Mac Studio - which configuration should I buy?

[Anna24041084sxrd]

Hi

I'm going to buy a new computer since my current one is running slow. I'll be working a lot in Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator, maybe also a bit video editing. The computer I intend to but is a Mac Studio with a M1 Max 10 core CPU (8 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores), 24 core GPU 16 core neural engine 400 gb/s memory bandwith. 64 Gb unified memory (RAM). 512 Gb SSD.

My question is if you think that these specifications are enough for Lr, Photoshop and Illustrator to run smoothly? Also, do you think I should upgrade the 24 core GPU to a 32 core GPU? Would any of these programs benefit from that, will I notice any difference? Which functions/proccesses use the GPU and benefit from more cores in the GPU? With my current computer I think image tracing in Illustrator and brushes in Ps runs very slow.

What size SSD do you recommend 512 Gb or 1 Tb SSD? I think I'll use external harddrives for storage and backup.

Finally I would like to say that I hope to keep this computer 8-10 years.

[RjL190365]

My honest opinion:

That Mac Studio, as equipped to your initial configuration spec, is actually a good deal at $2399 plus whatever tax and shipping. And the 512 GB SSD is adequate, but I would upgrade that to a 1 TB SSD if you're planning to do much if any video editing (Premiere Pro), bringing it up to $2599 plus tax. Skip the 32-core GPU upgrade; the 24-core GPU is more than sufficient for Adobe. Why go all the way up to $2799 plus tax for a performance improvement that's barely perceptable over the very base configuration of the Mac Studio (like your original list but with only 32 GB of unified RAM) that costs $1999 plus tax?

And the next distinct step up would be the M1 Ultra 20-core (16 P-cores and 4 E-cores) CPU with a 48-core GPU - but that upgrade would bring that $2599 system all the way up to $4000. Not worth it for the relatively minor step up in performance with current apps.

[Conrad_C]

I generally agree with what RjL190365 posted. You’re really speccing this for video editing, because it is already more computer than Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and Illustrator can currently use.

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@Anna24041084sxrd wrote:

Would any of these programs benefit from that, will I notice any difference? Which functions/proccesses use the GPU and benefit from more cores in the GPU? With my current computer I think image tracing in Illustrator and brushes in Ps runs very slow

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Here’s the complicated thing: It all depends on how much those applications use CPU and GPU, and the fact is, current Adobe applications don’t use them very much. They benefit more from faster single-core performance, but the new Macs build on the M1 mostly by multiplying cores, not by making any single core faster. (That might come with the M2.)

Photoshop will improve unevenly, because some parts are optimized for multiple CPU cores and for powerful GPUs, but other parts aren’t. I am not sure how much more responsive brushes will be. The good news is that Adobe is working on it (last week’s update added multithreaded compositing and GPU compositing), so chances are Photoshop will run faster on an M1 Max over the next few years. We just don’t know how much.

Illustrator is like Photoshop in that some parts are optimized, others are not, but more parts are being optimized over time. I tried Image Trace while watching performance in macOS Activity Monitor, and unfortunately, Image Trace did not seem to use all the CPU cores or the GPU. Activity Monitor only showed 100% CPU use for Illustrator during Image Trace; if it used 8 cores that should have been closer to 800% usage. Image Trace might be using older code. If we’re lucky they’ll modernize it eventually.

Lightroom Classic uses the GPU to accelerate the Develop module only. In other parts of the program, the CPU is what matters, so adding GPU cores makes no difference there. Bulk import/export will take advantage of more CPU cores, so that’s good. Generally, an M1 Max should run Lightroom Classic smoothly enough, if my less powerful M1 Pro is any indication.

Despite those limitations, if your current Mac has an Intel processor, all that Adobe software should still run much more smoothly on any Apple Silicon M1 processor. An M1 Max Mac Studio is going to feel like a major upgrade from any Intel-based Mac; you’ll probably love it. It’s just that upgrading the CPU and GPU cores of that computer won’t improve Creative Cloud software that much further. If you have to spend more money, put it into unified memory first (which you are already doing), then internal storage (if you even need to).