p.1 #1 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
Think it’s time to invest
Have been using a 10 year old iMac
Sluggish and immobile and all the negatives that go with it
Considering buying a new high end Mac laptop
To use at home, the porch, travel, everywhere..
Have not been doing video but watching an eagles nest today with two babies I realize I will start to add it to my still photos
Open to hearing about non Mac options but other than office have not had a non Mac home computer for over 30 years.
Suggests for your thoughts on
1) the best… cost no object laptop configuration
2)the best with consideration for cost but still unlikely to have regret in the near future that I did not invest more
ALSO: want to be able to connect to multiple hard drives and possibly two monitors
p.1 #2 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
sonamair wrote:
Think it’s time to invest
Have been using a 10 year old iMac
Sluggish and immobile and all the negatives that go with it
Considering buying a new high end Mac laptop
To use at home, the porch, travel, everywhere..
Have not been doing video but watching an eagles nest today with two babies I realize I will start to add it to my still photos
Open to hearing about non Mac options but other than office have not had a non Mac home computer for over 30 years.
Suggests for your thoughts on
1) the best… cost no object laptop configuration
2)the best with consideration for cost but still unlikely to have regret in the near future that I did not invest more
ALSO: want to be able to connect to multiple hard drives and possibly two monitors
If a 10-year-old iMac has been OK for you then you will be blown away with how fast the new Apple Silicon Macs are. There is absolutely nothing better right now for Lightroom and Photoshop. They also are great with other software like DxO and Capture One although Capture One is behind the technology curve so the performance can't match those other packages.
What software are you using? What cameras? Those can influence the exact specs.
Honestly for 99% of what most people will do 32GB of RAM will be enough BUT if you want to drive two high-resolution screens--4K or higher--then I'd strongly recommend 64GB of RAM. Anything more than that is almost a waste for 99.999% of the users out there.
My recommendation would be either a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip. Whichever size screen you go for, upgrade to the 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU. That will give you incredible power for doing anything photo-related. Upgrade to the 64GB of RAM to drive two high-resolution displays and still have tons of RAM available for running your applications and things like the new AI-powered functions like noise reduction.
Internal storage, I would say that most folks will be fine with a 2TB primary drive. I personally use all external TB4/USB4 NVMe SSD drives and run my Lightroom catalogs from those; some prefer to keep the catalog on the internal drive. The speed of those external drives is now so high that there is no performance penalty in Lightroom. They are tiny and easy to transport and are bus-powered so one little cable does it all.
I have done tons of benchmark testing with Lightroom Classic that I have posted here. You can almost the performance of a top of the line desktop PC in the M3 Max MacBook Pro.
One final caveat--it seems highly likely that Apple will release M4-based MacBook Pros this fall as they just released that chip with the iPad Pro this month. That chip has greatly improved performance for AI-based functions so it will undoubtedly be beneficial for photography work now and into the future. If you can wait another 6 months to get a new one, I'd suggest waiting to see. If you don't care that much then my recommendation above will serve you well for many years to come.
p.1 #3 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
jhapeman wrote:
If a 10-year-old iMac has been OK for you then you will be blown away with how fast the new Apple Silicon Macs are. There is absolutely nothing better right now for Lightroom and Photoshop. They also are great with other software like DxO and Capture One although Capture One is behind the technology curve so the performance can't match those other packages.
What software are you using? What cameras? Those can influence the exact specs.
Honestly for 99% of what most people will do 32GB of RAM will be enough BUT if you want to drive two high-resolution screens--4K or higher--then I'd strongly recommend 64GB of RAM. Anything more than that is almost a waste for 99.999% of the users out there.
My recommendation would be either a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip. Whichever size screen you go for, upgrade to the 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU. That will give you incredible power for doing anything photo-related. Upgrade to the 64GB of RAM to drive two high-resolution displays and still have tons of RAM available for running your applications and things like the new AI-powered functions like noise reduction.
Internal storage, I would say that most folks will be fine with a 2TB primary drive. I personally use all external TB4/USB4 NVMe SSD drives and run my Lightroom catalogs from those; some prefer to keep the catalog on the internal drive. The speed of those external drives is now so high that there is no performance penalty in Lightroom. They are tiny and easy to transport and are bus-powered so one little cable does it all.
I have done tons of benchmark testing with Lightroom Classic that I have posted here. You can almost the performance of a top of the line desktop PC in the M3 Max MacBook Pro.
One final caveat--it seems highly likely that Apple will release M4-based MacBook Pros this fall as they just released that chip with the iPad Pro this month. That chip has greatly improved performance for AI-based functions so it will undoubtedly be beneficial for photography work now and into the future. If you can wait another 6 months to get a new one, I'd suggest waiting to see. If you don't care that much then my recommendation above will serve you well for many years to come. ...Show more →
I'm confused... Why would more RAM have any impact on the ability to drive multiple monitors? Is this a Mac thing?
p.1 #5 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
Peter Figen wrote:
It doesn't. It's the ram on the video card that does that.
Ahh okay, knowing Apple, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a software lock in the OS that prevents you from running multiple monitors unless you pay a larger Apple tax.
p.1 #6 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
oguruma wrote:
Ahh okay, knowing Apple, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a software lock in the OS that prevents you from running multiple monitors unless you pay a larger Apple tax.
C'mon. That's just not the case. And where does that idea come from. I mean, it's not Tesla who does have a software lock on heated seats that is magically unlocked with a $300 payment.
p.1 #7 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
jhapeman wrote:
Honestly for 99% of what most people will do 32GB of RAM will be enough BUT if you want to drive two high-resolution screens--4K or higher--then I'd strongly recommend 64GB of RAM. Anything more than that is almost a waste for 99.999% of the users out there.
My recommendation would be either a 14" or 16" MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip. Whichever size screen you go for, upgrade to the 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU. That will give you incredible power for doing anything photo-related. Upgrade to the 64GB of RAM to drive two high-resolution displays and still have tons of RAM available for running your applications and things like the new AI-powered functions like noise reduction.
So I understand why you'd want to have more GPU cores if you have more than one monitor, you're certainly moving more bits around. But the memory impact of multiple monitors should be fairly modest, compared to app usage. I mean its a Mac, so we're not running high end video games. But, there is an impact. For Apple Silicon, the memory is shared, there is no separate vram.
Also, the OP asked for a suggestion for cases where cost was not a consideration, and where it was. I agree that if money is no problem an M3 Max with 64 gig is the way to go. But whether that is really worth it depends on what you're doing with the machine. If its still photography, and you're not batch processing hundreds of photos, then I think an M3 Max is overkill.
I'm running Lightroom, and occasionally Lightroom and Photoshop on an M3 Pro with 36 gigabytes of memory (32 gigbaytes isn't one of the options anymore). Most of my files are 60 megapixel Sony A7riv. I don't see any delays in postprocessing even with heavy mask usage. And while denoise benchmarks slower on the M3Pro than the Max, I'm only denoising one file at a time, so the difference between 20 seconds and 40 seconds is not really a consideration.
Memory was actually a bit more of a consideration until Lightroom 13.2. Up to that point LR could really hog memory and run up to 20-25 gigbytes of RAM. But since 13.2, Adobe really has optimized things, and I'm rarely above ~ 12 gigabytes, and often much lower.
On the other hand, if the OP wants to do a lot of video, the max with lots of memory might be the best option.
p.1 #8 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
WillR wrote:
So I understand why you'd want to have more GPU cores if you have more than one monitor, you're certainly moving more bits around. But the memory impact of multiple monitors should be fairly modest, compared to app usage. I mean its a Mac, so we're not running high end video games. But, there is an impact. For Apple Silicon, the memory is shared, there is no separate vram.
Also, the OP asked for a suggestion for cases where cost was not a consideration, and where it was. I agree that if money is no problem an M3 Max with 64 gig is the way to go. But whether that is really worth it depends on what you're doing with the machine. If its still photography, and you're not batch processing hundreds of photos, then I think an M3 Max is overkill.
I'm running Lightroom, and occasionally Lightroom and Photoshop on an M3 Pro with 36 gigabytes of memory (32 gigbaytes isn't one of the options anymore). Most of my files are 60 megapixel Sony A7riv. I don't see any delays in postprocessing even with heavy mask usage. And while denoise benchmarks slower on the M3Pro than the Max, I'm only denoising one file at a time, so the difference between 20 seconds and 40 seconds is not really a consideration.
Memory was actually a bit more of a consideration until Lightroom 13.2. Up to that point LR could really hog memory and run up to 20-25 gigbytes of RAM. But since 13.2, Adobe really has optimized things, and I'm rarely above ~ 12 gigabytes, and often much lower.
On the other hand, if the OP wants to do a lot of video, the max with lots of memory might be the best option.
p.1 #9 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
18 GB is fine for casual use like email, web browsing etc. I don't think its enough for using Lightroom. Remember that RAM is used for system resources and any other apps you have running. So if LR takes 12 GB, you have 6 GB left for everything else. You'll have lots of swapping to the disk going on.
As to 14 or 16 inch, I have 16 because I edit with the laptop screen. But if you value portability, or often use an external monitor, 14 might be fine.
p.1 #10 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
If you want to stay with Macs, just get the highest spec Macbook Pro you can afford in the screen size you prefer. Nothing can be upgraded as time goes on, so it's best to buy a little bit above what you might need today. Unfortunately Apple marks up the price of their upgrades like SSD size by literally 1000%, but it is what it is. I would suggest a minimum 32GB RAM.
If you want an equivalent performing Windows machine without spending an arm and a leg, look at models like the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i (2024), Asus Zephyrus G14/G16 (2024), or Lenovo P1 Gen 7 just to name a few. There are so many to choose from.
The best "cost no object" laptop configuration is going to be a bulky gaming machine using what are essentially desktop-grade parts - it will blow away everything else but with lots of downsides and it will not be as convenient to use on the go. I personally wouldn't recommend going that route for a Lightroom machine, especially if you travel, but they exist if you want it haha. They are basically desktop replacements.
If you've used Macs for 30 years and are happy with them, you might prefer to stick to what you're used to. If you want to try something else, there are lots of other great options too that have their own strengths such as being upgradable over time, better screen options, etc. It's really just a matter of preference as you aren't going to be disappointed by either, especially if all you're doing is photo editing and even more so if you're upgrading from a 10 year old machine.
p.1 #12 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
oguruma wrote:
I'm confused... Why would more RAM have any impact on the ability to drive multiple monitors? Is this a Mac thing?
In the Apple Silicon architecture the RAM is all unified--it's the same for video, ANE and CPU. So yes, it matters, and the higher the resolution of the screen the more the amount of RAM available to the GPUs matters.
p.1 #14 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
I have a 2020 MacBook Air M1 with 16GB RAM and 250 SSD I use for travel. It is faster at everything than my 2019 iMac intel, 64GB RAM and 8GB VRAM. The only thing that the iMac was faster at was Adobe Denoise AI. The iMac takes about 33 seconds. The Air used to take 115 seconds but since the release of LrC 13.3 it now takes about 25 seconds.
All AI eats VRAM I'm so glad I got 8GB for my iMac. While 33 seconds is long it is tolerable.
As others stated no more separate VRAM for Macs M chip. Unified memory now. Lately I have been looking at the options out there. Any M chip will blow you away but get the newest version that you can for the laptop. Beef up the processing and RAM as much as you can afford. Reading other sites the. Processing power comes first then comes RAM. I'd try to get al least 32GB RAM.
Also my iMacs SSD is 500GB and my MacBook Air is 250GB. Both are never more than half full. I save money in that area and put it into processing and RAM. I store all my files on external drives.
p.1 #16 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
Take a look at Artisright on YouTube. He benchmarks every Apple config with LR and other editing apps. It will give you a great idea on what performance gains you’ll get with you $$
p.1 #18 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
jhapeman wrote:
Internal storage, I would say that most folks will be fine with a 2TB primary drive. I personally use all external TB4/USB4 NVMe SSD drives and run my Lightroom catalogs from those; some prefer to keep the catalog on the internal drive. The speed of those external drives is now so high that there is no performance penalty in Lightroom. They are tiny and easy to transport and are bus-powered so one little cable does it all.
Do you have any updates on your previous recommendations for external drives? I got (on your recommendation) a Sabrent SSD with Acasis enclosure and it's been great, but mine is only 2 TB and I have a weekend gig coming up later this summer at a remote location where I'll be shooting at least 3 terabytes of video in addition to photos and audio recordings, so I'm going to have to get some more drives (one for transfer from card and another for backup...for backup I'll probably just use a hard disk).
p.1 #19 · Best Laptop purchase recommendation's for photography
bjhurley wrote:
Do you have any updates on your previous recommendations for external drives? I got (on your recommendation) a Sabrent SSD with Acasis enclosure and it's been great, but mine is only 2 TB and I have a weekend gig coming up later this summer at a remote location where I'll be shooting at least 3 terabytes of video in addition to photos and audio recordings, so I'm going to have to get some more drives (one for transfer from card and another for backup...for backup I'll probably just use a hard disk).
Nope, those are still my first choice! I use the Sabrent 8TB drives.
