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Sanpanza
Sanpanza
Known Participant
March 17, 2022
Question

M1 Ultra Mac and LRC

  • March 17, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 2227 views

Hi folks, I am not sure that I am posting in the correct location but here goes. 

I am a commercial still photographer thinking about buying an M1 Ultra Apple machine because my 2015 iMac Pro is becoming problematic. I am starting to get the spinning wheel of death more frequently and having connectivity problems when I shoot tethered and I don't have these issues with my newer MacBook Pro, thus my motivation in upgrading.

 

My question is, "Is this machine overkill?" and here are the specs to my situation

My purpose is to optimize my workflow and reduce friction.

 

I only keep one LRC library on my old 2015 Machine I store the images on an external USB drive enclosure where  I have thousands of images, although I dump everything that I don't deliver to my clients and keep images that may be useful in the future. 

 

The specs on the new M1 Ultra Apple machine that I am considering are as follows:

Hardware

  • Apple M1 Ultra with 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine
  • 64GB unified memory
  • 1TB SSD storage
  • Front: Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one SDXC card slot
  • Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10Gb Ethernet port, one 3.5 mm headphone jack

 

Any thoughts or criticisms would be appreciated.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

T
thewils
Participating Frequently
May 3, 2022

I'm only a hobbyist and have your proposed setup but with the 48-core GPU. I don't think in everyday use on shoots of say 20/30 images you are going to see a huge improvement in speed. Imports and exports of more files might run faster but your current workflow might allow for doing other things while these are going on. Where the machine shines for me, is doing the intensive processes, like DxO PureRaw (10-15 seconds per 50Mb image), generating huge panoramas and HDR image stacks and focus stacking in Photoshop. If you only run basic editing in LRC you might consider an M1 Max instead, or even an M1 Mini - the cash you save would buy some stellar glass. If you decide to go for the Ultra, you may only be using the Ultra bits for a fraction of the time that you have the machine. If you can afford it, the Ultra is really nice though, LRC response is really crisp. Hope that helps.

Sanpanza
SanpanzaAuthor
Known Participant
May 3, 2022

Thank you for your perspective. I shoot between 200 and 3,000 images per assignment and always have a large library of active assignments. I also do panoramics and HDR work, as well as have as many as 15 layers on my Photoshop files. 

 

I am thinking that Adobe will upgrade Lightroom and Photoshop to take advantage of 48 to 60 cores, so if I get the M1 Ultra with 48 cores, then that gives me additional life to the computer once Adobe upgrades to 48 or 60 cores.

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 3, 2022

Adobe added GPU support to Camera Raw save (export) a few weeks back in 14.3. You can read how doing so has significantly improved the time to save multiple images at https://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/2022/04/21/camera-raw-14-3-gpu-support-for-open-and-save/ Hopefully, we'll soon see LrC export upgraded to include GPU support. While we wait, Lightroom Classic will continue to use the CPU cores for export, but since there are 20 of them in the Studio Ultra, then the export times are already significantly better than Intel based Macs.

Ian Lyons
Community Expert
Ian LyonsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2022

Have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KdjvDDWO1M

 

 

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