Fastest computer configuration for Photoshop LARGE FILES

[samlarson]

I'm upgrading to a Mac Studio and would love some advice.  In Photoshop I make huge bill board size composites that include hundreds of layers  Filesizes = 20GB ++.   (Corrected by moderator after remark of user)PEC

Some have suggested that an M1 Ultra chip does not make a difference over M1 Max for photoshop? And that getting more than the basic 10 cores is overkill.  

If this is true, it looks like the fastest macbook pro offers the same speed as the basic Mac Studio....and then I could use the same machine when travelling.

I would love your input and ideas on how to maximize Photoshop performance, without spending unneccessary money.  

I'm currently using a 27" imac pro with 32mb ram and 1tb ssd.  it is too slow.  

[Test Screen Name]

One tip: never let external SSD drives get anything like full - not even with temporary files. They may slow down catastrophically (like 1% or less of normal performance for hours or days) while they recover from this. Stay below 80% full. Internal SSD drives do not have the same problem, at least not to the same extent.

[samlarson]

Thank you for all the great advice.   After much contemplation and research I decided to go with a 14" macbook pro with the exact same ingredients as the MacStudio I was looking at:

10-Core CPU, 
32-Core GPU
, 64 Unified Memory
, 8TB SSD Storage.    Combining my laptop and desktop computing into one mobile device that I can plug into external monitors at the various locations I work on would simplify my life. 

My only worry is that this setup would be too good to be true?  Is there something about the Mac Studio (other than extra ports) that I would be missing out on with the laptop?

[Conrad C]

I've been running a 14" MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) for a year now, and I’ve been very pleased with it. It is often plugged into a desktop dock connected to two displays and a lot of peripherals including external storage. And at least for my needs (my files are probably much smaller than yours), this is the first time I feel like I don’t need to consider adding a real desktop computer because it wouldn’t improve things much — the 14" MacBook Pro works great as both a laptop and desktop. All my old Intel laptops would get hot and noisy using Lightroom Classic and Photoshop with external displays, but Apple Silicon runs cool and quiet, and the battery lasts so much longer. Also, the Liquid Retina XDR display with Reference Modes is great for portable image editing.

My only worry is that this setup would be too good to be true?  Is there something about the Mac Studio (other than extra ports) that I would be missing out on with the laptop?

By @samlarson

The Mac Studio cooling system might be more effective for extended heavy processing. But most of the time it should not be a problem.

The MacBook Pro M1 Max is limited to three external displays. The Mac Studio supports five.

[kathydannelvitcak]

I am researching a similar issue and would love to know how your dream system is working for you! I hope it ID everything you wanted and more!

Kathy

[Lumigraphics]

If money is unlimited, get an Apple Silicon Mac Pro where you can cram it full of NVMe drives. This is likely to be the fastest machine available outside of possibly a $20,000 Puget Systems workstation.

For portables, the M3 MacBook Pro with maxxed out CPU/GPU, storage, and memory can handle almost anything.