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Participant
January 25, 2024
Question

what mac bok pro will I need to run the latest versions of photoghop and lightroom?

  • January 25, 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 830 views

what imac will I need to run the latest versionsof photoshop and lightroom?

4 replies

didiermazier
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 25, 2024

Memory… maximum memory!

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 25, 2024

You can check the System Requirements yourself but you may want to focus on »recommended«, not »minimum«.

Otherwise it seems a case where »more is better« largely applies (RAM, disk space etc.).  

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/system-requirements.html

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 25, 2024

Technically, any Mac that can meets these two criteria:

  • The Mac can run one of the last three versions of macOS (macOS 12, 13, or 14), because Adobe and Apple provide updates and support only for the last three versions. Which move up every year. 
  • The Mac meets the published System Requirements for Photoshop and Lightroom or Lightroom Classic. 

This means some Intel Macs can run the latest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom/Lightroom Classic.

 

Practically, you do want to prefer a recent Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3). They run the software much faster and better, and will be supported further into the future.

 

Your post is confusing because your title says MacBook Pro (laptop), but your post text says iMac (desktop). The only iMac Apple sells now is a 24" iMac based on the M3 processor. No other screen sizes or processors are available, and it only comes with the M3 processor and only up to 24GB Unified Memory. But it’s a good computer. It will handle light to medium Photoshop/Lightroom workloads. 

 

But if your documents are large and workloads are heavy, you can consider a MacBook Pro (laptop) or Mac Studio (desktop without display). These can have a more powerful M3 Pro, Max, or Ultra processor, and can have more than 24GB of Unified Memory.

Participant
January 12, 2025

I have 14 inch MacBook Pro 14 inch  Sonoma 14.7.1

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 12, 2025

I also have a 14-inch MacBook Pro, the first generation (M1 Pro), and it runs Creative Cloud applications very well. So the 14-inch MacBook Pro you have should be fine, depending on its specifics. A 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro with the lowest amount of Unified Memory and storage might start to feel old now. But if yours has more than 16GB of Unified Memory (the more the better, I recommend 32GB now), and more than 512GB of storage or you can maintain over 100GB free, it should perform well as mine has.

 

If your workload is very heavy, like if you need to process a large number of documents in Lightroom Classic or you edit large Photoshop with many layers, you will save time with a newer model, such as an M3 or M4 MacBook Pro with more CPU and GPU cores and more Unified Memory. But if your workload is light, any 14-inch MacBook Pro will be OK.

Legend
January 25, 2024

Any current Apple Silicon computer, although the newer M2/M3 models with added RAM (16 or better yet, 32GB) are better.