Buying a new Mac Laptop

[JudyM]

Hi Brian!

I have a Mac laptop running Catalina 10.15.6 and Photoshop 21.2.0. It is over 6 years old, and has 8GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 102GB free out of 251GB. 

It's slow.  I keep getting error messages re memory.  Maybe 6 years ago when I bought it, it was good enough to run photoshop....at least they told me it was.  Now it's not.  My photoshop screens keep turning gray or I get gray squares on top of my image.

I am looking at getting another Mac Laptop.  This is the one I am thinking of buying https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space-grey-2.0ghz-quad-core-processor-with-turbo-boost-up-to-3.8ghz-512gb#

I would love to hear your opinion on the above choice.  And I have a couple of questions/concerns:  1.  Do I need to upgrade to 32gb?  2. And, as a photographer that sells prints,  do I need to be concerned about this feature "It supports P3 wide colour for even more vibrant greens and reds and with sRGB.  And every MacBook Pro features True Tone technology.  The white balance automatically adjusts to match the colour temperature of the light around you--for a more natural viewing experience."  3.  Is there anything else about this mac that would concern you or that you would recommend?

Thanks Brian, I appreciate your help!

[Brian]

12 hours ago, JudyM said:

I have a Mac laptop running Catalina 10.15.6 and Photoshop 21.2.0. It is over 6 years old, and has 8GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 102GB free out of 251GB. 

Yeah. You are due for an upgrade.

With the model you linked to, you are jumping in from one fire into another one. When it comes to Apple's products, they want you to "Go Big or Go Home." Especially when it comes to Mac Laptops. Yes, you will need to upgrade the RAM to 32GB, as you can not upgrade it after the fact. (The chips are soldered to the board and there is no upgrade socket.) Hard Drive, I'd go for a 1TB SSD. CPU can be left at the default. That said, I would not buy that Mac Laptop you linked to due to the video card configuration. It's under-powered, and Intel Video Cards have a history of not playing well with Photoshop. Since it's a laptop there is no upgrading after the fact. Actually, you need to purchase all of the over-priced upgrades at the time of purchase, which significantly drives up the cost. Fun, eh?

Mac Laptops are insanely expensive. Are you sure you want to go this route? Because if you truly want a Mac Laptop that's "Good for Photo Editing," you are closer to the $3800-$4000 price-point. I can not in good conscious recommend spending $4000 on something you will get 3-4 years out of. Yep. You read that correctly. You might be one of the lucky ones that may get 5 years out of a Mac Laptop, but in reality...Lithium Ion Batteries only last for a certain amount of time, usually around 2 years or so. Then there is the other issues with Mac Laptops, and I can link you to a guy on YouTube that fixes them all day long. They aren't all what they claim to be.

Now to answer your question, I'm actually in the process of writing an article addressing some of your questions. So here are some quick-and-dirty thoughts:

1. RAM - Today's 16GB was yesterday's 8GB or even 4GB. 16GB is the absolute bare-minimum RAM Configuration that I recommend for today's computer. Better yet...try to get 32GB or more. 32GB is the "Sweet Spot" for today's computers, and as cameras get more MegaPixels, gone are the days of squeaking by with small amount of RAM. You could get away with that 10 years ago, when PS CS6 ruled the roost. Not today.
2. HD Capacity - A 500GB HD is also a bare-minimum capacity for a computer in 2020. Even at that capacity, you need to be hyper-anal on what is stored on your internal HD, because the more crap you have on your HD, the slower your Mac runs. In fact, I always recommend never going above 75% full on ANY Mac HD, internal or external. Why? As soon as you get above 80% full on a Mac HD, your performance takes a huge it. So I usually recommend 75% to give people a little wiggle-room. For a HD that is 95% or more full, you are in very dangerous territory; not only will your Mac operate at a snail's pace, you are in real danger of data-corruption. If your HD is 99% Full, you are lucky if the blasted thing boots at all. So no, I highly recommend getting a 1TB HD for your Main HD. It gives you enough room for the OS, Programs, and data / images, plus having enough capacity for the PS Scratch Disk and other Cache Files.
3. Video Card - This is a new item. Those gray squares? That's PS not playing well with your video card and / or drivers. It's under-powered. Adobe's products these days use the video card to help increase performance. Up until recently, it's been an untapped resource. Now, it's common place and your choice of video card is even MORE IMPORTANT than the speed of your CPU Chip. Well, at least as far as Adobe's products are concerned. Believe it or not, I'd rather have a Member purchase a slightly slower CPU chip and then take those savings and put it towards a better video card. I'm dead serious.
4. As far as the whole P3 Wide Color Gammut with sRGB, that's just marketing. Sure it's a good thing to have, but you will have to budget for a new Calibration Tool, such as a SpyderX Pro or SpyderX Elite to get the best results. So add $200+ to your budget for a Calibrator.

So now I'm sure you are at the point of what would I buy if I were to buy a Mac Laptop for "Photo Editing." So let's go shopping. Of course, I will warn you it's not gonna be cheap.

Here is my configuration. Man, COVID19 has really increased prices. Now is NOT the time to be in the market for a new computer. Even on the Windows side, computers are $500-$1000 more than they were a year or so ago.

Cost before Apple Care and Tax: $4124.

Can I interest you in a 27" iMac? You will have a faster computer for about $1000 less.

[JudyM]

Thanks Brian.  It might not be a good time to buy a new laptop but one of these days my old one is going to die. Editing is already a challenge and I close everything but Photoshop. But I have had it for 6 years and I use it a lot!  So I really can't complain.   

What if I switched to something other than a Mac?  Do you have any recommendations? Will I have problems opening files that have been produced on my Mac (I'm pretty sure the answer to this will be yes).   More importantly....will I have any problems opening/editing images that have been edited on my Mac and saved on my Lacie portable hard drives?

So I'm looking for at least 16gb ram but 32 would be better.  A 500 gb hard drive but 1tb would be better.  Anything else I should be looking for specifically?  What do I look for re the video card?

 

 

[Brian]

Switching from Mac to PC is a real pain in the ass. The main issue is the Mac Format on its partitions, Windows can't read it by default. There are work-arounds requiring paid software to act as a translator and if you do go that route, we can discuss it then.

Unfortunately, the 13" MBP is like a 21.5" iMac, and if you have read any of my pinned topics, you know how much I hate the 21.5" iMac for photo-editing. General computing, it's fine, but like the 16" MBP the 27" iMac is a better buy and has way more horsepower for editing photos.

Windows Laptops are a moving target. The models are changed what seems to be every 4-6 weeks. Finding a IPS Display for a Windows Laptop is also quite difficult. (This is a standard thing on the Mac Laptops.) Honestly, I've created this article in my Windows Group. For a Windows Laptop, here is one I would purchase, but due to COVID19...everything is screwed up production-wise: ASUS 15.6" Republic of Gamers Laptop. I have no idea when that laptop will ever be in stock.

In reality, I hate-hate-hate laptops for photo-editing. But people are determined to buy them and I'm tired of arguing.

[JudyM]

You just reminded me of another question.  I see a lot of laptops advertised as for "gaming".  Does that matter to me?  I see the one you recommended is a gaming laptop.....so is this something I should be looking for specifically (as long as it meets the other requirements of course)?

[JudyM]

Brian....sorry but just to clarify....are you saying that I won't be able to open my images that have been edited with my Mac unless I buy special software that will convert them?

[Brian]

19 hours ago, JudyM said:

are you saying that I won't be able to open my images that have been edited with my Mac unless I buy special software that will convert them?

Correct. Well, partially. The problem is the MacOS speaks one language and Windows speaks another, at least as far as the hard drive partitions are concerned. By default a Macintosh will READ a Windows hard drive, but not write to it. This makes switching from Windows to the Mac really easy, and it's intended that way. The problem is going the other way, Mac to Windows. You really do not want to go back and forth, so pick a format and stick with it.

What you will need is to purchase this translation software, yes...it's better for it to be paid and not free, and install it on your Mac. Then purchase a Windows-based computer, laptop or desktop and a new external HD. Then partition/format the new EHD on the Windows computer with a NTFS partition and then hook it up to your Mac. Then copy your data files to this new EHD and let it finish. Then eject the EHD on your Mac and hook it up to the Windows computer and see if it can read the files. Most of the time, there aren't any issues. That said, this "Translation Software" isn't 100% bullet-proof. This is why it is very important to "Copy" and not "Cut" your files to the EHD. This way if something goes screwy during transfer, you have the source file(s) to try copying again. If you select the "Cut" option, you are moving the files, which is very bad due to the source file getting deleted on your Mac as it moves stuff over. Recovering data on a Mac is extremely difficult, and I wouldn't recommend it. I've permanently lost files due to my own stupidity on my Mac.

[JudyM]

Well I may be sticking with a Mac. Changing now sounds like it might be a big pain.   I did read the info about purchasing a laptop and what to look for and I’m assuming now your prices are in US funds because the prices I’m getting are WAY higher!  But it also seems like the price difference between Macs and others isn’t as great in Canada as elsewhere. 

[Brian]

16 minutes ago, JudyM said:

I’m assuming now your prices are in US funds

Yep. My prices are US Dollar Based. Canada is more expensive than the US. England is even higher...and OZ, well...that's a whole other topic altogether. I feel really bad for recommending this shit to people who live in OZ. Your prices are incredibly expensive.