M4 Pro or Max or wait for M5 Pro or Max

[ZahidHafeez]

I am in the market upgrade my MacBook Pro which is mainly used for Lightroom Classic for my photography workflow and other regular usage like word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Size of the each photograph range in 48-55 MBs and with new AI tools being added to Lightroom Classic are power hungry. I'm not very clear that Lightroom Classic can make efficient use of GPUs to work more efficiently. I'm not tech savvy but would like my machine to perform tasks more efficiently. Appreciate your valuable suggestion to which route to take i.e. go for M4 Pro/Max or wait for M5 Pro/Max. As of now, my shortlisted candidate is M4 Pro with 14 Core CPU, 20 Core GPU, 48 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. Thanks !

 

[maflynn]

The old adage still applies (with a huge caveat).

Basically if you can hold off, then hold off, you'll almost certainly be rewarded with a faster system. the caveat in 2025 and 2026, is ram prices. We have no idea how much prices will increase with the run away ram prices. Dell has purportedly raised their laptop prices by 30% across the board.

Personally, I'd look at the M4 Max over the pro, because of the core count differences.

 

[cupcakes2000]

What are you using now? My mbp14 M1 Max 32gb is a still a beast with LRC, ACR via Bridge and and modest PS work. Whilst I believe if you can wait you should, if you can’t, then the M4 should be fine for a good few years yet.

 

[bigglow]

I am in the market upgrade my MacBook Pro which is mainly used for Lightroom Classic for my photography workflow and other regular usage like word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Size of the each photograph range in 48-55 MBs and with new AI tools being added to Lightroom Classic are power hungry. I'm not very clear that Lightroom Classic can make efficient use of GPUs to work more efficiently. I'm not tech savvy but would like my machine to perform tasks more efficiently. Appreciate your valuable suggestion to which route to take i.e. go for M4 Pro/Max or wait for M5 Pro/Max. As of now, my shortlisted candidate is M4 Pro with 14 Core CPU, 20 Core GPU, 48 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. Thanks !

A problem with waiting for 2026 is that Apple may take the opportunity to jack up MSRP per Mac SKU.

Have you seen how expensive RAM, HDD and SSD spare parts have become?

 

[Daverich4]

A problem with waiting for 2026 is that Apple may take the opportunity to jack up MSRP per Mac SKU.

Have you seen how expensive RAM, HDD and SSD spare parts have become?

Those prices apply to their current machines as well and so far they’ve held the prices on them.