iMac

Philip Procter

Philip Procter

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Name
Philip Procter
Edit My Images
Yes
I am looking in to getting a iMac for photo editing and is a iMac 2017 with i5 processor and 8gb ram good enough or should I try find one with 16gb of ram
 
I have the 2017 model with 8gb Ram, not had any issues.
 
Philip Procter said:
I am looking in to getting a iMac for photo editing and is a iMac 2017 with i5 processor and 8gb ram good enough or should I try find one with 16gb of ram
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It depends entirely on what you want to do. I can edit the majority of my pictures on a MacBook Air with 2GB of RAM and 60GB of SSD. Then again, I seldom use anything other than Preview. I think you need to define your needs more closely to get helpful answers.
 
i5 and 8gb will be fine for ordinary lightroom, but if you start blending or stitching images it may start to run out of both RAM and puff. Ditto video or audio processing.

As always with a Mac, buy the highest spec you may need in 3 Years time, because there's no upgrade.
 
ancient_mariner said:
i5 and 8gb will be fine for ordinary lightroom, but if you start blending or stitching images it may start to run out of both RAM and puff. Ditto video or audio processing.

As always with a Mac, buy the highest spec you may need in 3 Years time, because there's no upgrade.
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What he says.....

I had a 2014 MBP with 8GB of RAM which was fine for most things, but when it came to blending or stitching, it took it's time (like go and make a cup of tea time). I recently purchased a new iMac, I7 with 16GB RAM and it's much, much quicker. It also has 5GB on the video card which also helps, my MBP only had 2GB..
 
A supposedly crappy 12" Macbook with a weeny mobile processor will happily run Lightroom / Photoshop with no perceptible difference to a powerful machine EXCEPT for bulk actions like import and export. Doesn't help that Adobe software doesn't seem that well optimised for multicore processors.

Photo editing really isn't that demanding on hardware, a fast HD (SSD) is more important than anything else IME.

8GB would probably be enough RAM as long as you aren't converting files into TIFs for some major 16 bit editing. Having more RAM doesn't make things faster but not having enough cripples you, so if 8GB is enough, it's enough. Bonus is it is easy to upgrade on an iMac so you can try it and see..
 
Nawty said:
A supposedly crappy 12" Macbook with a weeny mobile processor will happily run Lightroom / Photoshop with no perceptible difference to a powerful machine EXCEPT for bulk actions like import and export. Doesn't help that Adobe software doesn't seem that well optimised for multicore processors.

Photo editing really isn't that demanding on hardware, a fast HD (SSD) is more important than anything else IME.

8GB would probably be enough RAM as long as you aren't converting files into TIFs for some major 16 bit editing. Having more RAM doesn't make things faster but not having enough cripples you, so if 8GB is enough, it's enough. Bonus is it is easy to upgrade on an iMac so you can try it and see..
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Photo editing, especially with Adobe products is very cpu intensive. A 12" macbook and mobile processor won't keep up with something like a decent desktop ryzen.
 
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Nawty said:
A supposedly crappy 12" Macbook with a weeny mobile processor will happily run Lightroom / Photoshop with no perceptible difference to a powerful machine EXCEPT for bulk actions like import and export. Doesn't help that Adobe software doesn't seem that well optimised for multicore processors.
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Photo editing in LR is *possible* on a 2009 core 2 duo based machine with 2GB RAM - or at least it is until you start to use a brush or gradient. :rolleyes: The advantage of a faster machine is responsiveness of the application after moving a slider, and even more, keeping up with brushwork or removing dust spots. Faster processor = better with Adobe, more than almost anything once the image is loaded.
 
twist said:
Photo editing, especially with Adobe products is very cpu intensive. A 12" macbook and mobile processor won't keep up with something like a decent desktop ryzen.
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ancient_mariner said:
Photo editing in LR is *possible* on a 2009 core 2 duo based machine with 2GB RAM - or at least it is until you start to use a brush or gradient. :rolleyes: The advantage of a faster machine is responsiveness of the application after moving a slider, and even more, keeping up with brushwork or removing dust spots. Faster processor = better with Adobe, more than almost anything once the image is loaded.
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Yes, that's what everyone says.

But I actually tried it and in real world experience the Macbook was instantaneous when editing and I couldn't tell the difference compared to my top line iMac (except for bulk actions - import/export). Lightroom needs fast single core burst speeds, which modern mobile processors have.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Guess our real world experience is different then.
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That's the whole point about real world experience, it varies from person to person, situation to situation and day to day. One of the few things I remember about Ralph Waldo Emerson is that he wrote: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

Or to put it more simply: everything varies. :naughty:
 
@Philip Procter my 2018 27" is an i5 and came with 8gb of ram, it clearly wasn't enough so I upped it to 24gb and its fine now. This year I also swapped the HD for an SSD and that made a big difference too

I doubt I'd notice if it was any faster now as I reckon I'm the slow-point :)

Dave
 
DG Phototraining said:
@Philip Procter my 2018 27" is an i5 and came with 8gb of ram, it clearly wasn't enough so I upped it to 24gb and its fine now. This year I also swapped the HD for an SSD and that made a big difference too

I doubt I'd notice if it was any faster now as I reckon I'm the slow-point :)

Dave
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Thanks @DG Phototraining I now got a iMac 2017 i5 and 8Gb working okay you to now fine but in time may up it 16GB or 32GB
 
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