rMBP photoshop very large files

[jaegow]

I wanted a new iMac but If it doesn't come in July I'll have to break the budget and get a rMBP with a 27" external monitor.

I can only afford the entry level with a 16 mb ram upgrade. How fast is this thing really? I would use it for photography but I work with film and scan to very large files. It's not uncommon for me to have a few files open in photoshop exceeding 2-3 GB with layers. I don't have a lot of files like the average digital photographer but what I have is big.

Really a fully loaded iMac with ssd would be ideal but if this doesn't come with the release of mountain lion I'll look to rMBP

Thanks!

 

[Fortimir]

I can only afford the entry level with a 16 mb ram upgrade. How fast is this thing really? I would use it for photography but I work with film and scan to very large files. It's not uncommon for me to have a few files open in photoshop exceeding 2-3 GB with layers. I don't have a lot of files like the average digital photographer but what I have is big.

Very fast. It smokes my 2011 iMac when handling 36mp image files. I have even been assembling panoramas in the 250-300mp range and it handles them with ease. Much better than my desktop.

 

[thekev]

Why break the budget? 2011 refurbs also work well at times unless you need 2 thunderbolt ports. If you're going with an external display, I'm tempted to suggest something like a PA271w rather than a thunderbolt display. 16GB + ssd should give you a reasonably good experience. Keep in mind the 650m cards don't support gpu acceleration under CS6 yet. I would imagine they'll roll support for these it into a patch with other updates. It only affects OpenCL accelerated actions such as liquify and a few filters. Working with photoshop with big files is mostly ram intensive. Max out ram. If it still chugs on anything, an SSD will fix it. You don't want to rely solely on the ssd. They're still slower, and you will tax the hell out of its write cycles.

 

[Rajpdx]

Very fast. It smokes my 2011 iMac when handling 36mp image files. I have even been assembling panoramas in the 250-300mp range and it handles them with ease. Much better than my desktop.

Same here - well not quite smoking a 16 core mac pro with ram maxed out - but I've been very pleased with this machine and many of my files are gigapixel panoramas.

 

[jaegow]

j you're going with an external display, I'm tempted to suggest something like a PA271w rather than a thunderbolt display .

I couldn't agree more. Apple's monitors are a bit of a bummer. They always seem to fall out of calibration fast and have about a 10 point magenta cast. Not to mention the reflective screen can be a bit of a pain.

 

[thekev]

I couldn't agree more. Apple's monitors are a bit of a bummer. They always seem to fall out of calibration fast and have about a 10 point magenta cast. Not to mention the reflective screen can be a bit of a pain.

It works out well at the moment. Apple updated to the thunderbolt display and NEC dropped their pricing to mid cycle levels. It's currently sitting at $1150. You can look up what I mentioned about the refurb models. Some of them are a pretty good deal. If you're considering the rMBP, Amazon was running a discounted rate, and B+H has cheaper Applecare by $100 or so in case you want it. I also used B+H to check the NEC display price.

 

[jaegow]

I've been thinking about the Dell Ultrasharp U2711. In Canada there is still a bit of a price difference. I know my color calibration guy raves about the pa2711 but as far as I can tell the U2711 should be good enough.