What Apple Silicon for InDesign & Illustrator

[Inélsòre]

Hello there,
I am planning the switch to Apple Silicon and would like to understand what features are more valuable for the apps I use.
While I mainly work with music notation software, Sibelius is a single-core app, Dorico seems to benefit only from more RAM/UM, and Logic doesn’t use that much GPU. So every Apple Silicon with 16+ GB RAM would be fine.
Of Adobe CC Suite I use InDesign 60% Illustrator 30% Photoshop 5% Others 5%.
What specs would you suggest for these needs?
I would point either at a new M3 MacBook Pro (Pro/Max) or at a refurbished M2 MacBook Pro (Pro/Max).
I would also treasure any personal on-field experience with Apple Silicon and Adobe CC.
Thanks!

PS: I tried to create this post on Safari for iPadOS 17.1 and I could not select topics. It seems the website is not optimised for mobile Safari?

[Manan Joshi]

According to Adobe their apps compatible with M1 MAC's and testing/optimisations are underway for M2's.

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/apple-silicon-m1-chip.html

Also, based on the reports on this forum we see some folks do report issues on M2. Regarding RAM 16 GB should be the minimum. I am not a heavy user of the applications so 16GB on M1 works fine for me. If you can increase the RAM go for it. In general Apple Silicon is a fine machine so even a M1 is good enough according to me.

-Manan

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Inélsòre:

Are you in a hurry to upgrade your computer? I would recommend holding off for now, if possible. Or perhaps go ahead purchase the new one, but keep the old one up and running.

I can't speak to the other applications that you mentioned, but InDesign is not yet supported on Sonoma, and an M3 will definitely ship with Sonoma. The M2 was just approved within the last few weeks. The M3 is definitely not supported yet. People are not reporting the issues with Photoshop or Illustrator that we are having with InDesign on Sonoma, though while pulling links for you, I see Photoshop is not officially supported on Sonoma and Illustrator is.

InDesign's system requirements as of today:

—https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/system-requirements.html

And here are the current requirements for Ps and Ai:

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

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/system-requirements.html#ai-on-the-desktop

I'm on an M1 MAX (2021) with 64GB RAM and doing just fine with all of the apps.

~Barb

[leighr]

Any Apple Silicon processor should be fine. My colleague uses an M2 MBA, and  I use an M1 Max at home and an M2 Max at work and all work great, with macOS Ventura.

Here is the latest compatibility with macOS Sonoma: https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/macos-sonoma-compatibility-common-issues.html

[Inélsòre]

Thank you so much Barb! This is such a great feedback!

My current working machine is a 2016 15" MacBook Pro (2.7GHz Intel i7, 16GB RAM, Radeon 480Pro 4GB, 500GB SSD). Two reasons why I'd like to upgrade: SSD is getting too small, RAM starting not to be enough. 

If InDesign is going to have issues with Sonoma then I should definitely hold off because any Mac I'd get from the Apple Store would come with Sonoma pre-installed. 

Maybe an Apple Refurbished M1 Max would be good even now?

I see you chose 64GB of memory: do you think 32 is not enough? 

When you said M2 has just been approved & M3 will not be for a while, does this mean "natively"? Will it run fine and without issues with Rosetta 2? 

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Inélsòre:

I'm not sure about Rosetta because I haven't needed to use it. I'm running my applications natively on Ventura 13.6. There have been so many reports about the Sonoma issues that I am simply not going to upgrade until we have an all clear. Even then I'll probably wait a month or two.

Yes, I'm sure a refurbished M1 would be great, but I would go ahead and purchase the M3 and install the apps and see how it goes, while keeping your 2016 Mac in play. The apps that are working great after a few weeks are the apps you can remove from your old Mac, which may free up resources. But InDesign is not going be on that list for a while.

As for my choice of 64 GB, I've been in this business for a long time, and I use a lot of applications every single day so I always purchase the maximum amount of RAM that I can on the day that I make the purchase. This has allowed me to keep my old Macs going for years. 

~Barb

[Inélsòre]

Is the extra GPU power of the Max variant going to make a significant difference in performance from the Pro variant? Granted, Pro now goes to 36gb RAM while Max goes to the silly upgrade path they invented to lure people into spending more without ever getting something that either sounds worthy for what they spent or as a good investment. 

I'd like to keep working on a MacBook Pro 16", but to get 64Gb (or even 48) I now need the top of the line M3 Max, and that's going to cost upward of 5500€! Plus, AppleCare+ is now 429 vs 399... seriously, I've been making models since the Scary Fast event and I can't find anything that would not make me feel bad in some way (either not getting enough, or spending too much for what I'm getting...). 

Alternative would be a Mac Studio M2 Max, but then I'd need the new keyboard with TouchID, a good UPS (electricity is just so unstable here in Italy) and maybe a bigger display (have a 28" Huawei MateView). Plus would lose portability... 

Please forgive my ranting tone, but it's quite frustrating from my point of view. 

[leo.r]

If you can afford 64GB you should definitely do this. Otherwise, I believe you'll still get excellent performance for your needs with 32GB anyway. 

[Inélsòre]

What about Max vs Pro chip? I believe InDesign would not suffer from the lack of extra GPU cores, but Illustrator and the occasional Animate could? 

[Barb Binder]

I have an M1 MAX (2021)—it's been great using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. It's zippy.

~Barb

[YRuffels]

Hello everyone. I have upgraded to M2 max 32GB this year and really regeret it! my old 2017 Mac  with 40 GB RAM (that is struggling but is still breathing) runs Adobe Suite better than M2 Max. Not sure whether it is Adobe issue but it is almost unworkable. Very sluggish, and sipping memory away like mad! I get down to available 8% RAM within an our of working on a simple 2d vectors in Illustrator on its own. No any other apps running. No junk accumulated. Very weird. That is an expencieve piece of equipment with the specs that should work (logically), alas.... 

[leo.r]

 get down to available 8% RAM within an our of working on a simple 2d vectors in Illustrator on its own. No any other apps running. No junk accumulated. Very weird.

By @YRuffels

Does it mean that your Memory Pressure goes into yellow (or red) in Activity Monitor?

Also, in Activity Monitor check memory and CPU usage of other processes. Even if you don't seemingly run any other apps, there's tons of other processes running. Do you see any suspicious or unusual in Activity Monitor? Use the Memory tab and you can also sort by memory/CPU usage.

P.S. Plus do you only have this issue with Illustrator or InDesign too?

[dianaw31134978]

This will not answer any questions, but thought I would add it to this stream. I recently bought a new macbook pro M3 Max, running latest version of Sonoma 14.5 I got the new computer because I work a lot in Photoshop and was having trouble using new features from Photoshop 2024 with my older macbook pro. Little did I know that Indesign is not quite comparable with this new mac. Basic features like placing text for long documents does not seem to work. I've reset preferences, etc, but so far no working right. Luckily I still have my old Macbook Pro although I'm not sure how this is going to work on an illustrated long doc where illustratons are being done in Photoshop 24 on the new computer, and indesign doc on the old - guess I'll find out.  This is just to say check which Adobe products you use most often before switching to a new apple processor.  It's great for speed photoshop is mostly working - still some glitches, and I see a lot of issues and/or changes with Lightroom which I don't use that often. Would be nice if somehow Apple and Adobe could work a little more seamlessly together when making these huge changes.  Makes me think about switching from a mac, but I just paid a fortune for a new one.  

[bucktown]

Same issue here! 
Any news when Adobe is trying to fix this for M3 Chips?
Indesign and Illustrator are not working smooth at all on my new macbook pro m3 max

[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @bucktown, @dianaw31134978, and @YRuffels,

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're experiencing with InDesign and Illustrator on your new MacBook Pro. Let's try to get to the bottom of this together.

Could you please provide more details about the problems you're encountering? Specifically:

• What exactly is the issue you're facing with Illustrator and InDesign? Does it lag, crash, or exhibit other strange behaviors?
• Does the issue occur while using a particular tool or performing a specific action?
• Does it happen with a specific file or with all files?
• Where are your files stored (network drive, external SSD, server, local SSD)?
• If possible, could you share a small screen recording demonstrating the issue?
• Also, please share your system specs, macOS version, and the exact versions of the apps you're using.

Your detailed feedback will help us identify and address the problem more effectively.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Best regards,
Anshul

[dianaw31134978]

Hi Anshul

Thank you for your response - I don't check this often. As I said most features on Photoshop are working well.  Some glitches with masking, etc. but overall its okay.

With Indesign - placing a long document isn't working, setting up textframes in document isn't working whether setting up from document set up or from a parent page. You simply can't seem to set up a  primary text frame.

Mac:  Apple M3Mac 64GB

Indesign 2024 Ver. 19. 4, I also have indesign 2023, Ver. 18.5

I am new to Illustrator and taking a course- I know a bit but find that the selection tools don't seem to be working properly. i.e using shape tools, i switched to the direct selection tool, but it still kept putting shapes and not letting me make a direct selection, Same computer as above - Illustrator Version 28.5. Generally it seems like the only application that the apple m3Max works with pretty seamlessly is Photoshop.  As the woman above said - buying this new computer was a small fortune and to have to either constantly be looking for you tube work arounds or go back and forth with an older computer really is not a very workable situation. 

Thank you,

Diana

[dianaw31134978]

A couple more issues with Illustrator as I progress through this class:

1. selection tools work sporadically 

2. "Select" - "Same" - Appearance/ fill color, none of it seems to work.  Also shortcut, select similar objects button doesn't work. 

Anyway, nothing so far with regard to this very basic AI course Im taking works correctly with the M3Max probook. 

And have to be honest neither apple nor adobe help very much. People are spending a lot of money for both products, especially those that have adobe CC and now have to either use two computer or figure out workarounds for almost everything. It is indeed very frustrating,

Best

Diana