p.3 #2 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
This is completely incorrect and easily proven so with even a tiny bit of effort and research. In fact, my results clearly show that the newer and faster CPUs/GPUs complete the tasks in less time, and they are using the same speed SSD and RAM (all of the Apple Silicon generations use the same LPDDR5 memory).
My PCs I've used for testing also have PCIe NVMe RAID and it didn't give them any edge. This is a thread about the performance of Lightroom on the new Apple Silicon Macs; if you don't have anything better than a baseless whine to contribute then you're just trolling.
p.3 #4 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
OK, my new 16" M3 Max MacBook Pro arrived yesterday and I got it all set up by last evening and then ran some of my usual tests. I had to redo the tests for the Adobe AI DeNoise because after Lightroom 13.0 was released I discovered that while the DNG files it creates are smaller, its also slower by almost 20%--no doubt that time is being used to compress the DNG file.
I didn't read all the posts so sorry I this was already posted. Lightroom now uses JPEG XL compression rather than JPEG. This is a little slower, but the quality is just as good, and the space savings are huge. The bug that prevents the use of the Neural Engine cores has not been addressed by Apple as far as I know.
p.3 #5 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Zenon Char wrote:
I didn't read all the posts so sorry I this was already posted. Lightroom now uses JPEG XL compression rather than JPEG. This is a little slower, but the quality is just as good, and the space savings are huge. The bug that prevents the use of the Neural Engine cores has not been addressed by Apple as far as I know.
You can choose JPEG XL but it still defaults to JPEG compression. I did all of the tests in regular JPEG same as in the past.
Still no word on the neural engine bugs, but it could have been fixed by Apple and Adobe is still working on validation, for all we know. The lack of information about this is pretty annoying.
p.3 #6 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
You can choose JPEG XL but it still defaults to JPEG compression. I did all of the tests in regular JPEG same as in the past.
Still no word on the neural engine bugs, but it could have been fixed by Apple and Adobe is still working on validation, for all we know. The lack of information about this is pretty annoying.
You can choose that in the RAW to DNG conversion. As for as Enhance we can't choose as far as I know. It's JPEG XL compression.
Hopefully something is coming. I tried LrC 13. 0.1 with Sonoma's recent update to 14.1.1 on my M1 and I didn't see any speed improvements. That as a lengthy update for a 0.0.1.
p.3 #7 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
Yes, I noticed that as well although I was wondering if that was just a change Apple made in how much it is pushing the processors. I felt like on the M1 generation there was performance left on the table as it seemed impossible to really push the CPU/GPU really hard.
The only time I've had the fans spin up is during the preview generation (I don't generate previews at import all of the time; if you import without previews it won't spin up the fans) and exports. Preview generation will hit all of the CPU cores hard and exports use the CPU and GPU.
Video from MaxTech definitely shows the 14" spins up and appears to throttle vs the 16" with same M3 Max chips
?feature=shared
Guess I can live with the fan noise when I push the system on previews and exporting but I do miss how quiet the M1 Pro (though at a cost of far slower processing times)
p.3 #8 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
eyal wrote:
Video from MaxTech definitely shows the 14" spins up and appears to throttle vs the 16" with same M3 Max chips
?feature=shared
Guess I can live with the fan noise when I push the system on previews and exporting but I do miss how quiet the M1 Pro (though at a cost of far slower processing times)
This is nothing new though; that's been the case with every version of the Apple silicon MacBook Pros, they have always throttled on the 14" a little more as the thermals there are more tightly constrained.
As for the fans, even the M1 Max would spin up the fans on big batch previews/batch exports. As you noted, it's' the trade off for more performance. No way to avoid some heat. If you want to feel better though, try a PC notebook. We have one in the office we use for doing CAD renderings and when it runs it sounds like a jet taking off.
p.3 #10 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Rajan Parrikar wrote:
Of these two choices:
M3 Max, 14 core CPU, 30 core GPU, with 96GB RAM
or
M3 Max, 16 core CPU, 40 core GPU, with 64GB RAM
which one would be best for Photoshop/ACR/Lightroom AND Final Cut Pro X (video) work?
The price difference is rather small.
I would definitely recommend the 16" vs 14" MBP--which one are you considering? The 14" will thermally throttle more than the 16". As for core counts, any of the tasks that use the GPU like the AI DeNoise and masking get a performance boost. I'd personally recommend the 16/40/64 for this reason. Batch imports and exports will be faster in LR with the additional CPU and GPU cores as well. In my testing with several of the M1-M3 machines, once you hit 64GB of RAM there were diminishing to no returns in LR and Photoshop. I don't do a ton of FCP work, but I've never had it consume a ton of RAM on me even when editing some 8K clips from my Sony A1.
p.3 #11 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
I think the he's asking about cores/gpus v RAM, rather than chassis size.
I agree with you, I'd go for cores once you get to so much RAM, simply because it is likely to make editing more responsive, which is more important than rendering time, at least to me. I don't bother generating previews with the M3 Max as editing is so fast and I don't usually edit every image.
p.3 #12 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
I would definitely recommend the 16" vs 14" MBP--which one are you considering? The 14" will thermally throttle more than the 16". As for core counts, any of the tasks that use the GPU like the AI DeNoise and masking get a performance boost. I'd personally recommend the 16/40/64 for this reason. Batch imports and exports will be faster in LR with the additional CPU and GPU cores as well. In my testing with several of the M1-M3 machines, once you hit 64GB of RAM there were diminishing to no returns in LR and Photoshop. I don't do a ton of FCP work, but I've never had it consume a ton of RAM on me even when editing some 8K clips from my Sony A1. ...Show more →
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Goodrich wrote:
I think the he's asking about cores/gpus v RAM, rather than chassis size.
I agree with you, I'd go for cores once you get to so much RAM, simply because it is likely to make editing more responsive, which is more important than rendering time, at least to me. I don't bother generating previews with the M3 Max as editing is so fast and I don't usually edit every image.
Jeff & Goodrich - thank you both for your inputs.
I'm buying the 14" for reasons of portability. This will be my backup machine as well my travel companion. By all accounts, it will be more powerful than my current desktop, the iMac Pro, 64GB RAM.
Based on what you two say, better to choose the option with more cores together with 64GB.
p.3 #13 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Are you implying that the thermal constraints of the 14" vs 16" might actually negate the benefit of more cores and RAM on a 14" beefed up M3 Max? So if you were performing big batches, as soon as the load pushed the thermal protection algorithm to turn the fans on and they needed to stay on, the CPU/GPUs would be throttled and you might not get more effective performance on big batches than a less beefed up 14" M3 Max?
I've been hoping to upgrade my location MBP to M3 Max from M1 Pro for about $3K because I was planning on upgrading my desktop from Studio M1 Ultra to M3 Ultra next spring (whenever they are released) and that will likely be costly. I have always gone with the 15/16" models, but I was thinking the 14" would be lighter for my back and save me a little money and not too painful for editing on location with a smaller screen. I value responsiveness when editing in LR (pasting settings, zooming in to heal, comparing photos often, etc) versus a little longer big batch time.
p.3 #14 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
I also use a 14" MBP for travel (still use a PC for my desktop at home). I'm, just back from a 2 month x-country driving trip, east to west and back and I downloaded files (A1 and A7R5) that I'd taken pretty much every day and did some PP. The MBP which is an M1 Max/64GB with 10 core CPU / 24 core GPU did not want for anything. I threw a good number of panos and HDRs at it, a few focus stacks and some multi-layer lightpainted images and was never twiddling my thumbs (as I am with my desktop which is 8 years and due for an upgrade). Denoise takes a little time for this older chip with less GPU cores but I just let it do it's thing and move onto the next image.
So this is not a configuration being considered, I realize that, but I commented because I think any high level M2 or M3 options is going to be just fine unless you are doing some pretty heroic PP past what I mentioned.
The longest things for me were waiting while files were copied (to an external Thunderbolt 3 drive), I suggest switching to CFE-A cards (I did, much faster, but only had 1 for each camera, so once filled I was back to SD V90). Next were exporting jpgs (3600p wide) and the last uploading to my web pages.
I will say that the 14" is a bit too small for me, but I don't know if 16" would be noticeably better (straightening horizons for eg and fine brush work). I opted not to take an external screen though I have done so in the past on long x-c trips.
p.3 #15 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
ptakeuchi wrote:
Are you implying that the thermal constraints of the 14" vs 16" might actually negate the benefit of more cores and RAM on a 14" beefed up M3 Max? So if you were performing big batches, as soon as the load pushed the thermal protection algorithm to turn the fans on and they needed to stay on, the CPU/GPUs would be throttled and you might not get more effective performance on big batches than a less beefed up 14" M3 Max?
I've been hoping to upgrade my location MBP to M3 Max from M1 Pro for about $3K because I was planning on upgrading my desktop from Studio M1 Ultra to M3 Ultra next spring (whenever they are released) and that will likely be costly. I have always gone with the 15/16" models, but I was thinking the 14" would be lighter for my back and save me a little money and not too painful for editing on location with a smaller screen. I value responsiveness when editing in LR (pasting settings, zooming in to heal, comparing photos often, etc) versus a little longer big batch time....Show more →
I'm not sure it would entirely negate the benefits of the greater core count except perhaps when doing large batches, but the 14" does most definitely throttle down sooner as it gets hotter faster. It's just the basic physics of heat and heat dissipation. It would likely depend on the size of the batches you are running and how often you are doing to them to decide if it really matters or not.
Personally after having used a 16" I can't go back to a 14". Even culling photos is less pleasant with a smaller screen. While it does weigh more, if you're just transporting it to sites then most of the time you're not carrying it around.
p.3 #16 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
jhapeman wrote:
I'm not sure it would entirely negate the benefits of the greater core count except perhaps when doing large batches, but the 14" does most definitely throttle down sooner as it gets hotter faster. It's just the basic physics of heat and heat dissipation. It would likely depend on the size of the batches you are running and how often you are doing to them to decide if it really matters or not.
Personally after having used a 16" I can't go back to a 14". Even culling photos is less pleasant with a smaller screen. While it does weigh more, if you're just transporting it to sites then most of the time you're not carrying it around. ...Show more →
I know what you mean about 16 vs 14 size. Just trying to reign in spending. I’ve never used less than a 15-inch for my laptop so it might just be frustrating. And I ended up watching the linked video above and a few art is right ones and the performance hit is around 5-10% on long batches, but the other negative is the increased battery consumption from the fans. The 16-in chassis provides the bigger battery and better passive cooling and more efficient bigger fans. Tradeoffs.
p.3 #17 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Thank you for posting the graphs and the video link on the first page. This is interesting to me because my M1M 16“ just got destroyed beyond repair. I don’t need a laptop going forward, so will be upgrading to a Studio in the coming months. Interesting to see that the M1U is still really competitive with the newest chips. Can‘t wait to see the incremental M3 ultra performance gain compared to M2U and M1U. Maybe a bargain M1U is in my cart in the coming months as it seems that this gives the best bang for bucks for a hobbyist like myself. Cheers
p.3 #18 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Lots of great insight and knowledgeable folks in this thread. Thank you for sharing.
So, if I were to go to design a new Apple laptop today - what are the complete specs that would you recommend? Buy once, suffer once. Don’t mind spending money, if it’s going somewhere useful.
A7r5
Big files
No video handling
Just LR
Currently, I have to turn GPU off because I am dealing with the artifacts issue in Lightroom, possibly due to using an older Mac Pro. Not sure.
I run one 32” benq monitor. But would be happy to have the ability to run two screens in the future.
I think I’d prefer 14”. But if thermal issues or spec capability is an issue here, I can go with 16”.
I will prob get 64gb of ram
But I don’t know about all of the other options.
p.3 #19 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
I regret getting the 14" Macbook Pro with only 16 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage. Unfortunately, Apple charges usurious amount of extra capacities. I feel like 32 GB and 4 TB should be minimum specs now.
p.3 #20 · New Lightroom Benchmarks: Mac M3 Max and PC
Question for the people who know alot more than i do.
Will there be a performance hit when editing photography files from an external drive as opposed to an internal drive? Iam trying to avoid the crazy apple price on a drive increase.
