Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacBook Pro for Photo Editing

L

littlesolja0925

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 14, 2017
13
4
Hello everyone,

I am planning to upgrade my mid 2012 MacBook Air to 2018 MacBook Pro. I have been traveling quite a lot in recent years so I need a bit more powerful laptop for my photo editing work. In the future, I might also need it for video editing. For now, I am more focused on photos where I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop quite often. After some researches, I think I will be going for 15-inch MacBook Pro...

There are couple options I can upgrade but I am not sure if they are worth it. I hope someone can give me a brief guidance :)

For photo editing, is it worth paying extra to upgrade i7 processor to i9? Or should I upgrade the ram instead. For the graphic card, is there a huge difference between Radeon Pro 555X and 560X...

I can spend a bit more to upgrade the machine if it is worth the money but I really want to keep the machine close or under $4000..thanks for the help everyone :)
 
The BASE model 15' will be PERFECT for you! I'm a photo and video professional and do all my editing on a 2015 15' MBP base model.

Save the $$ of the RAM, CPU and graphics card and use it to get the bigger storage.
 
I'm a professional graphic designer and a photography enthusiast (semi-professional, as I do client shoots every few weeks), and I recently got the 2018 13" MacBook Pro with the i5 CPU. The photo editing workflow using Capture One Pro 11 is absolutely fabulous using that machine - everything is previewed in real time, no lags whatsoever.

Lightroom and Photoshop aren't nearly as well optimized as Capture One, but they should work great on any 2018 MacBook Pro. The GPU upgrade isn't worth it, since GPU acceleration is very limited in mostly any photo editing software. 32 GB RAM is not worth it for RAW development, but it might be worth it if you do huge composites every now and then - Photoshop can easily exceed 16 GB on a single file if you do so. The CPU upgrade options aren't really worth it as far as the price/performance ratio is concerned either.
 
Lightroom can also be a RAM hog as your library grows - somewhere in the tens of thousands of images (depending on what you're doing), it can exceed 16 GB. Well into the hundreds of thousands, it's capable of running through more than 32 GB.
 
I'm also in the same dilemma for my photo/video editing needs . Whether to buy a 2018 base model or go for a custom build desktop for a lesser price.
 
I've been using a 2012 MBP and its handling LR ok, albeit slowly, so the 2018 machines are more the up to the task. Actually, I'd say any current machine is capable of photo editing at this point, including the 2015 and beyond.
 
Yes, the base 15" will do you very well except I would recommend bumping to 512 on the storage if that works for your budget. Later you could always add an eGPU to the mix for video.
 
Which would you guys rather have for photo editing, possible video editing?

13" i5/16gb/512/with 4k 27" external monitor

Or

15" base model/16gb/512 and no external monitor?

Both options would roughly cost the same. It comes down to portability vs extra power
 
btt8 said:
Which would you guys rather have for photo editing, possible video editing?

13" i5/16gb/512/with 4k 27" external monitor

Or

15" base model/16gb/512 and no external monitor?

Both options would roughly cost the same. It comes down to portability vs extra power
Click to expand...

This really comes down to your preferences. It would depend on how much you are doing and how you will be working most. The 13" is a very good machine and can be used for both. Personally I have the 15" and really like the screen space when I am using the device. If I was always using the device on my lap, or if I traveled ALOT I might look to the 13. But I have some travel and work from a table or desk most of the time and I like what the 15" does for me personally.

Down the road you could add an eGPU to the 13" if you are doing more and more video work.
 
I have done advertising and editorial photography as a living for 30 years, been using Apple computers for this since 1992.

I always max out most of the specs since time is money and always have at least one desktop and one or two laptops since those are also the machines that do all the billing, meetings, etc.

What I have found is that ram and clock speed are most important, video ram and drive size come in second. I often work with hi res Nikon and medium format digital files that are stitched for pop displays, airport ads, etc that can be anywhere from 500MB to 3GB per image, ram pays off there. In processing raw files, clock speed pays off huge as does drive access speed....the bigger PCIe drives tend to have better speeds.

So here is a comparison of last year’s top spec 15” laptop to this year’s with my iMac Pro tossed in for good measure. I converted 100 high ISO Nikon D850 raw files in LR CC wth moderate adjustments to high quality jpeg, timing is in minutes:

2017 15” 3.1ghz quad/16GB/2TB= 6:15
2018 15” 2.9ghz hex/32GB/2TB= 4:20
iMac Pro 3.0ghz 10 core/128GB/2TB 1:45

As you can see the new top spec 15” at 4:20 puts the laptop considerably closer to the maxed out 10 core iMac Pro’s ripping fast 1:45. The downside to the maxed out 2018 seems to be battery life under load, I got down to 50% battery in just 90 minutes but I was also tasking it pretty heavily, time will tell on that one.

Time is money and I want to earn the same amount in less time so I can have more time for the more important things in life like family, vacations, etc.

Your goals and mileage may vary...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: whg, kael92, shavou and 2 others
15" base for me. Destroys everything I throw at it and destroys my late 2014 iMac 5k in everything. Video exports in final cut are almost half the time. I have another 13" 16/512 on the way that I will test side by side with the base 15" and see how they compare for these same type of exports. IF they are even close at all I will stick with the 13" because of portability and $ savings that I could use towards an external 4k display.
 
btt8 said:
Which would you guys rather have for photo editing, possible video editing?

13" i5/16gb/512/with 4k 27" external monitor

Or

15" base model/16gb/512 and no external monitor?

Both options would roughly cost the same. It comes down to portability vs extra power
Click to expand...
I'd rather have the external monitor. Couldn't edit on a 15" screen.
For video I'd recommend 4K, but for stills a 2560 x 1440 is perfectly adequate. Check out the very reasonable SW2700 of its 4K big brother SW271 from BenQ. Very good quality for the price point.

But I guess the 13" vs 15" depends on how much portability you need.
 
dannyar said:
15" base for me. Destroys everything I throw at it and destroys my late 2014 iMac 5k in everything. Video exports in final cut are almost half the time. I have another 13" 16/512 on the way that I will test side by side with the base 15" and see how they compare for these same type of exports. IF they are even close at all I will stick with the 13" because of portability and $ savings that I could use towards an external 4k display.
Click to expand...

I’m confused now...just earlier you were saying it was a no brainer to get the base 15” over a specced 13” as price difference is minimal and for that you get a bigger screen, processor and dGPU?
 
Vazza said:
I’m confused now...just earlier you were saying it was a no brainer to get the base 15” over a specced 13” as price difference is minimal and for that you get a bigger screen, processor and dGPU?
Click to expand...

Yes, spec for spec the 15" is a better buy. But if you need 512ssd then your talking about a $400 difference to match up with the 13" 16/512. If they perform closely for video exports and day to day use then save the $400 and get an external display.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vazza
dannyar said:
Yes, spec for spec the 15" is a better buy. But if you need 512ssd then your talking about a $400 difference to match up with the 13" 16/512. If they perform closely for video exports and day to day use then save the $400 and get an external display.
Click to expand...

Just curious what made you potentially change your mind as I think you said you save everything externally anyway?
 
Vazza said:
Just curious what made you potentially change your mind as I think you said you save everything externally anyway?
Click to expand...

Well I haven't changed my mind, my assumption was always that the 15 base would be substantially faster than the 13" because of the discrete GPU and core i7 for video editing, photo editing, etc. Having both side by side, if they perform close to each other in those tasks then I may opt to keep the 13" because its more mobile. As far as keeping everything externally thats in regards to not needing large amounts of storage onboard. So realistically if the 13" can keep up id really only need a 13" 16/256 and that would save me about $400. My whole thing has been performance for video related tasks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vazza
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back