Hello everyone. I am in the need of a laptop that is powerful enough to run the various photo editing software, such as LR, Topaz etc. I am a PC user. Just a note. I plan to use the laptop during African safari trips. Can anyone suggest a laptop?
Thanks for your help...Al
Edit for clarity:
Edit:
I should've included this information in the original post:
My main workstation has the Ryzen 9 7900X, 4090 gpu, Gen 4 NVME, 128gb ram. What laptop (PC or Mac) would be comparable to my desktop setup?
I use an Alienware 18 Area-51 laptop. It has the Intel Ultra 9 and nvidia 5090 GPU card in it. It is very smooth and fast. More and more things are using the power of a good graphic card. It makes a large difference in the speed of processing and editing. As background, I am the furthest thing from a gamer. The gaming PCs just have the right hardware.
I suggest this should be cross-posted to the Post-processing and Printing forum. I think you can edit the post without starting over.
How much performance, size/weight, and cost you need will drive the decision.
I have various laptops, dekstops, storage servers, etc. but after nearly two dozen safaris in Africa I do it a bit differently. I travel with a lightweight 14 laptop (2.3 lbs.) containing 16TB of SSDs. It's adequate for basic work (200H CPU), but not a lot of AI processing. I do the heavy lifting back home. If you need a performance laptop, it probably will be on the larger size (>5 lbs.). I recommend at least a mobile 5080 and 200HX series CPU. Most larger laptops have the full sized 2280 M.2 slots, preferrably two.
mjc wrote:
Apple silicon chips are efficient; might be a consideration for an African safari trip. Assumes you are in the 'eco system'. Also, budget?
Second that. The MacBook Air is slightly more expensive than an equivalent PC - Windows laptop, but the efficiency of the operating system and the very high performance of the M series Apple Silicon more than makes up for that. I can run RAW processing using concurrently Photoshop, ON-1 and with many other apps open, and this is a 2020 M-1 with 16GB. Advantage for travel: no fan so less possibility of dust ingestion. The current Air M4 version, $760 on Amazon, is more powerful, all day battery life. A MacBook Pro M5 is more expensive but does offer more ports (the SDXC is particularly relevant) as well as a higher M5 performance at equivalent chip and memory configuration.
I see the cost of my computing infrastructure (1 laptop, 1 desktop, two hi-res monitors, printers, storage, software, etc..) and the iPad as part of the total photographic equipment investment. I have a couple of camera bodies each in the multiple thousands, lenses from hundreds to thousands of dollars each, plus a few thousand bucks or more of flash, lights, reflectors, filters, batteries, tripods, etc.. SO it makes sense to me to match this with the cost of the computer used to process the images, and the software licensing to get the best tools for post-processing. This is a complete ecosystem.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've never used a MacBook before so not familiar with it. Are they difficult to navigate? EB-1 I will post over there. I am always perusing the Canon forum and just automatically posted here.
Methodical wrote:
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've never used a MacBook before so not familiar with it. Are they difficult to navigate? EB-1 I will post over there. I am always perusing the Canon forum and just automatically posted here.
Changing OS, be it from Windows to MacOS or the reverse, will take some getting used to, but the differences have become less challenging over the years. Most importantly, once inside them the apps are very similar, and that is where you spend most of your time.
Do you have a workstation back home and if so I recommend you keep the OS's the same. If your laptop will also be your main workstation at home, then I would recommend a macbook air...but ensure you have enough time to get familiar with the differences in OS's before you travel.
Methodical wrote:
Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've never used a MacBook before so not familiar with it. Are they difficult to navigate? EB-1 I will post over there. I am always perusing the Canon forum and just automatically posted here.
I recently made the change and to be honest I'm not really having an issue working it. Last time I touched an Apple Computer was during high school in the 80's. It is different and there is a learning curve but man am I happy I made the change.
I have the ASUS G14 RTX 5070TI 14 inch RAM 32GB (the RTX5080 could be an option), I don't think there is a competitor more powerful than this computer in this segment for the quality of the screen and the size (including MACs), a little faster than an Apple M3 Ultra in OpenCL not considering video, has a good size for traveling, terrific SRGB screen that does not cause eye strain like the DELL's I had in past or even worse the Minileds screens that could be pretty bad for the eyes in most cases (there are people than don't suffer from this thing, but I do), powerful enough to work with PS and Davinci.
I never liked MACOS because for my use I like much more Windows 11 except regarding to HDR how is managed in Windows that could be better in MACOS, but this is my personal experience.
I process my R5MKII pictures very fast.
As a suggestion is important to setup correctly the drivers otherwise you will have problems.
I changed the SSD that comes by default for a 2TB one.
Last note, Windows laptops are to be used plugged if you need the full power, on battery using the full power of the eGPU will last 3 hrs, without the eGPU could be 7 hours aprox, I use every laptop plugged so for my use is not an issue.
For the reference, processing a R5MKII raw with DXO Pureraw XD2, it completes the full process in 8 seconds and Topaz Photo Pro 1.0.2 with a ISO 25600 RAW, 8 seconds, Adobe denoise 10 seconds.
Such a coincidence
I too was thinking my old old laptop was struggling these days - and I only shoot JPEG’s!! 🤣
So we went to the local electronics store… minefield!!
Toying with the idea of going for the all-in-one desk top with big wide panorama monitor….
I then realised the headache of having to install and pay annual subscription for security…plus you now seem to have to sign up for subscriptions for MS Word
Sod that..
I’m going to just pay the extra and go grab an apple pc - not sure which yet. Can’t be doing with these continuous add-on subscriptions for everything these days.. like bloody leeches sucking you dry!!
I'll be contrarian on the Macbook Air recommendaions, based on first-hand experience. The Macbook Air, compared to the same generation Macbook Pro (i.e. M4 vs. M4), is excruciatingly slow to do batch image processing. And when it gets hot enough to thermally throttle the CPU speed/performance over and above its slower speed vs. other models, then it becomes pretty much unusable for anything more than the most trivial image manipulations. And rest assured that it will thermally throttle - it's simple physics. The same great form factor that makes it so light and portable also is what causes it to have a much lower TDP (thermal design point) resulting in thermal throttling when the somewhat larger and beefier models with active cooling would still be good.
I purchased an M4 Air, tried my usual LR and PS flows on a number of photos, and it was just excruciating to sit there waiting for it to do something like a denoise or any AI-type intensive operation. Photo AI (now Topaz Photo) and DXO PureRaw were pretty much unusable. I wound up returning it and replacing it with an M4 Pro CPU with enough horsepower, enough memory and less exposure to thermal throttling.
Laptop for Safari?
Trip one: took my iPad Pro (1 TB), downloaded photos to it every day and let it sync with the cloud over night. Ok for culling, not good for editing.
Trip two: Took an MSI laptop with i9 and rtx graphics. Great, but heavy and the PS is a brick. Not good on bush planes. Poor battery life. Over heated in the African sun.
Trip three: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i. Major Wifi issues in Kenya. Light, fast, great battery llife, and then the screen failed in Africa. No available repair in Nairobi or elsewhere. Qualcom chip had to run LrC in emulation and poorly at that. LR Cloudy was OK. When i got back, Lenovo said not covered in warranty as it had water damage. (Had a water bottle in backpack with all my gear, but no leaks but a little condensation)
Trip four: Macbook Pro M4 14", with M4 Pro chip and 24 GB UM. Fabulous but throttled some with DxO running batch noise reduction in the background while using LrC with several Browser tabs open and syncing with LR cloudy at the same time. Upgraded to 48GB UM...all issues disappeared. The thing is a beast. Got it because all the Pangolin people had MBPros. Tried to hate it as everyone knows Windoze is better. (). It took everything I threw at it with style and grace.
After great experiences with the MBP (taxed it with everything I had: i.e LR, LrC, Dxo PR5 and PL9, Luminar, and even fooled with Affinity), Last week I bought a Mac Studio and dumped Windoze altogether after 40 years. M4 Max, 128GB Unified Memory and a two TB SSD. Should have done it sooner. On the road the MBP will talk to the Studio at home. It all talks to my iPhone and Watch as well. All my other software (except some Ashampoo stuff) and the photo stuff runs on the Mac like lightening. Five seconds or less to Denoise a CR3 45 mps file in LrC. PS AI stuff? I don't even need to use cloud credits. All runs locally.
I am now firmly a Mac user. Took a bit to transfer my Windoze brain to Mac, but actually easy.
Just my $0.02
They're right when they say "Once on a Mac, You'll never go back."
I am a windows user also, but because of need to review / copy / do initial edits, I purchaed a MBP 14 inch, 24GB Ram M4 Pro. Could not have been happier.
Its not that hard a add on as a photo user, my main computer is still a PC due to need for large NVME storage; Get a Mac Book Pro, there really isnt anything in the PC world that is portable and comparable in capablities of Performance + Battery life.
My MBP at least as fast as my workstation : 64GB , i7 13.7k, all NVME Gen 4, RTX 3070.
aboulenein wrote:
I'll be contrarian on the Macbook Air recommendaions, based on first-hand experience. The Macbook Air, compared to the same generation Macbook Pro (i.e. M4 vs. M4), is excruciatingly slow to do batch image processing. And when it gets hot enough to thermally throttle the CPU speed/performance over and above its slower speed vs. other models, then it becomes pretty much unusable for anything more than the most trivial image manipulations. And rest assured that it will thermally throttle - it's simple physics. The same great form factor that makes it so light and portable also is what causes it to have a much lower TDP (thermal design point) resulting in thermal throttling when the somewhat larger and beefier models with active cooling would still be good.
I purchased an M4 Air, tried my usual LR and PS flows on a number of photos, and it was just excruciating to sit there waiting for it to do something like a denoise or any AI-type intensive operation. Photo AI (now Topaz Photo) and DXO PureRaw were pretty much unusable. I wound up returning it and replacing it with an M4 Pro CPU with enough horsepower, enough memory and less exposure to thermal throttling....Show more →
Interesting counterpoint indeed, what was the memory of the MacBook Air? It is only recently that 16 GB has become standard, and the 8 GB of earlier models did indeed not tolerate much in terms of heavy apps (guess that now 24 GB would be the better option). I do not know DxO or PhotoAI, but I do notice that my PS Adobe software is generally very resource intensive and still does a lot of swapping even when you have ample memory. I switched to ON-1 5 years ago for RAW workflows and find it quite efficient, with a net improvement using the 2025 and subsequent versions. On the question of which model, the laptop and/or tablet I travel which is not the workhorse, it needs to be robust and lightweight, and allow for enough software features to verify that the day's shooting does not have any fatal flaws from either inept photographer choices, wrong camera settings or some malfunction of the cameras or lenses. I leave more in-depth processing to when I get home. Since travel involves some level of physical and environment abuse, I prefer that the computer be relatively inexpensive and ultimately expendable, so a $900 MacBook Air is a fair compromise. (camera insurance does not include computers).
Very rarely if ever taken a laptop, seriously who wants to fight with a computer on vacation?
If emptying cards youd need 2-3 other drives, none likely to be as impact or water resistant as regular sd cards, whatever the risks of just leaving photos on a card. Maybe you need 30fps in Africa etc, but there are reasons im not really interested in the fast frame rates.
I tried Apple years ago, didn't seem better than Windows, lost interest. Open office should still be available for free also defender AV is free, other free AV out there.
). It took everything I threw at it with style and grace.