Which Macbook for Lightroom

Kaolin

Kaolin

Messages
1,142
Name
Gareth
Edit My Images
Yes
I am planning to replace my 2015 13” Macbook Pro, which is now very slow and a little cranky. I can’t decide whether to go for a 15” Macbook Air (M2 8 core and 24 GB Ram) or a 14” Macbook Pro (M2 12 Core and 32 GB RAM). I want to use it mainly to run Lightroom classic, with light Photoshop and Premier duties. I can’t find any reliable benchmarks shows how well the new denoise function runs on the M2 and want to make sure I get a machine. My current Macbook was my sole machine for 5 years and has processed 200k imagines and I would like to get similar life out of the new one. Does anyone have experience using lightroom classic on similar machines?
 
Same as for Elliott here too, on a M1 Mac Mini 16Gb and M2MacBook Air 24Gb
 
Any of the M1 or M2 Macs are going to be much faster.
One thing to check is whether you want to run dual screens. If you do, you need to have either a Pro or Max chip. The plain M1/M2 chips in the Macbook Air won't do dual monitors.
 
The new Lightroom Denoise is the only time I have heard the fan kicking in on my M1Pro with 16GB RAM, and even then, only when doing 6 images simultaneously.

Having kept a Mac for 11 years previously, I am now not "future-proofing" the hardware of my Macs, but getting the cheaper versions, with the intention of replacing them more frequently, as it is rarely the hardware that is the problem, but the lack of software support, and in some cases technical support from Apple. I do not want my main machine to be out of action due to a lack of parts. Also, how Apple charge for upgrades, especially to RAM/storage, means that you are already halfway to a new laptop after bumping the specs. Also, changing at 4 years, rather than 8, you will have some residual value left in the machine.
 
Thanks for all the comments and help, looks like the cheaper Air will be OK. Just had to upgrade the GPU in my desktop to get denoise to work, so wanted to make sure it would be OK on a Macbook. None of the machines in the local Apple shop have lightroom installed so testing it was not possible.

Craikeybaby said:
The new Lightroom Denoise is the only time I have heard the fan kicking in on my M1Pro with 16GB RAM, and even then, only when doing 6 images simultaneously.

Having kept a Mac for 11 years previously, I am now not "future-proofing" the hardware of my Macs, but getting the cheaper versions, with the intention of replacing them more frequently, as it is rarely the hardware that is the problem, but the lack of software support, and in some cases technical support from Apple. I do not want my main machine to be out of action due to a lack of parts. Also, how Apple charge for upgrades, especially to RAM/storage, means that you are already halfway to a new laptop after bumping the specs. Also, changing at 4 years, rather than 8, you will have some residual value left in the machine.
Click to expand...

A shorter update cycle might also make sense as I suspect at the current rate of progress software will require a hefty hardware bump in 3-4 years.
 
Denoise works just fine on my original M1 MBP (16GB RAM).
It was a bit slow going through rosetta orginally but since they have natively built it for Arm architecture, its super fast.

I am sure the software has been improved a lot too but now I get preview much faster than I ever did on my intel machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top