Switching from PC to Mac for Lightroom use... Mac Mini or Mac Studio?

[jean36]

Operating System

1. Windows 10

Hi all, I am currently running a Windows PC and use it mainly for Lightroom editing (around 50 weddings x 3000 = 150.000 images a year)
Since Lightroom has several AI functions like subject detecting/masking that I also use in some presets I notice that Lightroom is running slow as soon as I have multiple maskings applied. I recently added internal memory up to 64GB and my graphic card NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti (11GB memory) doesn't seem to help me here.

So I am looking towards Apple for a desktop and have two options for about the same price. My budget is around EUR 3500.

- New Mac Mini M4 Pro with 14CPU/20GPU/16neural engine, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD
- Mac Studio with M2 Max processor with 12CPU/38GPU/16 neural engine, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD

The 1TB SSD will be used for software only, the Lightroom catalog and photos will be on a 4TB SSD external harddisk (that's what someone recommended me)

There are also rumors that Apple will release the Mac Studio with M4 Max but that will be next year.
Question here is will it be worth waiting for this or will the current options be enough for my needs?

Hoping for a helpful answer... thanks!!

 

[camner]

I think what is driving the asking price is 128GB vs 64GB and 2TB vs 1TB. The question is whether this really matters. Will having 64GB "extra" matter to LrC? And since once images are imported, there isn't much demand for moving files around (saving or reading), so having images on an external SSD (obviously slower) probably doesn't hurt too much.

Maybe it's worth mentioning that at the Apple "Certified Refurbished" store an M1 Ultra with the specs of the one I'm looking at the price is $4,139.

 

[PhilBurton]

y graphic card NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti (11GB memory) doesn't seem to help me here.

Are you sure of the model number? 1080 would be a very old card by now.

So I am looking towards Apple for a desktop and have two options for about the same price. My budget is around EUR 3500.

For a lot less, you could get a powerful current graphics card. NVidia and AMD are both releasing a new generation of graphics cards, if you can wait a month or two

 

[clee01l]

I think what is driving the asking price is 128GB vs 64GB and 2TB vs 1TB. The question is whether this really matters. Will having 64GB "extra" matter to LrC? And since once images are imported, there isn't much demand for moving files around (saving or reading), so having images on an external SSD (obviously slower) probably doesn't hurt too much.

Maybe it's worth mentioning that at the Apple "Certified Refurbished" store an M1 Ultra with the specs of the one I'm looking at the price is $4,139.

LrC does not even use the full 64GB I have installed. As for the 1TB vs. 2TB, I only use the primary disc for MacOS and apps. I have ~50TB Thunderbolt 3 or 4 mounted in EHDs that are as fast as any internal HDD disk. Almost half of my "MacIntosh HD" is free for working storage

 

[clee01l]

For a lot less, you could get a powerful current graphics card. NVidia and AMD are both releasing a new generation of graphics cards, if you can wait a month or two

Will anything that runs Windows even compare to the 8-9 sec response time I get running DeNoise on my 48mp NEFs?

 

[jean36]

Hi all, thanks for all the answers, I walked into a Mac Store today for some additional advice and the salesman told me the best way was to go for a Mac Studio M2 Max. The M2 Ultra was not needed, it was designed to work with video, which I don't do.
He couln't tell if there would be a M4 version of the Mac Studio and if it truly would be released in march-june 2025 but these specs are from (mac)rumors.

He also mentioned that the M4 was designed for AI functions. So that would also mean the AI funtions that I use a lot in Lightroom such as automatically select subject, sky or background and adjust them separately and stack them in layers. So that made me thinking that's maybe worth waiting for.

Fact is there will be a new Mac Studio for sure ;-)
Two questions remaining...

1. Should I wait for the M4 version or get the current M2 Max?
2. Should 1TB be fine for internal space when using the Lightroom Catalog and all photo folders that needs to be edited together on one fast SSD drive?

That is because some say it is faster to put the Lightroom catalog on the harddrive itself but I think then I will need more then 1TB of space because the catalog grows fast and I am afraid it will slow down the whole system.

 

[Jim Wilde]

Will anything that runs Windows even compare to the 8-9 sec response time I get running DeNoise on my 48mp NEFs?

According to several Windows users on another forum, they do claim sub-10secs for Denoise. I've no reason to doubt them.

 

[clee01l]

According to several Windows users on another forum, they do claim sub-10secs for Denoise. I've no reason to doubt them.

Good to know. I wonder what the specs are for the CPU and GPU?

 

[jamesmessick]

Hi all, I am currently running a Windows PC and use it mainly for Lightroom editing (around 50 weddings x 3000 = 150.000 images a year)
Since Lightroom has several AI functions like subject detecting/masking that I also use in some presets I notice that Lightroom is running slow as soon as I have multiple maskings applied. I recently added internal memory up to 64GB and my graphic card NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti (11GB memory) doesn't seem to help me here.

So I am looking towards Apple for a desktop and have two options for about the same price. My budget is around EUR 3500.

- New Mac Mini M4 Pro with 14CPU/20GPU/16neural engine, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD
- Mac Studio with M2 Max processor with 12CPU/38GPU/16 neural engine, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD

The 1TB SSD will be used for software only, the Lightroom catalog and photos will be on a 4TB SSD external harddisk (that's what someone recommended me)

There are also rumors that Apple will release the Mac Studio with M4 Max but that will be next year.
Question here is will it be worth waiting for this or will the current options be enough for my needs?

Hoping for a helpful answer... thanks!!

Tough choice. You can always spend "just a little bit more" to boost those specs, and before you know it you've doubled or tripled the price. Either of them machines should do a great job, I would think.

 

[camner]

Fact is there will be a new Mac Studio for sure ;-)
Two questions remaining...

1. Should I wait for the M4 version or get the current M2 Max?
2. Should 1TB be fine for internal space when using the Lightroom Catalog and all photo folders that needs to be edited together on one fast SSD drive?

1. From everything I have read, the generally accepted (but not universally agreed to) wisdom is that if one CAN wait (that is, your current setup is working for everything you want to do, even if it isn't at ideal efficiency), then it's worth waiting for the M4 Studio. But, that same wisdom says that if one can't do what one needs to do at present with the equipment one has, then waiting might not be a good idea because the date of the arrival of the M4 Studio is quite uncertain, with estimates ranging from "early to mid 2025" to "in the fall of 2025." YMMV.

2. Also from what I have read, with currently available external SSD's, it is possible to achieve speeds that are fairly close to that of an internal SSD, and that therefore the difference in performance when the LR catalog is accessed would be barely noticeable, if at all. But that assumes that one has paid for a fairly high-end Nvme drive and paired it with a high end enclosure. I would wager that with a "budget" Nvme SSD paired with a budget 10Gbps (non-Thunderbolt) enclosure, the difference might well be noticeable.