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morganm46339060
Known Participant
November 5, 2024
Question

What Mac is best for large photoshop files

  • November 5, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 646 views

Hey all. I bought a Mac M2 Studio Max in September. 12 core CPU, 38 core GPU, 16 core Neural Engine, 96G RAM and 1T Drive, and I'm finding that it's having a very hard time working with large high-res Phoroshop files.

 

For reference, I'm talking about files around 2 or 3 G with maybe 5 or 6 layers, some of which have effects on them. Nothing to crazy. My computer completely bogs down. It freezes and stutters and lags. The longer I work the worse it gets.

 

Does anyone out there have a setup that actually works well with files of this size?

 

I'm also not opposed to switching to a PC, but I'm more familiar with Apple.

 

Thanks !

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3 replies

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
AlanGilbertsonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2024

Under Windows 11 I don't have problems with files of that size on my older (12th Gen) i7 system with 64 GB RAM and Nvidia RTX 3090 GPU. Operations are always very quick and smooth. The system as a 1 TB NVMe system drive, 2 TB NVMe working drive (where the active Photoshop projects live), and 4 TB of assorted other storage.

That said, I'm surprised that a boffo Studio Max would perform so poorly. Have you tried all the usual remedies (reset preferences, handle permissions, uninstall/reinstall)?

M
morganm46339060Author
Known Participant
November 5, 2024

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I've tried everything. I even had Adobe tech take over my computer and do all that themselves. It made no difference. Neither Apple nor Adobe has been able to tell me why my machine is struggling. I even took it in for diagnostics. No hardware issues to report. I think I just work on larger more complicated files than they understand. It's still not 3D rendering or video work or anything.

 

The main advice that Apple gave me was to spend an extra $5K on the M2 Ultra and double the power across my system.  

AlanGilbertson
Community Expert
AlanGilbertsonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2024

Yikes! That's not a happy thing. I've not used a Mac in many years, so I can't really make a comparison other than to share my experiences. My desktop and laptop systems have all been Dell XPS for about ten years. The current XPS desktops should have plenty of power for your purposes, but if you need industrial-grade 24/7 nonstop rendering (which from your desciption isn't likely) you might look at their Precision line or HP's Z-stations.

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