Looking at the system requirements for Adobe After Effects CS5-Mac provides a fascinating snapshot of hardware history.
Prior to CS5, After Effects was a 32-bit application. On Mac OS X, this severely limited the amount of Random Access Memory (RAM) the software could address. A 32-bit application can typically only utilize about 2GB to 4GB of RAM. For motion graphics artists working with high-definition footage (1080p was becoming the standard, and 4K was on the horizon), this was a bottleneck. The software was constantly writing to the hard drive scratch disks because it ran out of memory, leading to the dreaded "Out of Memory" errors during renders. Adobe After Effect CS5-Mac
However, for the collector or the legacy media archivist, represents the last great "buy once, use forever" version of Adobe's flagship motion graphics tool. It was the version that bridged the gap between standard definition and the HD explosion. It allowed Mac users to finally break the 3GB RAM wall. Looking at the system requirements for Adobe After