Your Apple Aperture Questions Answered

Q. Is there a Windows version of Aperture?

A. No. But look out for a version compiled to run on an Intel Processor in 2006!

Q. Does Aperture run on Panther?

A. No, it does not. You need Tiger version 10.4.3 as a minimum.

Q. Will Aperture run on an iMac G5?

A. If you have a 1.8GHz processor, maybe. But you also need to have the right graphics card. The GeForce FX 5200 is not supported, for example. To find which graphics card you have, choose "About This Mac" from the Apple menu, and then click the "More Info" tab. Select PCI/AGP cards from the Contents list, and you will see the card you have installed. You need one of the following:

ATI Radeon x600 Pro or x600 XT
ATI Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition
ATI Radeon X850 XT
ATI Radeon 9800 XT or 9800 Pro
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
ATI Radeon 9600, 9600 XT, 9600 Pro, or 9650
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE or 6600
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL or 6800 GT DDL
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500

Q. Is Aperture a Photoshop killer?

A. No, we don't think so. Not in version 1.0, anyway. The editing tools are too basic, and you will need Photoshop for comping, masking, and advanced editing techniques. Think of Aperture as iPhoto on steroids. It's a very quick way of working with RAW digital camera shots - a pro application requiring a pro-spec machine. Now you know why a PowerMac G5 costs more than an iMac.