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- Name
- chris
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Hi can anyone recomend a good editing laptop for around £1000. I am thinking macbook air. Will it be fast enough for using LR and photoshop? Thanks
It'll be fast enough to run it but you aren't going to get great performance. Check the benchmarks for the i5 8210y.
Are you set on a Mac? You should be able to get more for your money on a Windows machine (although the gap with laptops isn't a big a it is with desktops).
What do you mean by great performance?
What are you used to editing on?
For example the air passmark is just over 4000, an xps13 i3-10110U is nearly 6000, inspiron 7000 i7-9750H is 13,500 and a relatively cheap desktop cpu like ryzen 3600 is 20,000.
The 8210y is not a fast chip and Adobe products are cpu intensive.
He is talking about benchmark scores of the main processor. Probably referring to scores done by cpubenmark website.
It is useful to compare cpu models to get a sense of how powerful they are in relation to one another.
But that is not the be all and end all.
You can just google the cpu name and put after it cpubenchmark and a link to the test result should be in the list.
The website is here, https://www.cpubenchmark.net/
They also have tests for graphics cards, ram and hard drives and ssd drives.
Not many go to these lengths though and if I remember apple are very vague about what models exactly are in the computers.
Right now im using a dell i5000 i think.i think its the intel gold prosessor and lightroom and photoshop take an eternity to load.it was just a budget laptop i already had but now i want to upgrade.
That last part has lost me completly
Right click on your windows logo, click system, what processor is listed?
Okay, so the last bit, a passmark of 4000 is very low (imo), its not a powerful cpu, its not made for demanding tasks, you want to use software for editing, that needs a powerful cpu to run well.
Its the intel pentium gold 5405u. I know its not good for editing. I think i understand the last bit now.thank you.
Passmark on that is only 800 points lower than the £1000 Air, okay the storage will improve performance but fitting an SSD to your machine will give it a decent bump and performance wont be miles off. If I was spending £1000 Id want significant gains in performance, its a lot of money for a computer.
Is this going to be your only machine or just one to use while out and about?
I bought a second hand Air for £300 and it runs Lightroom and PS very nicely for occasional use - I use it for tethered shooting and occasional editing of rush images.
My current view is that Apple are still winning at laptops (their kit works very well for a smallish premium) and losing at desktops (their kit probably works fine but nobody can afford it and similarly priced desktops are *far* faster).
So i would be better just fitting an SSD to my laptop i already have?
It will be my main machine. I will most likley get a desktop in the future but not right away
Then I don't know enough to help you
Listen to @twist though - he helped spec my current desktop. CPU passmark is 32320. Opening a D800 raw from Lightroom to PS is *instant* as opposed to many seconds on a decent spec iMac.
Not necessarily, but the gain isnt worth the spend imo. An SSD, more ram if possible, will add up (depending on your RAM speed, amount etc) so a few factors.
If its main purpose is an editing laptop and youre editing lots of RAWs then I personally wouldnt touch an Air, if you are doing 90% emails/web/office stuff and want a high end nice looking laptop that will process the odd RAW, then fair enough.
What is the minimum passmark you would recomend?
If I were spending 1k I would want a minimum of a 6 core laptop cpu. This will offer half decent performance now and be far more future proof than than a 2 core cpu Apple will give you for the same price. Twists recommendation above gives a 6 core cpu.What is the minimum passmark you would recomend?
My Inspiron laptop which I use for editing is about 15 months old now it has a passmark of about 8800 and adequate.
(I have debated upgrading but nothing in a reasonable price range worth it.)
I personally would look for something with NVME main drive and SSD for bulk storage.
Spotted this while browsing overclockers, very fast for the money. Only 512GB storage, but it's NVME storage so fast.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...WdeU0T33711FnJR0MoOUR0aX0ahi0XIdwZ7fnvncXfmT8
Blimey. The little bit I know about laptops suggests that would be a very good machine for sub 1K. And when you run out of space, I get decent transfer rates over USB-C to a SanDisk Extreme. And by "decent" I mean write speeds > 450 MB/s
The air in comparison is 4000 passmark vs 12400
Old 8gb DDR3 RAM - vs DDR5 16GB
1.5GB video card vs 4GB
13.3" 2k vs 15.6" 4k display
128GB ssd drive vs 512GB M2 sata
No external display ports vs loads
DDR5 is not out yet
Youre right, I was confusing my DDR with GDDR. Its DDR4 ram and GPU uses DDR5.
That is a point though. The day DDR5 lands every DDR4 machine with look as dated as DDR3 looked lol.
I would 100% wait for DDR5 ram if spending 1000+ in 2020
The current macbook air still uses ddr3 and thats £1000. To get a ddr5 laptop combined with a fast processor and 4k screen will be nearer the 2k mark.
Yea Apple are a joke. I bought a used X1 Carbon for £199 and it has 2K touch screen, ddr4 and m.2 ssd. A keyboard at least as good and its thin and light
It’s a gaming machine the money is in the gpu which is of less benefit to photo editing.I wouldnt say its that hot for 1k, processor isnt great, benches a little over 8000. Only 1080p screen.
My money would still be with the XPS 15 9570, its a much better machine for under 1k.
The X1 carbons are nice, so cheap as a refurb/used.
It’s a gaming machine the money is in the gpu which is of less benefit to photo editing.