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Macbook Pro, Vega 20 (i7 vs i9?) - Future Proofing Lightroom
- Thread starter romebot
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No problem. They all have a free trial to experience them for a bit, well RAWTherapee is just free/donation.
Hey OP, based on your situation it seems like you'd be safe with either decision. You can always buy the lower end model and return to get the i9 if you feel in some way that the i7 is lacking. The jist of many reviews I've read comparing the i7/i9 is that the processors are similar and you shouldn't expect a huge difference either way. Sure 1-off benchmarks will show the i9 performing better but largely tests seem to indicate that performance is fairly close.
In regards to resale value, while it is true you would theoretically get more in return for an i9 model vs. an i7, the truth is that you never get back what you pay on Mac upgrades, especially when it comes to processor speeds. I would think the difference would be within ~$100 in say 3 years between the models in the resale market so I wouldn't let that influence you either way considering what you're spending on the machine.
Hi all, just chiming in to say, BEWARE the keyboard heat in the i9 . I find typing to be uncomfortable because of how warm the keyboard is all the time, let alone when I'm running GPS-heavy apps. I don't know how it compares to the i7, but I'd love to know what others' experiences have been with that. Just a little 'maybe good to know this' from me to you 
capture one is better then LR in so many ways the others are just below LR IMHO but for what you want to do they would do so much more than what you need
kinda like folks writing a few homework assignments needing MS word sometimes those programs are so so overkill
so the other ones listed by SDColorado above posted would be very well worth looking into !
as far as future proof from adobe to me that is a joke
when the mac pro 1,1 came out adobe promised dual core optimization for PS I said OK well years past and time for a new machine and the 3,1 again adobe promised no no we are just about ready ! and once again years past nothing so I bought a 5,1 this time no dual core ! then the dual cores were out and the promises of really using the GPU started and now again years later they are doing it finally 7 or or more years after they said and its still a piss poor implementation compared to other companies and the other companies are so far ahead on GPU use its not even funny BUT hey adobe does offer it in a few filters in PS now WOW adobe
so as far as buying to future proof adobe DONT is my view just buy what works and what you like for what you do ? if you are doing this for photography only the i9 and the higher end gpu are not going to help you
if you do video I will leave that to the video folks
IMHO unless you are really a pro doing a lot of work in a area most all the systems out there are plenty fast and just learning keyboard shortcuts and so on are going to help you out more than anything
google up some of the i9 not worth it videos by Max on youtube he is a video guy seems he says the i9 is not worth it as do others
so from a photographer's perspective skip the i9 from a video guy on youtube along with others skip the i9
as far as adobe in the photo world meaning PS and LR skip the higher end GPU also they wont help much over the basic again I do not know video FCP high end editing but if its not your income I might say skip it
since you mention a pro imac etc.. does not sound like you NEED a laptop
look at the mac mini ! get the i7 small 256 SSD for just the OS get a samsung T5 1 or 2 TB for working data and if you need the gpu get a basic sonnet box and a 580x card and one regular spinning disc for backup again that is IF you need it !! you might find the base mini does enough without it ?
not sure if you have a monitor now and or keyboard and mouse ? but its something to look into for less then the price of a high end macbook and the thing will beat the macbook pro easily
also nice for long term you can easily open the mini and blow it out for dust control same with its eGPU and not so easy on the laptops and the imacs
any one part fails not a huge investment to get going again since you can replace each one on is own in say 4-5 years
the CPU dies a used mini or what is current ? same with the GPU it dies later get a basic one again same for monitor
with the iMac and Laptop EVERYTHING goes OR you pay a huge repair bill
something to also think about
kinda like folks writing a few homework assignments needing MS word
sometimes those programs are so so overkillso the other ones listed by SDColorado above posted would be very well worth looking into !
as far as future proof from adobe to me that is a joke
when the mac pro 1,1 came out adobe promised dual core optimization for PS I said OK well years past and time for a new machine and the 3,1 again adobe promised no no we are just about ready ! and once again years past nothing so I bought a 5,1 this time no dual core ! then the dual cores were out and the promises of really using the GPU started and now again years later they are doing it finally 7 or or more years after they said and its still a piss poor implementation compared to other companies and the other companies are so far ahead on GPU use its not even funny BUT hey adobe does offer it in a few filters in PS now
WOW adobeso as far as buying to future proof adobe DONT is my view just buy what works and what you like for what you do ? if you are doing this for photography only the i9 and the higher end gpu are not going to help you
if you do video I will leave that to the video folks
IMHO unless you are really a pro doing a lot of work in a area most all the systems out there are plenty fast and just learning keyboard shortcuts and so on are going to help you out more than anything
google up some of the i9 not worth it videos by Max on youtube he is a video guy seems he says the i9 is not worth it as do others
so from a photographer's perspective skip the i9 from a video guy on youtube along with others skip the i9
as far as adobe in the photo world meaning PS and LR skip the higher end GPU also they wont help much over the basic again I do not know video FCP high end editing but if its not your income I might say skip it
since you mention a pro imac etc.. does not sound like you NEED a laptop
look at the mac mini ! get the i7 small 256 SSD for just the OS get a samsung T5 1 or 2 TB for working data and if you need the gpu get a basic sonnet box and a 580x card and one regular spinning disc for backup again that is IF you need it !! you might find the base mini does enough without it ?
not sure if you have a monitor now and or keyboard and mouse ? but its something to look into for less then the price of a high end macbook and the thing will beat the macbook pro easily
also nice for long term you can easily open the mini and blow it out for dust control same with its eGPU and not so easy on the laptops and the imacs
any one part fails not a huge investment to get going again since you can replace each one on is own in say 4-5 years
the CPU dies a used mini or what is current ? same with the GPU it dies later get a basic one again same for monitor
with the iMac and Laptop EVERYTHING goes OR you pay a huge repair bill
something to also think about
i7, i9 provides minimal difference.
Also, future-proofing is a marketing joke created to extract more $$$ from the customers since NOBODY knows what the future will be.
Also, future-proofing is a marketing joke created to extract more $$$ from the customers since NOBODY knows what the future will be.
I believe RAM is more important than the GPU and CPU in Lightroom as large libraries with large images require cache. 32GB RAM on the baseline would probably be my choice. Workflow is more important than export time.
I think the CPU is important, in LR, and the GPU is not leveraged that much.
If it were me configuring the laptop for LR, I'd not get spend money on the higher end GPU, though my LR needs are more humble
also
I doubt 32 GB is going to make a difference over 16. When dealing with large catalogs, make sure you have enough Camera Raw cache reserved (Preferences -> Camera Raw Cache Settings) My catalog is about 78000 images and I use a 20 GB camera raw cache.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightroom/...2gb/d1w4ifm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
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As I have pointed out earlier, GPU acceleration can introduce problems in Lightroom. Below is the full list of issues I have come across:
- Extremely sluggish brush performance
- Image previews disappearing and showing as black or some other color
- Black image when zooming in or panning the image
- Slow performance when jumping between images
- Overall reduced Lightroom performance
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From the comments
"Wow, all I can say it thanks a lot. I have a new 5K iMac with a AMD Radeon Pro 580 video card. I had GPU acceleration turned on and I was getting horrible lag when using the brush in Lightroom. I just sort of figured that was the way it worked. Turned it off this morning and it’s easily 3-4 times faster. Makes a huge difference thanks again. Also, seems like when zooming in that it works a little faster too."
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CPU
Depends on how much you use LR. If you are asking on a forum, you are most likely to have a rather modest use case and export times will not change your workflow / income much. If you are dependant on performance in your projects, I would rather buy a desktop and a professional screen since the MacBook Pro screen only does 91% of Adobe RGB and you can expand storage with ease on a desktop. Would wait for WWDC and see if they have a new Mac Pro ready if you are going down that path.
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Fan noise
You are not gonna be able to avoid fan noise on a laptop as the case is too thin to be running at full speed all the time. For silent operation, while running CPU and GPU intensive tasks, you will need a desktop with proper cooling. Laptops are first and foremost for portability, not performance.
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Capture and Lightroom
I have spent some hours in both applications and they are quite a different. They will both demand a lot from your hardware. Most of the image library applications with editing tools are intensive tasks. You will be able to run them on laptops, but you will be missing a desktop for longer sessions.
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I agree with this quote:
future-proofing is a marketing joke created to extract more $$$ from the customers since NOBODY knows what the future will be.
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okayyyy, but that really doesn't have anything to do with my point. I was merely pointing out cpu is more important.
To be fair, this isn't just an issue with the MBP when using an i9. All thin laptops (XPS 15, etc) all suffer from thermal throttling. It also depends upon the size of your images, sometimes even a big fat laptop (Lenovo P51) maxed out isn't enough when processing large images (40MP+), and I'm finding with these larger images even my desktop (X99 6-core i7, 128GB RAM, GTX 980 Ti, lots of SSDs) struggles with them in LR.
Some of this is the sheer size of the files, some of this is efficiencies in LR. The same images are much easier to edit in CaptureOne for example, but LR is just nicer to use if that's what you are used to.
I introduced PhotoMechanic into my workflow a few years ago just to minimise the number of 1:1 previews I need to create in LR, and to keep the LR catalogue as small as I can. I use PhotoMechanic for culling, selection and tagging and only once I have my keepers to I import anything into LR. Try doing this and see if that helps before taking the plunge on any new hardware.
We are about to enter another megapixel war though with both Canon and Sony rumoured to be bringing 60MP+ sensors to the market. The images from these will be huge. Images from my 42MP A7R3 are over 80MB each. With that in mind I would keep edits on the move to a minimum - just select a handful of keepers that you need now with PhotoMechanic, process and edit these in LR and then do the main edit when you get back home. I would then use a computer with as many cores and RAM as I could afford to do the main edit. And as others have said a high-end MBP is almost as much as a refurb iMac Pro.
Some of this is the sheer size of the files, some of this is efficiencies in LR. The same images are much easier to edit in CaptureOne for example, but LR is just nicer to use if that's what you are used to.
I introduced PhotoMechanic into my workflow a few years ago just to minimise the number of 1:1 previews I need to create in LR, and to keep the LR catalogue as small as I can. I use PhotoMechanic for culling, selection and tagging and only once I have my keepers to I import anything into LR. Try doing this and see if that helps before taking the plunge on any new hardware.
We are about to enter another megapixel war though with both Canon and Sony rumoured to be bringing 60MP+ sensors to the market. The images from these will be huge. Images from my 42MP A7R3 are over 80MB each. With that in mind I would keep edits on the move to a minimum - just select a handful of keepers that you need now with PhotoMechanic, process and edit these in LR and then do the main edit when you get back home. I would then use a computer with as many cores and RAM as I could afford to do the main edit. And as others have said a high-end MBP is almost as much as a refurb iMac Pro.
The performance in CPUs, IPC, haven't increased with the camera manufacturers race for more megapixels. A standard HDD may range from 4TB to 8TB, but you can easily get 12TB from a retailer, but you are paying a premium. Photography may have been expensive when you had to develop film, but the requirements from hardware is getting steep and challenging for prosumers. At the same time photojournalism is battling videojournalism, so I don't know if photography is worth it, if you are not associated with a major player and your company pays for your equipment.
The majority of photographs are viewed on small screens, so I believe you should have a good Instagram following before you adapt to more refined tools. I have owned Leica Ms with Summilux lenses, still I prefer my iPhone X, as I always carry it with me and I can share it instantly. The quality is also so good I can sell my pictures to major news outlets if the context is right.
I feel photography is a bit like opening a cafe. You may have the "best" coffee, but it is the guys selling the equipment that is making the big bucks and not the hipster selling 3 dollar lattes. The amount of work to be a good photographer is immense and seldom worth the effort. I think the iPhone and an Instagram account is the right place for most photographers to start, not a fully geared MacBook Pro with four external HDDs and a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
Don't be a gearslut, be an artist
Nice thread on iPhone X vs Olympus Micro Four Third
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60372465
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The performance in CPUs, IPC, haven't increased with the camera manufacturers race for more megapixels. A standard HDD may range from 4TB to 8TB, but you can easily get 12TB from a retailer, but you are paying a premium. Photography may have been expensive when you had to develop film, but the requirements from hardware is getting steep and challenging for prosumers. At the same time photojournalism is battling videojournalism, so I don't know if photography is worth it, if you are not associated with a major player and your company pays for your equipment.
The majority of photographs are viewed on small screens, so I believe you should have a good Instagram following before you adapt to more refined tools. I have owned Leica Ms with Summilux lenses, still I prefer my iPhone X, as I always carry it with me and I can share it instantly. The quality is also so good I can sell my pictures to major news outlets if the context is right.
I feel photography is a bit like opening a cafe. You may have the "best" coffee, but it is the guys selling the equipment that is making the big bucks and not the hipster selling 3 dollar lattes. The amount of work to be a good photographer is immense and seldom worth the effort. I think the iPhone and an Instagram account is the right place for most photographers to start, not a fully geared MacBook Pro with four external HDDs and a DSLR or mirrorless camera.
Don't be a gearslut, be an artist
Nice thread on iPhone X vs Olympus Micro Four Third
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60372465
Absolutely correct. It's not the best image that sells, but the most saleable image that sells and that could be taken on a phone - right place, right time is more important than the gear. It is definitely getting harder to make money from photography when everyone wants video, but that then leads us back to the original post and the question of whether a higher-spec laptop is worth it. I'd say yes as you can't upgrade them later, but I still wouldn't go for the i9 as it's too much for a thin laptop.
Please explain EXACTLY what you mean by this. It is unclear.
Some assumed you meant you can't stand the noise, but here you say noise is not the issue.
Does it actually shut down? Is that what you mean by "overheat"? Or it's hot to the touch, and that "bothers you"? Something else?
If it actually shuts down, there's something wrong. Has it ALWAYS been like this, or has it gotten worse over time? It may have an accumulation of dust.
I would suggest taking it to an Apple Store for a cleaning. Hopefully, nobody smokes around it - Apple will refuse to service devices that have evidence of second-hand cigarette smoke. (Not good for the technicians...)
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There are a number of external "cooler" products you could use, from simple bases with fans to peltier cooling plates. This may be a necessity in your work environment regardless of what notebook you use.