Recommendations for new MacBook Pro for Lightroom Classic

Any of the options you listed would be a major speed boost over a 2017 Intel MacBook Pro, so you’ll be happy with any of them. However, to account for long-term value, think about these things…

Within the same generation such as M4, the Pro chip is better than the base chip for two reasons:

• The Pro chip has more GPU cores, and Lightroom Classic has been making much more use of the GPU lately.
• The Pro chip CPU has more performance cores than efficiency cores so it’s more speed-oriented. The base chip has more efficiency cores than performance cores because it’s more about long battery life for more basic tasks. 

The reason I said “within the same generation” is that CPU/GPU performance improvements in the M5 make the base M5 competitive with an M4 Pro in real world use. For that reason, if you had to buy today, it might be good to take the M5 with 32GB especially if €2549 is the limit of your budget. (I’ve been using 32GB and it works well.)

What I said about M5 vs M4 Pro in Lightroom Classic is based on the tests by ArtIsRight, which you can watch in the YouTube video below; his tests show how the M5 is either close to or faster than the M4 Pro in several areas of Lightroom Classic.

Potential updates for the M4 Pro Chip version:

From 12 to 14-Core CPU, from 16 to 20‑Core GPU, 16-Core Neural Engine would be additional 250 Euro (Number of Core CPU + 16% / Number of Core GPU + 25%)

Adding CPU cores probably won’t make a noticeable difference. It does help, but not as much as other upgrades because a base M4/M5 already has 10 CPU cores which is a good number.

Adding GPU cores can save a lot of time if you heavily use features that GPU-accelerated, such as the AI-based Denoise, bulk preview generation, bulk export, and locally processed AI features like AI masks and adaptive profiles. For example, doubling the number of GPU cores can roughly halve the time for Denoise; other GPU-accelerated features benefit less or more than that. 

At this time, the Neural Engine is not important for Lightroom Classic. 

If Apple released M5 Pro, Max, and Ultra tiers soon, for Lightroom Classic the difference with those would mostly be in the number of GPU cores you can upgrade to, and the maximum amount of Unified Memory. Those processor tiers do cost a lot more, so waiting for those models might only make sense if you have a high volume, deadline-driven workflow that involves a lot of AI features and you have the budget to upgrade to those tiers.

I’ve just upgraded a 2019 well-specced Intel MacBook Pro to a 2021 M1 Max 16” 64GB and 2TB.

Seems odd to go for a relatively old machine but it’s fabulous. The 2019 was getting very huffy but, early days yet, the M1 is flying through stuff. The shop was really pleased to find a relatively rare spec Mac and seemed more excited about it than I am. This one feels much better made than the 2019 too, back to the feel of my 2016. 

I use Lightroom and Photoshop mostly and the majority of my work is tethered shooting. It plugs (one lead) into a hub that powers it and connects to my external drives, printer and so forth.

Don’t buy anything today. Apple is going to be releasing new MacBook Pros in the next week or so (possibly even today.)

I’d look for a minimum of 32GB of RAM, 48GB is better. The base M5 chip is fine but to go above 32GB you’ll need to get the Pro variant.

macOS can allocate up to approximately 70% of the memory to the GPU when required. Typically, this would only happen when carrying out GPU intensive tasks on a large number of files (e.g. building previews, export, denoising, super resolution). Fortunately, memory management in macOS is very efficient. So, you shouldn’t experience any issues with 24GB. Nevertheless,  32GB provides much more headroom.

You’ll find both of the MacBook Pro’s that you mention offer significantly better performance than the Intel based Mac. Waiting until April, as you mention, will mean that you will have more M5 based options to choose from, but they’ll be much more expensive.