Photo Editing in Lightroom - GPU required?

And I'm using the word "required" very loosely.

My wife is doing a lot of photo editing in Lightroom (and eventually in Photoshop) for our start-up business. We are going to be buying a new macbook.

My brother-in-law (a techy) told us that we would need to get a mb with a GPU for it to run properly (which knocks out the MBA and 13" MBP). Then he also said that if the GPU has less than 500MB of memory we are "basically wasting our money" which would leave us requiring the $2,200 15" MBP (or any iMac, which may become an option).

I was hoping to buy the $1,500 13" MBP (probably after the next refresh, because there is no immediate need), but do you guys really think it would be worth that much more to spend an extra $700? How much better would these editing programs really run with a GPU? Again, she will mostly be doing editing in Lightroom with some minor work in Photoshop (say for content-aware deletion).

Is there some kind of huge benefit of having the GPU? We won't be using the computer for any gaming.

Another thing I am concerned about is longevity. In 5 years we'll be working with Lightroom 5. I don't expect anyone to predict the future, but could the lack of a dedicated GPU cause slow-downs more quickly years down the line?

Ruahrc said:

As i understand it, lightroom in its current implementation does not really use hardware GPU acceleration.

the bigger issue is the screen. Do you have an external monitor? Editing is going to be much more productive and higher quality if you are doing it on a large, calibrated IPS panel. The higher resolution (and dual screens, if you run a laptop with an external monitor attached) really increases your productivity. I'd make that a high priority as well.

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Thanks for the tip! Both of them

Thanks for the help all!