LR workstation, should I wait for Mac Studio M4?

[janv41475730]

Hi all,

As I run LR Classic on my PC in develop mode it runs okay but as soon as I add radial filters, subject masks and some other adustments, LR slows down very fast that I can't work anymore so I have to reboot my whole computer. Building 1:1 previews and exporting to JPEG takes forever to complete.

My PC specs: Intel Core i7-7820X CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz with 64GB internal memory and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB memory.

I did some research and I was told this problem is due to CPU/GPU performance.

Clearly my PC is not capable anymore and I am also looking towards a Mac workstation, not a MacBook.

I mainly use Lightroom Classic and use it for culling, building 1:1 previews (so I can zoom in to see if an image is sharp) and export. There are usually 2000-3000 images per catalog that I have to cull and will end up with 400 images that needs editing.

I am looking towards the Mac Studio over the Mac Mini because it has more CPU/GPU.
But the Mac Mini has the new M4 chip and rumors say the Mac Studio will get a M4 upgrade mid 2025.

The question is; will a Mac Mini M4 Pro do the job (running LR smoothly) or is a Mac Studio M2 Max just fine or is it better to wait a few more months and get the Studio M4??

At this latest point any advice is welcome and I am willing to wait for the Mac Studio M4 but if that's not necessary I would like to know.

John

[dj_paige]

You can buy a faster Windows computer today, no need to wait, that will perform well with LrC. In fact, today you can buy Mac M4 that will also perform well. There's no such thing as a global best time to buy, or a global best computer to buy, its all up to you.