Help needed regarding choosing Mac

K

KernowNelly

Suspended / Banned
Messages
32
Name
Neal
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all. I am looking to purchase a MacBook. Either MacBook Pro, air or MacBook. I will be buying a used one (can not afford new) would 8gb ram be ok for photoshop and Lightroom? Would be medium useage. Wedding photo edits and other general editing. Struggling to work out what spec would be suitable. Thanks in advance for help
 
8GB should be fine for stills provided you aren't going OTT with enormous stitched images or anything crazy like that, though obviously more RAM is better. Do check out Apple store refurbs as you could save some money. Also consider a Mac mini + quality monitor if you don't actually HAVE to take the computer with you - editing on a small screen is possible but it sucks.

Spec wise, LR and PS are very processor intensive, so the fastest processor you can afford will help, however they (mostly) don't benefit from graphics acceleration in their present form and LR actually runs better with GA turned off. Because Macbooks now cannot be upgraded you should plan to buy the spec you will need in a couple of years time, rather than the minimum that will work OK now.
 
Thanks. Should have mentioned it is to replace my desktop for on the go editing and also docking on my dual monitor setup when at home. I’m just getting fed up with the laggy slow windows 10 experience. I’m running with a £700 budget.
 
KernowNelly said:
Thanks. Should have mentioned it is to replace my desktop for on the go editing and also docking on my dual monitor setup when at home. I’m just getting fed up with the laggy slow windows 10 experience. I’m running with a £700 budget.
Click to expand...

W10 and OSX will offer similar experiences running similar hardware. I'm presently running a 4 1/2 year old Dell XPS and the performance is anything but laggy. Buy a Mac because you want OSX, but don't buy one for better performance because there's no significant difference for those 2 applications and the hardware underneath is the same.
 
Before I went out and bought a used Mac I would be asking why win 10 is laggy and slow, it should not be -it might be a small upgrade is all thats needed
 
Trying to go more portable. My desktop running a ssd with 16gb ram. So unsure about a windows laptop. Had one in the past which was high spec at the time and seemed slow. I know a lot of people use MacBooks. If had high budget would get mbp with i7 and 16gb but only have half the budget. Spending that on a 4 year old MacBook is what trying to justify I think.
 
Would highly recommend a windows MSI GL62 7QF gaming laptop for £400 - 450.

They have very strong model of CPU plus SSD / HDD combo and a graphics card.

I have one myself and loaded massive uncompressed files from a 36mp camera.

When I push a slider in lightroom it does what I want almost instantly in most cases and is a please to use.
 
KernowNelly said:
Trying to go more portable. My desktop running a ssd with 16gb ram. So unsure about a windows laptop. Had one in the past which was high spec at the time and seemed slow. I know a lot of people use MacBooks. If had high budget would get mbp with i7 and 16gb but only have half the budget. Spending that on a 4 year old MacBook is what trying to justify I think.
Click to expand...

TBH you shuld be looking to spend more on a Mac for a little 'future-proofing' although at 4 years old I should expect a modestly spec'd Macbook as you describe to be getting slow for LRPS use IF you're strying to stay current with software. Obviously programs that ran well should continue to do so if you're not updating to newer more demanding software. Used Macs often hold their value better than one might expect given a particular spec, so from a raw power point of view I'd consider this to not be a useful strategy unless you're someone who wants to try OSX.

I'd probably have a look at something like this:
https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7Udat50r5odeJ7tJ/ZLNw2zPziUqYQPis+FuzUqbTMTL7e2AGenJdlx6Rtf3vTLiVhzFhJSatQQApX2eFEdDKNBQ4mtg0KQ6XMohcuQMalCYlYLeBhmtEYBxTVBoHs6Vu4ZvzY9jLfHaaGjNqMaexCg1833fntRgd22V1XLyrokZ+N7vSG3QameT67FzVNN+EbGySGtZQ2qHGk3mB4eJFm68IPcYUm8YL37sNszuXlMbQ0

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7Udat50r5odeJ7tJ/ZLNw2zPzph+FIeyfpQIMr9SN2td1SbyQwqH4hUI4HEu7wGj1ywPPrDntP2lFJuVivz4eL45aEDSsjXr0Okrq1tW1IFpAgm1Ls3hlUdA89zMaG7jlwDq1tnIcnsaGRbK8xtbfHnB2FITWamMeEFLtp5xhvqFSXyfE5Cw4OpDa+FAbG7GeyM0AvyE6Q1owaAhB45t4nzfxxTKW2nL6N0nG86F4+r+o7


Oh, and if you're an Adobe CC user then you should be aware of stuff like this too: https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...e-ties-and-move-on.692617/page-3#post-8416160
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top