Hello All,
I have decided to upgrade my Mac Air M2 16GB since I can't edit the RAW files from my Nikon Z8 anymore without the laptop completely throwing a tantrum.
I am thinking of spending the cash and getting a Macbook Pro in this spec. What do you guys think? Will this guy last me 5-6 years? I really don't like upgrading systems a lot and this'll be a lot of money to spend on a laptop
14 inch MBP Pro----Apple M5 Pro 18-Core CPU; 48GB Unified Memory; 1TB Solid State; 20-Core GPU
I am using an external SSD. When i bought this laptop, I didn't know that i'd take photography a bit more seriously.
The NEF files are around 65-70MB and the laptop takes a decent amount of time loading the pictures. It also hangs up in the middle. I am using DXO Photolab 9.
Could be the case that your external storage is not up to the task. Tried running an Apple Photos library off a bus powered Crucial X9 and X10 with poor results. Thunderbolt works a lot better (currently running my Apple Photos and Capture One libraries from a refurbished Kioxia CD6 U.2 drive, which I got in ‘the good old days’ when flash was cheap, in an OWC enclosure).
That said nothing wrong with the MacBook Pro you spec’ed (I have the 24gb/1tb variant and I love it).
Your spec'd MBP will be better for sure. What I can't be sure of is wether you'll be satisfied with the improved results. There is a significant internal difference between the pro and max versions of the M5 chip when it comes to processing. The Max doubles the GPU cores and doubles the memory bandwidth. Of course, the Max comes with a price change as well. Being highly reliant on processing, since I use my MBP on the sidelines to provide soccer action captures, I recently upgraded from a MBP M1 Max 32gb to a M5 Max 64GB. Both were spec'd with highest amount of cores available at purchase. The M5 Max definitely was worth the upgrade IMO.
Sorrymanagement wrote:
Hello All,
I have decided to upgrade my Mac Air M2 16GB since I can't edit the RAW files from my Nikon Z8 anymore without the laptop completely throwing a tantrum.
I am thinking of spending the cash and getting a Macbook Pro in this spec. What do you guys think? Will this guy last me 5-6 years? I really don't like upgrading systems a lot and this'll be a lot of money to spend on a laptop
14 inch MBP Pro----Apple M5 Pro 18-Core CPU; 48GB Unified Memory; 1TB Solid State; 20-Core GPU
It's currently on sale for $2507 at Microcenter.
I suspect that your main problem with the current setup is having only 16GB in it rather than that the processor is too underpowered.
With that in mind, upping the unified memory in a new laptop like the one you are considering is important. For work with large raw files I feel that 48GB is a decent amount of memory, though given that you don’t intend to upgrade again for 5-6 years and that Mac memory is not upgradable, I’d consider a bit more in order to give yourself a buffer for future needs near the end of that period.
I think that a 1TB SSD is good as long as you are OK with what some might regard as limited internal memory for storing those raw files. Given the extreme costs of going beyond that — and that possibility that even 2TB or more might not ultimately be enough to store all of your photo archive internally — plan to augment the 1 TB SSD as needed with an external SSD.
One more off-the-wall idea: Are you getting the laptop because you often must work remotely? If it is just a matter of smaller size and lower cost, the Mac mini has a lot to offer — quite a bit of power in a very small package and at pretty reasonable cost. I actually moved to a high-end spec mini last year and I’m very happy with it.
Yeah. that's what i am afraid of. I move around a lot and that's why i didn't consider the MAC mini. I like a one and done solution and my old Macbook Pro from 2014 lasted me 8 years before it called it quits. I'll check it out.
I have the same worry as you said. 48GB might be enough for now but it might not be enough after 2-3 years.
One rule I set for myself when upgrading a computer. Don't skimp, especially with Mac's since, as Dan pointed out, they are not upgradable. While there's no such thing as future proofing, you can potentially eek out a couple of extra years by purchasing the best core count and ram available. Note: the M6 version is expected later on this fall. If you can wait that might be a better approach. Also, at that time the M5 version might be somewhat less costly.
I upgraded when the M3 was cutting edge. First, the suggestion that you go with an M5 Max as baseline is solid. I opted for 64GB memory and still consider that a minimum. I’ve actually run out of memory on occasion, but you did say that you wanted to future proof. 1TB is a serious limitation. The good news is that adding expensive Thunderbolt 5 external SSD can be quite helpful, but it still isn’t up to the same speed as the internal drive. Honestly, on my next system I’ll go for 4 TB internal. Apple memory is very expensive, but external isn’t exactly a best buy. Performance, in this SSD shortage environment is very expensive, but you don’t get a second shot at getting this right. Personally, I would wait until the dual OLED touch screen MacBooks come to market. Perhaps, we will even start to see some relief from the high memory prices sometime in 2027. Keep you eyes on the September Apple event.
I use LRC, so don’t know how your photo editor uses resources, but Adobe continues to add “AI” photo editing features that are heavily GPU dependent and recently tweaked for Apple silicon, so another aspect of future proof might involve a bump up in GPU count..
Sorrymanagement wrote:
Yeah. that's what i am afraid of. I move around a lot and that's why i didn't consider the MAC mini. I like a one and done solution and my old Macbook Pro from 2014 lasted me 8 years before it called it quits. I'll check it out.
I have the same worry as you said. 48GB might be enough for now but it might not be enough after 2-3 years.
I put 48GB in a mini that works beautifully for Photoshop and ACR, and connects to my two-monitor setup, a host of external drives, and an Epson P9000 printer. For still photography, 48GB is plenty for all but a very few.
But 5-6 years is a long time in the computer world, and you want a larger buffer against increased software RAM requirements if you intent to stretch it that long. If you simply cannot afford more than 48G, then it will work now and for a good period of time going forward. If. you can afford to increase it a bit then your 5-6 years goal is a bit more solid, I think.
In the end, there’s no solid, objective way to know what will be minimally enough in a half dozen years… or whether other advances might make the whole computer seem too slow at that point. So you make your best guess, likely erring a bit (but not too much!) on the side of over-spec’ing a bit.
Sorrymanagement wrote:
Hello All,
I have decided to upgrade my Mac Air M2 16GB since I can't edit the RAW files from my Nikon Z8 anymore without the laptop completely throwing a tantrum.
I am thinking of spending the cash and getting a Macbook Pro in this spec. What do you guys think? Will this guy last me 5-6 years? I really don't like upgrading systems a lot and this'll be a lot of money to spend on a laptop
14 inch MBP Pro----Apple M5 Pro 18-Core CPU; 48GB Unified Memory; 1TB Solid State; 20-Core GPU
It's currently on sale for $2507 at Microcenter.
Sorrymanagement wrote:
I am using an external SSD. When i bought this laptop, I didn't know that i'd take photography a bit more seriously.
The NEF files are around 65-70MB and the laptop takes a decent amount of time loading the pictures. It also hangs up in the middle. I am using DXO Photolab 9.
DXO is absolutely CPU/GPU hungry. It'll eat up whatever you're using and still ask for more.
As others said, nothing wrong with your suggestion, but is a laptop absolutely essential? I run a Win tower, which has allowed me a lot of latitude for upgrades. As such, I was able to keep my last tower running for about a decade. I recently upgraded a few years ago but I'm pretty sure I can keep the current tower for at least 3-4 more years, likely more.
Sorrymanagement wrote:
I am using an external SSD. When i bought this laptop, I didn't know that i'd take photography a bit more seriously.
The NEF files are around 65-70MB and the laptop takes a decent amount of time loading the pictures. It also hangs up in the middle. I am using DXO Photolab 9.
Well part of your problem is that you aren't shooting in HE* which will halve your filesizes and make LR much more responsive. You lose nothing by doing this.
Anyways, my M1 16gb is enough to handle these files, so your M2 should be as well.
All good suggestions. I returned from a trip to Alaska and came with a terabyte worth of pictures and videos and they have basically overwhelmed by system.
i'll have to wait and see what happens in the September Apple event
If you’re having performance problems, first profile the system during normal use to identify problem area(s). OP, since you’re running a Mac - you have some mature solutions at hand.
Option 1: Use the Mac’s built-in system profiler; if you have a lot of red memory pressure & consistent swap usage - it’s a signal that you need more memory. Have a look at CPU & GPU utilization for similar trends.
Option 2: Download a 14-day free-trial of iStat Menus, and profile the system. I like this approach since the software will allow you to review longer history, and thus you can just use your computer for a week and then review its performance characteristics.
Either of those two tools will help you understand if memory, CPU, or GPU are bottlenecks. However, since your photos are written-to/read-from an external SSD - you’ll also want to validate the performance there. Something like the BlackMagic Speed Test app will verify that you’re getting the read/write speeds you expect, as well as pinpoint whether you’re seeing throttling due to using more than 75% capacity or hitting thermal throttling due to heavy sustained usage. You’ll also want to verify that the cable and port usage are a good fit for the rated SSD speed.
As an aside: I use DXO Photolab (latest generation) on my M4 Mac Mini Pro with 48GB memory, and rarely see it stress CPU & GPU - even when doing batch edits of fifty 70MB+ files at a go. And even when running the same batch-edit tests (global edits & deep prime XD3 denoise on landscape photos), I never see even yellow memory pressure (indicating that I could actually do with less memory). Adding new images to my library, and accessing them via DXO’s photo browser is painless & quick - the images load quickly the first time and are always ready to go from then on (I usually dump in 100-300 images at a time). It’s worth noting that all my photos are stored/edited from external NVMe enclosures with TB4 and TB5 speed support (40 and 80mb/s respectively).
Example of Mac System Profiler - Memory Usage (notice red memory pressure and swap usage at the bottom)
Example of Istat Menus (notice low memory pressure, swap usage is available - just not shown in this sample image)
If you’re having performance problems, first profile the system during normal use to identify problem area(s). OP, since you’re running a Mac - you have some mature solutions at hand.
Option 1: Use the Mac’s built-in system profiler; if you have a lot of red memory pressure & consistent swap usage - it’s a signal that you need more memory. Have a look at CPU & GPU utilization for similar trends.
Option 2: Download a 14-day free-trial of iStat Menus, and profile the system. I like this approach since the software will allow you to review longer history, and thus you can just use your computer for a week and then review its performance characteristics.
Either of those two tools will help you understand if memory, CPU, or GPU are bottlenecks. However, since your photos are written-to/read-from an external SSD - you’ll also want to validate the performance there. Something like the BlackMagic Speed Test app will verify that you’re getting the read/write speeds you expect, as well as pinpoint whether you’re seeing throttling due to using more than 75% capacity or hitting thermal throttling due to heavy sustained usage. You’ll also want to verify that the cable and port usage are a good fit for the rated SSD speed.
As an aside: I use DXO Photolab (latest generation) on my M4 Mac Mini Pro with 48GB memory, and rarely see it stress CPU & GPU - even when doing batch edits of fifty 70MB+ files at a go. And even when running the same batch-edit tests (global edits & deep prime XD3 denoise on landscape photos), I never see even yellow memory pressure (indicating that I could actually do with less memory). Adding new images to my library, and accessing them via DXO’s photo browser is painless & quick - the images load quickly the first time and are always ready to go from then on (I usually dump in 100-300 images at a time). It’s worth noting that all my photos are stored/edited from external NVMe enclosures with TB4 and TB5 speed support (40 and 80mb/s respectively).
Example of Mac System Profiler - Memory Usage (notice red memory pressure and swap usage at the bottom)
https://i.sstatic.net/ATnnU.jpg
Example of Istat Menus (notice low memory pressure, swap usage is available - just not shown in this sample image)
His issue is almost certainly that he’s trying to handle a whole lot of raw files in 16GB of system memory. That’s insufficient for what he’s trying to do.
Sorrymanagement wrote:
I am using an external SSD. When i bought this laptop, I didn't know that i'd take photography a bit more seriously.
The NEF files are around 65-70MB and the laptop takes a decent amount of time loading the pictures. It also hangs up in the middle. I am using DXO Photolab 9.
I don't use Apple products, but I have run DXO PL on machines with 16GB without issues. 32GB is better though, and you need strong graphics acceleration for Deep Prime modes. DXO PL usually has a setting for the number of files it processes at a time, with default of 2. I'd test with only the internal SSD to see if the external is bottlenecked due to depleted pSLC cache or other issues.
