I am in hope that someone who is knowledgeable regarding hardware can confirm that my computer would meet the system requirements for CS6. I tried to get some answers via Adobe Chat, but the person was not that helpful.

I have an old Mac Pro 1,1 Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3 GHz – vintage around 2007. The graphics card is the original NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT. I see that the system requirements for CS6 state, “Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0.” My knowledge of hardware is perhaps not as good as some, but I don’t seem to be able to find anything about the above on my computer. In Photoshop preferences (I have Design Premium CS5) under “GPU Settings” I do have “Enable OpenGL Drawing” selected and upon clicking the “Advanced Settings …” button it shows that I can only do “Mode: Basic” OpenGL—the other menu options (Normal and Advanced) are grayed-out. I see nothing about “OpenGL 2.0” and I don’t find anything about “Shader Model 3.0.” I also don’t know anything about the required “Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or 1.6.” I have been seriously considering purchasing the upgrade to CS5.5 that would allow for the automatic upgrade to CS6.

I realize that my computer is old and would like something newer and faster, but money is an object for me. Ideally, I would like another Mac Pro, but with all the rumors about that model being discontinued, I am not clear as to what I should do. I personally cannot make up my mind as to whether or not it would be wise to put any more money into my present computer. I only have 5GB of RAM and wonder if it would be that helpful to purchase more on a somewhat older Mac. I have also seen that OWC has an AIT Radeon HD 5770 graphics card for $269.99. I don’t know if that would make much of a difference or could present problems. At times I wonder if my hard drive might be slowing down, but I am not sure of that. Most things still work well, but I was frustrated when doing some 3D in Illustrator. If I so much as wanted to move an object, the entire image would disappear for one or two seconds in order to re-draw. Again, I don’t know enough as to whether or not the addition of more RAM and a new graphics card would make that much of a difference.

Perhaps I should wait to see what comes about with the Mac Pros or if and when there is a replacement. I have to admit that at times I consider going back to PCs in that Macs seem to be so over-priced. One time I was considering getting a laptop and looked at one of the lower-priced Macbook Pros. I then checked out the HP site and the laptop that I could get for the same amount was amazing. The HP had a bigger, higher resolution screen, more RAM, 3D (with glasses) and more. The difference was stark.

Anyway, I am sorry for this very long post and apologize to anyone who might have waded through it. Hopefully, it wasn’t too boring; some people find hardware interesting. Also, for me, typing is easy and the words just sort of “fly.” I would appreciate any kind help/advice that might be available.

Thank you in advance.