Lightroom on a Mac Mini 2018

Report · Nov 13, 2018

I'm considering moving from PC to a Mac Mini 2018 w/ i7, 16GB Ram. Has anyone else tried this setup and how well does Lightroom and Photoshop run on it?

Report · Jan 07, 2019

I couldn't agree more. The GPU is my biggest question right now. I am certainly a heavy and long time user of Mac. Currently I have a Mac and a PC. I do my primary work with Lr and Ps on my Mac (MacBook Pro) - it's new but not even close to maxed out. The PC I built myself last year, and it is a beast - overkill... it won't even pause when I'm working on 30 layered Ps documents or merging stitched pano-hdr images. However, I really despise working in the PC environment for my photo workflow. I therefore use the less (much less) powerful MacBook Pro for my photo workflow. I am impressed with the stats (not price) of the new Mac mini, but with regard to the GPU I have no idea how to compare it to what I know. I am very afraid that will be the weak link in the chain and might cause me problems editing large image files. I was very happy for many years getting the top of the line iMacs, but the new iMac Pro has priced me right out of the game... have just had to fold and go home with regard to those machines.

Report · Jan 08, 2019

I think it depends first on what monitor you plan to use. If you plan to use a low res monitor, then the built-in GPU is probably alright. I don't think that a faster GPU would have much effect on working with a 30 layer Photoshop document or stitching images. AFAIK, the GPU is not used for stitching and most Photoshop functions also don't use it. Having plenty of RAM will be far more important. The Lightroom Develop module does have GPU-acceleration however, and if you use a 4K or 5K monitor you will see the difference. I plan to use the Mac Mini with an LG 5K monitor and do a lot of Lightroom work on it, so I decided to buy the Blackmagic eGPU with it. The Blackmagic is already on my desk (playing with it in combination with my MacBook Pro and the LG monitor), my built-to-order Mac Mini will arrive at the end of the week.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

Report · Nov 19, 2018

I don't have the 2018 mac mini (although I intend to purchase one) so can only offer my experience of the past 4 years running Lightroom (up to 6.4) on a late 2012 mac mini with 2.6 ghz Core i7 and 8Gb ram. This spec was pretty top end when I bought it refurbed in 2014 and actually faster than the 'new' 2014 edition which is a whole other story. In my experience it has been rock solid for my use. I have a 66k photo catalog with a mixture of Canon 5D, Panasonic GX1 and iphone (3G through to 8) photos. Fans do spin up with exporting and processing to DNG, but everyday use is smooth and pretty frictionless.

Judging from the phenomenal speed results that the 2018 models are achieving (faster than imac pros and some of the mac pros!), the new mac minis (particularly the i7s) are serious bits of kit. I would advise getting 16gb as a minimum and going for the top end processor. The SSD capacity is a bit more of a question - the upgrades are very expensive in my opinion so if you have a big collection of photos you are likely to be running off an external drive as they won't be stored on the internal drive. External SSDs are reasonable these days though and the ports on the mac mini won't be a bottleneck. As other posters have pointed out, the lack of a discrete graphics card might be an issue if you are trying to drive a 4k display but I don't have solid experience of that.

Report · Nov 20, 2018

do you get fans spinning up during photo import?

I just got my 2018 Mini last night and I imported 700 photos from a job over the weekend. The fans were on full blast during the import. I just sold a Surface Book 2 and the fans never came on during import and I think the SB2 actually imported photos faster. SB2 I was using the SD card reader built into they keyboard base, Mac Mini I have a USB-C SD card reader.

Report · May 03, 2019

Hi

I use Lightroom on my 2018 MacMini on a 4K LG screen. It runs just fine for me. i7 with 32Gb but it is a fast as my macbook pro with dedicated GPU.

Imports are quick enough and Lightroom seems fine. Much faster than on my Dell XPS 15 of a very similar spec.

Great to have all the ports in such a small form factor. Fans do spin up but they do in the MBP as well. Nothing to really bother you.

Enjoy taking the pictures and doing the editing, don't worry about the tech too much. It will all change again in a month anyway

Report · Aug 24, 2024

I'm considering moving from PC to a Mac Mini 2018 w/ i7, 16GB Ram. Has anyone else tried this setup and how well does Lightroom and Photoshop run on it?

By @DSWfoto

Lightroom on a Mac Mini 2018

1 Correct answer