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M5 vs M1 Max vs M2 Ultra - Lightroom Test - Shocking Results

F

fpenta

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 30, 2016
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Hello guys,

Today I received my new MacBook Pro 14” with the M5 chip, 24 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD.


I immediately ran a test with Lightroom by exporting 752 edited Nikon Z8 (45 MP) RAW photos and compared the results with my other two Macs…a MacBook Pro 16” (M1 Max, 32 GB/1 TB) and a Mac Studio (M2 Ultra, 64 GB/1 TB).


Here are the results:


  • 14” M5 – 13 minutes 40 seconds
  • 16” M1 Max – 20 minutes 15 seconds
  • Mac Studio M2 Ultra – 4 minutes 34 seconds


I was honestly blown away by the speed of the M5..
I couldn’t hear any fan noise during the export, but I did notice them spinning up during the import into Lightroom.
 
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fpenta said:
Hello guys,

Today I received my new MacBook Pro 14” with the M5 chip, 24 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD.


I immediately ran a test with Lightroom by exporting 752 edited Nikon Z8 (45 MP) RAW photos and compared the results with my other two Macs…a MacBook Pro 16” (M1 Max, 32 GB/1 TB) and a Mac Studio (M2 Ultra, 64 GB/1 TB).


Here are the results:


  • 14” M5 – 13 minutes 40 seconds
  • 16” M1 Max – 20 minutes 15 seconds
  • Mac Studio M2 Ultra – 4 minutes 34 seconds


I was honestly blown away by the speed of the M5..
I couldn’t hear any fan noise during the export, but I did notice them spinning up during the import into Lightroom.
Click to expand...
Is there is a 1 missing from the M2 result?
 
fpenta said:
No, it was 4 minutes and 34 sec.
The M5 is fast, but can not be faster than the M2 Ultra😄
Click to expand...
Would it be possible for you to try and trace down where the improvement is? I'm wondering if the M5 is faster because of the M5 or the systems faster SSD as I believe these two things are the largest contributors to performance increases.
 
m1maverick said:
Would it be possible for you to try and trace down where the improvement is? I'm wondering if the M5 is faster because of the M5 or the systems faster SSD as I believe these two things are the largest contributors to performance increases.
Click to expand...
One might infer the huge jump for the M2 Ultra would be it's enormous 800GB/s rated memory bandwidth compared to the M5's 153GB/s.
 
Boppi said:
One might infer the huge jump for the M2 Ultra would be it's enormous 800GB/s rated memory bandwidth compared to the M5's 153GB/s.
Click to expand...
But the M1 Max has 400 gb/s memory bandwidth and still is way behind
 
fpenta said:
But the M1 Max has 400 gb/s memory bandwidth and still is way behind
Click to expand...
CPU frequency went up M1 (3.2 GHz) to M2 (3.49 GHz) to M3 (4.05 GHz) to M4 (4.4 GHz) to M5 (4.6 Ghz). Instruction set improvements may have been made along the way, but I never read anything about that.
 
rb2112 said:
CPU frequency went up M1 (3.2 GHz) to M2 (3.49 GHz) to M3 (4.05 GHz) to M4 (4.4 GHz) to M5 (4.6 Ghz). Instruction set improvements may have been made along the way, but I never read anything about that.
Click to expand...
The M4 jumped from the ARM 8.x instruction set used in the M1-M3 to the ARM 9.x instruction set which makes a notable difference for certain operations.
 
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May I ask why do you feel running a batch exporting job is a relevant test? It seems to me that whether 4 minutes or 14 these types of tasks are done when you are getting a coffee. What edits have you placed on those files prior to export? And too what file format are you exporting to?


How does it handle when you're in editing programs like Photoshop or After Effect with 4 or 5 100MB images stacked in layers and you're trying to adjust something?
 
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cSalmon said:
May I ask why do you feel running a batch exporting job is a relevant test? It seems to me that whether 4 minutes or 14 these types of tasks are done when you are getting a coffee. What edits have you placed on those files prior to export? And too what file format are you exporting to?


How does it handle when you're in editing programs like Photoshop or After Effect with 4 or 5 100MB images stacked in layers and you're trying to adjust something?
Click to expand...
It is true that tasks like exports and generating previews can be done by the computer unattended, and are thus not nearly as important as interactive tasks IMO.
I have found that the best thing one can do for PS or LR adjustments of large files is get LOTS of ram rather than better processors (within reason). I have had LR and PS take near 100GB memory, which of course uses lots of swap, resulting in lagginess and long pauses. Very frustrating. It is very difficult to avoid any swap, but the more one can hold memory in real ram the more responsive it is. Of course, to get the higher levels of ram one is forced to get the higher processors (Pro, Max).
If one does not edit large files or projects it doesn’t matter much. (A Z8 raw file is not a large file).
 
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cSalmon said:
May I ask why do you feel running a batch exporting job is a relevant test? It seems to me that whether 4 minutes or 14 these types of tasks are done when you are getting a coffee. What edits have you placed on those files prior to export? And too what file format are you exporting to?


How does it handle when you're in editing programs like Photoshop or After Effect with 4 or 5 100MB images stacked in layers and you're trying to adjust something?
Click to expand...
I can not tell any difference in editing or handling honestly. I don’t use After Effect, but I found this thread on Reddit:

www.reddit.com

From the macbookpro community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the macbookpro community
www.reddit.com www.reddit.com


lvleleven said:
I say try AI Denoise in lightroom and see what the results are?
Click to expand...

M5 and M1 Max both take around 20 seconds
M2 Ultra takes 9 seconds
 
fpenta said:
I immediately ran a test with Lightroom by exporting 752 edited Nikon Z8
Click to expand...
Do you normally export 750 files from lightroom? Is that part of your normal workflow? What is the relevance of such a task if you (or others) rarely do it.

Running tests that may have little to no bearing on real world usage just turns into noise. How often do people export 700+ images from LR? Is it an hourly task, daily, weekly, once the project over?
 
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maflynn said:
Do you normally export 750 files from lightroom? Is that part of your normal workflow? What is the relevance of such a task if you (or others) rarely do it.

Running tests that may have little to no bearing on real world usage just turns into noise. How often do people export 700+ images from LR? Is it an hourly task, daily, weekly, once the project over?
Click to expand...
It’s just a test, man. The difference between these chips is practically nonexistent in real-world usage or editing speed. If you didn’t know whether it was an M5, M1 Max, M2 Ultra, or whatever, you wouldn’t be able to tell.


It really just comes down to how long you’re willing to wait. RAM is more important, in my opinion.


I do a lot of timelapse work, and in that case, yes… I need to export large amounts of RAW files. But just like me, people working in events might also benefit from faster export times.
 
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maflynn said:
You're right but if it doesn't mimic real world usage, then it largely fails to impart knowledge and just adds to the inane chatter.

Why not test how many Smoots per hour this can do
Click to expand...
I don’t understand why you say it’s not a real world usage test..for photographers it absolutely is..
 
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maflynn said:
Well, that literally was my question - how often do you export 700+ images?
Click to expand...

It's not too rare for me to be exporting 400 images at the same time. I'm sure I've done some 700+ image exports now and then. I do all of my image organizing inside Capture One Pro. Whenever I need to publish something, I'll export the ones I need.

Most of the time I know exactly which shots I want, but sometimes I'm not that organized and I just dump everything I shot for an event. I also have to regularly output multiple versions of images. A common scenario is one low-res version that's watermarked and one at full resolution.

People who do certain kinds of photography may also export more frequently because you can't fully see the finished results inside the editor. For images shot in low light that have noise, I have to export them to see what the finished shot really looks like.

So yeah, the 700+ image test isn't unrealistic... however echoing @wilberforce, it's not something I pay much attention as it barely affects my workflow.
 
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smirking said:
It's not too rare for me to be exporting 400 images at the same time.
Click to expand...
Thanks, how it fits in your workflow dictates how relevant it may be. I agree, that for tasks that takes time, we fill that dead space with other tasks, even just getting a coffee.
 
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