M2 vs i9

[doc4x5]

I am a photographer currently using a 2020 27" iMac with an i9, 64GB RAM, and 4TB SSD. My final files are around a gigabyte. I use an OWC Thunderbay as a RAID 5 with three 16GB hard drives to store my approximately 100,000 images. I work extensively in both Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. I do NO VIDEO. My monitor is an NEC PA271 calibrated with Spectraview.

I am considering a Mac Studio M2. My question is whether it would be significantly faster than my current machine and if so, how I should configure it.

Questions include:
1. M2 Max or M2 Ultra?
2. How many GPU cores? It appears that with the Max, the $200 for the extra 8 cores is likely not worth it.
3. RAM?-I've been happy with 64GB. To get 96 I'd need the extra 8 cores or the Ultra.
4. SSD? I like having 4TB but might I get away with less? I am currently using about 1.5TB on my 4TB SSD (all photo files are stored externally)

Thanks for any help on this.
Best,
Eric

 

[Feek]

I am considering a Mac Studio M2. My question is whether it would be significantly faster than my current machine and if so, how I should configure it.

At the very basic level, pretty much any Apple Silicon equipped Mac will be significantly faster than your current machine.

I'm not the ideal person to ask about spec because I just tend to buy the highest spec I can afford, whether I need it or not.

 

[DLary]

I use Topaz Photo AI and Topaz Video AI. I upgraded an i9 iMac to a Studio M2 Ultra with 64gb and a 1TB SSD The difference in performance is remarkable. The internal SSD is much faster than the iMac. I use external Thunderbolt drives for storage. The performance of a Windows machine with a high end Nvidia graphics card would be even better, but I would spend half my time cussing at Windows............

 

[ondioline]

From my experience it makes a huge difference, especially with huge files. Much like you I work with high DPI images in Clip Studio, which tend to be around 500MB-1GB. I got the base M2 Ultra Studio (64GB of ram) with 4TB of storage and it's way faster. Previously (on Intel) it would sometimes take between a minute to 10 minutes (seriously lol) to save my work. Now it happens in seconds typically. The canvas and brushes are much smoother too.

It's a combination of the single core increase, the memory bandwidth, and the NVME speeds. They're all a significant upgrade. It's well worth the money I think, you won't regret the Studio.

 

[Homy]

I think you'll find some useful videos here but wait for Mac Studio M3 Max/Ultra coming in 6 months if you can and want the latest.

 

[MapleBeercules]

Not 100% what your looking at but it will give you some details on M1 vs M3 vs old Intel 27inch Imac