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What's the best spec for a new Macbook Pro?

Community Beginner ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Hi...
I'm trying to figure out the best spec for a new MacBook Pro 16"...mainly to run Lightroom. 
I need it to flow quickly so being careful about the spec....
The base model is as follows....

  • 2.3GHz 8-core 9th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz
  • 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
  • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory
  • 1TB SSD storage

    I was thinking of upgrading as follows....

    2.4Ghz 8-core 5.0Ghz turbo (+£200)
    32Gb RAM (+£400)
    AMD Pro 5500M with 8gb of GDDR6 (+£100)

    There's an option to upgrade the graphics to AMD 5600M with 8Gb of HBM2 memory for an extra £600! Another 32gb ram is yet another £400! 

    Are my choices good spending the an extra £700 on the base spec or is there a better combination? 

    I don't really stream much and don't do gaming....Lightroom is my priority as I'm a pro photographer.....

    Any advice appreciated...thanks 🙂 





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Community Expert ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Your question has been asked many times and there are plenty of folk who will be more than happy to spend 'your' money. FWIW, I have what you describe as the base model and find it handles all that I ask of it with Lightroom and Photoshop, even  with an external 4K monitor.

 

From previous experience with two earlier MacBook Pros 0.1GHz doesn't translate to much, if any, noticible performance improvement. Same can be said for 4GB vs 8GB VRAM, and the 5600 is overkill. The only area I'd say you 'may' find beneficial is 32GB RAM rather than 16GB, even then it depends on what you're doing. For example, 16GB is fine for editing individual images or multi image HDR or Panos containing up to about 20 images whereas 32GB is better if editing multiple image HDR and panos with 20 plus images. Note that I'm not suggesting 16GB can't handle more than 20 image HDR/Pano, just that 32GB is better if that's the workload you expect the MacBook to handle on a regular basis.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Thanks for your quick answer and brilliant advice Ian, much appreciated 🙂 

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LEGEND ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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I purchased the last made 15" MacBook Pro and only went out of my way for more RAM (32MB) and the fastest Video GPU offered as more and more functionality in many Adobe products is moving towards those chips. No complaints in Performances.

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Thanks for your reply, very helpful 🙂 

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Community Expert ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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The nice thing about the 16-inch MacBook Pro is that the base model is actually a pretty good value, and it is no longer necessary to max it out.

 

“2.4Ghz 8-core 5.0Ghz turbo (+£200)”

Probably not necessary. The base CPU is pretty good as is.


“32Gb RAM (+£400)”

Highly recommended if you are going to run multiple RAM hungry applications at the same time, such as Lightroom and Photoshop, or if you like to keep a lot of applications open in general. Or if you edit large layered files in Photoshop, or frequently merge HDR or panorama images in Lightroom. 32GB is the main thing I wish my current MacBook Pro had, but it was not an option at the time.


“AMD Pro 5500M with 8gb of GDDR6 (+£100)”

If you want to use the MacBook Pro for 5 years, the 8GB graphics option is probably a good idea over the 4GB base because applications including Lightroom and Photoshop are trending toward making more effective use of GPU and graphics RAM. You probably don’t need the expensive AMD 5600M option with very fast 8GB HBM2 memory. The tests I saw showed it bringing MacBook Pro graphics performance way up, to desktop level, for pro video editors working with content like 8K and raw video footage. For pro video editors, the 5600 might be the best Mac laptop GPU upgrade in years. But: You are unlikely to see the same speed benefits in Lightroom and Photoshop because they just don’t use the GPU enough to justify paying for the 5600 (yet?). For a stills photographer, the 5600 probably isn’t worth it.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Fantastic advice, thankyou 🙂 

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Community Expert ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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I would echo all the comments here. Since you are already speccing a 1TB SSD as the base, most important is to upgrade the RAM to around 32 GB, secondary is upgrading the GPU. While you can deal with external storage, I've found that 1TB is the sweetspot for keeping files on the internal hard drive before moving off to external storage so that 1TB drive is essential. There is a noticieable difference in performance between 16 GB and 32 GB memory. I doubt you'd see an improvement that is worth the 600 pounds with upgrading the GPU beyond the base but it might be worthwhile to futureproof the machine but not before upgrading the memory.

 

Since you are locked in with the hardware on Mac Book Pros, you're always best off upgrading as much as you can afford. 

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 25, 2020 Aug 25, 2020

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Brilliant...thanks....really appreciate all the advice given on my post already 🙂 

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