My partner has a CanonRP which takes pictures at a resolution of 6240 x 4160. They’re currently using a MBP from about 2016 with 16GB of RAM. The screen is beautiful to work with - but any image processing in Lightroom can be measured in half-minutes. It takes a LONG time to see a change.
The laptop basically doesn’t leave the office. I’ve been trying with the idea of upgrading to a newer MBP or an iMac or a Mac mini + a cinema display. I’m trying to keep it under 3K.
The cinema display and iMac don’t seem to be as bright as the MBP screen which I found odd. I’m also not sure if performance impacts of using an M4 vs M4 Pro. I’m sure whatever is picked out will smoke the existing machine.
I’m looking for advice that anyone can offer. My partner doesn’t want to venture outside of the apple ecosystem.
Thanks in advance!
The M4 lineup is kinda confusing mess.
I’d take a look at the chart at https://arstechnica.com/apple/2024/10/apples-m4-m4-pro-and-m4-max-compared-to-past-generations-and-to-each-other/
If it were me, and this was the main workload, I’d seriously look at the $1600 Mac Mini with the 10 performance core variant.
But that said, ANY M4 is going to be so much faster than that 2016 laptop that she’ll be happy.
Yeah that’s a solid approach. I like that. Any idea why the Studio displays aren’t as bright as the MBP screens? I haven’t compared them side by side before. I should probably do that.
My immediate reaction is ‘because they don’t have to be’. Laptops are very very bright these days because the expectation you’ll be using them outside and thus need to be able to overwhelm the sun.
Desktop monitors don’t have to/aren’t used like that, and so there’s no reason to have them be as bright.
Also, the brighter the monitor the more color will start deviating from being completely accurate, and something like a studio display is aimed at creators who want it to be perfectly accurate, so that’s likely another part of it.
I don’t think I’d buy an Apple monitor mostly due to them being priced in a way that really makes no sense: for what your wife is doing I’d look at the ASUS ProArt monitors. They’re focused on accuracy and creator workflows, come calibrated, and for the price difference you could buy three or four of them instead…
Any newer MBP will be an amazing upgrade from a 2016.
Even a refurbished M2 would be a huge upgrade, what the specs are showing is that the M4 should crush what he has now.
If you have the option, go with MORE RAM;
The m class machines are so much faster it’s insane. My handbrake encodes got 4-5x faster going from an i9 octo core to an m3 ultra. I saw some speed ups on tasks got from 90 seconds to 5. The fans rarely come on. It’s great!
A Mac mini paired with a different display brand is also an option. Asus has a line of color calibrated monitors (branded as their ProArt line) that are fairly inexpensive, for example.
