Need new Mac. What specs best for heavy Photoshop?

[ronaldb30825384]

My 27” iMac from 2016 just died. 
I'm a digital retouching artist, but not super techs beyond the creative side. What specs should I be looking for in buying/building a new machine?

[gener7]

See if this helps: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255440466?sortBy=rank

[John Waller]

What is your budget? Macs can be outrageously expensive when they're up-specced beyond starting configs.

What do you mean by heavy Photoshop? How big are your typical files?

Digital retouching sounds like long hours but not necessarily heavy processing.

[ronaldb30825384]

Thanks for replying. Appreciated. My files normally range from 2GB to 12GB, with a few at 20GB, but most toward 3-4GB. 

[Lumigraphics]

Apple will be announcing new computers around late Oct-early Nov timeframe. I'd wait until then to buy one.

Apple refurbs are also a good deal.

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac

For most people, a MacBook Pro or Mac Studio would be best suited to heavy Photoshop use. Be sure to budget for a quality (probably wide-gamut) external display, hardware calibrator, and external SSDs for storage.

You'll want at least 32GB of RAM, preferebly 64GB. Storage is less important, 512GB or 1TB should be ok. An M2/M3 or the upcoming M4 chips are fine, get a Pro or Max variant instead of the base chip.

There are LOADS of reviews online, you'll want to look at those as well.

[ronaldb30825384]

Thanks so much for replying! I really appreciate you taking the time. I was on the phone for like an hour with an Apple rep, going over all the tech specs, and seeing what they had in refurbs. There was a 2022 M1 chip 20-core with 128GB memory, 2TB Studio for a bit over $4,000 I was checking out. Thanks again.