIMP is slower or if she just doesn't like the overall feel. Whatever the reason - GIMP isn't quite the performer Photoshop is in her opinion.

[techieMoe]

My girlfriend is a Photoshop nut ... but she is always saying that she could never see herself replacing Photoshop with it in the workplace. Not sure if it's because GIMP is slower or if she just doesn't like the overall feel. Whatever the reason - GIMP isn't quite the performer Photoshop is in her opinion.

Either one is entirely possible. Although functionally I can do everything I want in GIMP the same as in Photoshop, I do tend to prefer the "overall feel" as you put it of Photoshop. It's a polished application on a Mac, and it feels...solid...for lack of a better term.

Since there is no native version of GIMP that runs on OS X without X11 and there's no native version of Photoshop that runs in Linux, it's kind of hard to benchmark performance against the two. I'm just running by my personal user experience. When a dual-core 2gHz system with 2GB of RAM has stuttering issues, there's something wrong.

[carlosponti]

i run it in windows with good results although it takes forever to load but i never get lags. all that is done on windows to get it to run is you have to install GTK2. i am surprised that they didnt have a better route to install it on a mac.

[techieMoe]

i run it in windows with good results although it takes forever to load but i never get lags. all that is done on windows to get it to run is you have to install GTK2. i am surprised that they didnt have a better route to install it on a mac.

As am I. There was a report about a year ago that someone was working on a native OS X port of GTK (thus allowing GTK apps like GIMP to run natively rather than through X11) but I haven't seen or heard anything about it since. The fact that GIMP has to run on top of X11 could be part of the performance issue.

[GNOME_n00b]

The fact that GIMP has to run on top of X11 could be part of the performance issue.

"part of"? its the sole reason.

[techieMoe]

"part of"? its the sole reason.

You seem quite sure of this. Do you have a benchmark study or some numbers to back this up? I've run other X11 applications in OS X (such as OpenOffice.org) and not noticed any appreciable slowdown.