Best Macbook for Photoshop

[madisonm68532378]

I am looking to buy a Macbook Pro. I need to know which one would be the best and have enough storage for Photoshop.

[Dynamic Office]

The best Macbook would be...the best Macbook Apple offer... MacBook Pro - Apple (UK)

There is a number of factors that come into play when purchasing a new system if you just want PS to work on it you can get an old generation which will handle it just fine.

But you've requested the 'Best' so usually, that means the most expensive.

Whats your budget?

[madisonm68532378]

I’m not too worried about this budget. I just want a machine that will have enough memory to allow me to download photoshop

[conorjmcgrath]

A computer with an abundance of RAM and a well made graphics card are the most important for handling photoshop, as it can often be very intensive on the system, and on some machines will cause slowdowns.

[Derek Cross]

The new MacBook Pro's 2018 would be excellent for this purpose and you can buy extra ram and storage if you want. The decision would be whether you want the extra screen area of the 15 inch model or the more compact 13 inch model (handy for when you're travelling!).

[Conrad C]

In general, you should buy a Mac with plenty of extra storage space for the large temporary files that Photoshop and the operating system need to create during the day. You never want to let available storage get too low.

You can get a better answer if you can be more specific about what kind of work you want to do with Photoshop. For example, if you are going to create large format photographs for exhibition from a 36 megapixel camera, you will need many times more storage than if you are going to design buttons and graphics for web sites.

Also, if you are going to store most of your work on an external drive or server at your studio, you need a lot less storage in the MacBook Pro than if you expect to carry all of your work everywhere.

Photoshop users working on small files or storing most files on external drives can use the models with 256GB or 512GB storage, but those expecting to edit very large files or store many files on the laptop choose the 1TB or 2TB storage options.

Can you talk about the kind of work you'll do, and how you plan to store your work?

[Ussnorway]

the best Mac for Photoshop is the one in the fridge... not thats not a joke

Macs run hot and the new Mac pro line runs so hot that they don't keep up with Windows system 1/4 their price so people that own them have started placing them in odd spots to try and get their work deadlines done fyi if you do this then use a moisturizer sponge of some kind after you take it out because its the wet air entering as the temperature goes back up that kills your Mac... just Google "Macs in freezers"

[Derek Cross]

I have the new MacBook Pro 2018 (13” with extra ram and storage) and it doesn’t suffer at all from the condition you describe.

[madisonm68532378]

Did you get the 256gb or 512gb when you first purchased it?

[Derek Cross]

512Gb

[Conrad C]

I did the search that Ussnorway suggested. It returns articles about the thermal throttling problem for the 2018 15" MacBook Pro when it was originally released.

That problem was not by design, and was fixed by a macOS update in July.

The articles in Ussnorway's search refer to the original tests by Dave Lee, the guy widely credited with discovering the thermal throttling problem with the 2018 15" MacBook Pro. After the macOS update became available, Lee re-tested the MacBook Pro: "Following the macOS High Sierra update Apple issued yesterday, YouTube tech reviewer Dave Lee uploaded a new video showing that the patch did its job. After the upgrade, his new MacBook Pro is running faster!" Another report said "Apple says it contacted Lee within 48 hours after he published his video, working with him to replicate his workflow. Apple eventually set up a system with a similar workflow, applied the fix, and both the 15-inch and 13-inch models then matched Apple's advertised performance rates."

So while Ussnorway's concerns were true in the beginning, they are now out of date because the problem has been fixed for two months. No more freezers needed!

[kevin stohlmeyer]

FYI - The Mac hot issue was resolved days after reporting with a system update.

[madisonm68532378]

Which would be the best for photoshop 256 or 512gb? Thanks

[Francesco Della Peruta]

The more disk size you 've, the better!

In alternative you can buy an external disk

[KShinabery212]

To be honest... you can get a PC and you will be fine too.  Or a Wacom MobileStudio Pro or Wacom Cintiq Companion 2.

What you need to think about is how your art will or could evolve in the future.  Example, I had no idea that I would get back into animation.  But I did.... luckily I have a Wacom MobileStudio Pro that can handle anything.  As artists we grow, we evolve, our art changes and we adapt.  So I would think about the future when buying a device.  Think about what types of software you want to experiment or want to try or things that you may want to create later on.

Mac/Apple to me is just a name now.  You can do anything on a PC and it will be way cheaper.  And if you get a desktop instead of a laptop then you can modify the desktop computer as time goes by to fit your needs.

One thing that I noticed is gaming PC laptops can handle pretty much anything a graphic artist throws at them!  They are made to be super strong, fast and to handle all types of graphics.  Thus, let's say you decide in a year you want to experiment with 3D graphics you can.

Think about what you want to create and what you want to try in the future!  That will help you find the perfect computer!

[S_Gans]

When it comes to computing, I consider the "rules" that say "you can't be too rich or too thin" (joke), and add:
You can't have too much storage and you can't have too much RAM.