Is Macbook 12 fast enough for Lightroom 5?

[pjny]

Hi,

I have a 2.3ghz MBP early 2011 with 16gb ram and samsung 830 ssd. I process raw files from d800(36megapixel) and d4s(16 megapixel).

It takes about 6-8 seconds per photo to process from raw to jpeg on this machine.

Has anyone converted from a macbook pro to the 1.2 ghz 12" Mac?

How much slower is it? Does the raw processing kill the battery more as compared to 2.3 ghz mbp?

I am interested in getting this but want to make sure I can have a decently fast workflow for deadline work.

Thanks.

 

[bcaslis]

I went from a 13" rMBP 2014 with 3.0GHz dual core i7, 16GB ram, and 1TB SSD. Is the rMB slower? Yes. Is it slower enough to matter? That depends on your priority. Is Lightroom what you do all day? If yes then the rMB is not a good move. Is Lightroom something you do in addition to normal tasks? Then maybe. It's really subjective, what is too slow for one person is not too slow for another. I've processed D750 RAW files and it works fine but it is slower. You mostly see this for complex operations. For me it seems acceptable. If I did photography for a living, it would be fine for a field machine, but I'd want something faster for my main processing machine.

For battery I don't see a big hit. Other than something like exporting files, Lightroom is really only processing in bursts which seems to suit this machine just fine.

 

[newellj]

I did some pretty demanding comparisons. I think you are only likely to notice any difference doing operations on a large number of files. I don't usually sit in front of the computer in those cases even with my i7 4770K desktop.

 

[maflynn]

I am interested in getting this but want to make sure I can have a decently fast workflow for deadline work.

If you're making on money on your machine, I wonder if the rMB is not the best machine to fit your needs. While LR CC's speed is better then LR5, thanks to offloading some of the work to the GPU, the rMB may not sufficiently handle the demand.

 

[newellj]

If you're making on money on your machine, I wonder if the rMB is not the best machine to fit your needs. While LR CC's speed is better then LR5, thanks to offloading some of the work to the GPU, the rMB may not sufficiently handle the demand.

If he's making money with the machine, *no* laptop is really best. I'd step up to a desktop with a display that's suitable for color-critical work. As between a 13" MBA or rMBP and the 12" rMB, there isn't much difference. With LR 6 (but not 5) a DGPU in a 15" might be the minimal "serious" computer for someone who's selling their photos.

 

[bcaslis]

I'd have to agree with this. If you are making money with photography, unless you must have a portable machine then the iMac 5K is the right choice.

 

[maflynn]

unless you must have a portable machine then the iMac 5K is the right choice.

Lightroom 5 runs horrible on the riMac, unless the OP upgrades to the latest version of LR, he'll not really improve his situation.

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If he's making money with the machine, *no* laptop is really best.

I disagree, I find the 15" rMBP to be very fast and there's no sluggishness, lagging on Lightroom on my rMBP.

 

[newellj]

Lightroom 5 runs horrible on the riMac, unless the OP upgrades to the latest version of LR, he'll not really improve his situation.

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I disagree, I find the 15" rMBP to be very fast and there's no sluggishness, lagging on Lightroom on my rMBP.

It's not an issue of speed or performance - I agree on the 15", but even the 13" machines are fine. If we are talking about someone who's making a living with photography, it's a question of working space and getting really effective calibration.

 

[pjny]

Thanks for all the replies. I need the laptop to cover breaking news situations where mobility is essential. I often need to process 10-15 images out of several hundred several times a day. I was hoping this machine would be fast enough to do this and it seems like it should.

For serious editing I have a dual display setup at home on 27 inch NEC monitor.

 

[Wahlstrm]

If you jump to LR 6/CC you will probably be fine. It´s a lot faster.

Geekbench for the 1,3 is the same as 13" 2011 i7..
If you have the i5 13" then this will be faster.
If you have the 15, then it will be slower..

 

[pjny]

Lightroom 5 works great on my macbook pro early 2011. I have trial version of Lr 6 and not ready to invest yet. I use Capture One 8 mainly but use LR 5 for files that need more adjustments.

If you jump to LR 6/CC you will probably be fine. It´s a lot faster.

Geekbench for the 1,3 is the same as 13" 2011 i7..
If you have the i5 13" then this will be faster.
If you have the 15, then it will be slower..

 

[newellj]

Thanks for all the replies. I need the laptop to cover breaking news situations where mobility is essential. I often need to process 10-15 images out of several hundred several times a day. I was hoping this machine would be fast enough to do this and it seems like it should.

For serious editing I have a dual display setup at home on 27 inch NEC monitor.

I started a thread on some LR5 tasks I ran on the rMB and some other computers I use a lot. You can see the relative times. The short version is this: if you are going to work on a laptop, and if you're using LR5 (which cannot take advantage of the GPU acceleration that LR6 permits), the rMB is not noticeably slower than a 13" rMBP until you start talking about really huge file ops tasks, like building hundreds of 1:1 previews or exporting hundreds of 100% 1600p jpgs.

The distinctions vs. other computers would be:
- for LR6, using a 15" rMBP with DGPU will speed up some taks, but that's n/a for LR5.
- for any use, having a larger monitor that permits more accurate color calibration may be desired (YMMV) - and I have to note that in my posts above I've spaced the possibilities of using an external monitor on a laptop - oops!

 

[bcaslis]

Lightroom 5 works great on my macbook pro early 2011. I have trial version of Lr 6 and not ready to invest yet. I use Capture One 8 mainly but use LR 5 for files that need more adjustments.

I would get Lightroom CC instead of 6. CC is going to get improvements but 6 is not. You can get Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC for $10 a month. I personally hate subscriptions but when you work it out the cost is very reasonable. I've been using them both on the rMB.