Can 2D artists/designers improve on M2Pro Mini 32GB?

[Lordart]

As I'd prefer to direct this in a more helpful route have re-named the thread
(used to be called 'Adobe on Sonoma - 64GB Ram more than enough or?')

Also as the original post below had a fair bit about the Adobe/Sonoma Ram issue here is a more accurate picture of what I'm trying to figure out:

I am a full time freelance Illustrator, Graphic Designer & Artist. My current setup is Mac Mini M2 Pro with 32GB ram 1TB HD running latest Adobe Suite and Ventura OS.

General experience is works great in Photoshop or Illustrator until files get very large and complex then it starts to lag in photoshop and objects in Illustrator cause loading bars if moved.

Trying to figure out if a Studio M2 Max in any config or base Ultra would help?
As far as Ram goes currently I am assuming it's not my issue but feel it could get a bit limiting if demands increase for whatever reason so IF I do end up going for a Studio I would likely get at least 64GB.

Scroll further down to see my more detailed ponderings

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Original post:

Last year purchased M2 Mac Mini Pro 32GB Ram for my work as a full time freelance Illustrator (coming from 2012 quad core Mini with 16GB Ram). Using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator with very large files including a lot of layer/effects etc. Impressive how well the M2 Pro handles really large files and allows me to multitask at the same time.

Wasn't sure if I should have gone for the M1 Studio and was feeling good about my choice until recently hearing Macs with 32GB Ram are having errors when running Adobe suite on Sonoma but 64GB Ram versions are doing ok ... Sticking with ventura for now but if I go for a Studio M2 Max can anyone advise if 64GB is more than enough or 96GB would give a worthwhile extra boost in capability?

I've pondered the Ultra but I really cannot justify that much extra cost so feel a 'maxed' Max is the max.

I've read about Ram always being used up with caching etc = more Ram doesn't mean more sitting unused until needed but when it comes to working on complex artwork (high res, lots of layers, large brushes, effects etc) any info on what would best help keep things running smoothly welcome.

Options considering:

Studio M2 Max 30Core 64Ram 1TB Storage (More than enough for my use?)
Studio M2 Max 38Core 64Ram 1TB Storage (Better performance and enough Ram?)
Studio M2 Max 38Core 96Ram 1TB Storage (Best performance or pointless overkill?)

Having already been overly cautious/unwise in getting the mini rather than a Studio am leaning toward the 38 core 96 Ram.

 

[JustAnExpat]

> until recently hearing Macs with 32GB Ram are having errors when running Adobe suite on Sonoma but 64GB Ram versions are doing ok

*sigh*... what errors, and where do you read that at?

 

[Heindijs]

> until recently hearing Macs with 32GB Ram are having errors when running Adobe suite on Sonoma but 64GB Ram versions are doing ok

*sigh*... what errors, and where do you read that at?

Sounds like memory leak issues at Adobe's part

 

[kitKAC]

Impressive how well the M2 Pro handles really large files and allows me to multitask at the same time.

I'm confused, do you want to get Studio because your current machine can't handle what you need it to do or because of something you read on the internet?

 

[Lordart]

*sigh*... what errors, and where do you read that at?

*sigh* ... I don't remember the exact specifics but UI and performance related & enough places from genuine users simply asking for help or reporting the issue to cause me concern, with those who have 32gb experiencing them and those with 64gb and above reporting no such issues - I understand your scepticism! Annoyingly I can't easily find the threads again ... (edit found one at least - see below!) ... it was either on this forum, Apple community, Adobe community or a variety of those...

Sounds like memory leak issues at Adobe's part

Good point ... although do memory leaks have limits so that any machine with 64gb or over wasn't effected? (genuine question) ... I was under the impression a memory leak would simply keep eating up memory no matter what you had?

I'm confused, do you want to get Studio because your current machine can't handle what you need it to do or because of something you read on the internet?

While impressively more capable than my old machine I have found my current setup has started to bog down on the larger more complex files in my current long term project for a client (to the point where things were generally too laggy to work at my normal speed and I had to start creating duplicate files and merging layers not currently working on to get things nice and snappy again) - memory usage does show close to the limit under normal use as well but as noted I have read on these forums and elsewhere that is quite likely normal behaviour. My concern is if I am already finding limits then introducing a more ram-hungry OS and/or more demanding future versions of Creative cloud could lead to frustration and who knows if I'll be in a position to upgrade then... I'd rather upgrade now while funds allow.

 

[Lordart]

Aha ... I found one of the threads and it was indeed on MacRumours:

MacOS Sonoma 14.0 and Adobe Creative Suite

Hello, I just saw a new update available for my new Mac Studio M2 and Im using this computer to work with Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Dreamweaver.. Is it ok to upgrade to Sonoma?.. Thanks

forums.macrumors.com

While this may or may not be an ongoing issue and was only something I found while researching something else (seems it is just a bug that hopefully has/will be ironed out in updates) it got me thinking and as I have already started to push things a bit with the M2 Mini thought I'd see if anyone with experience could advise re best option as a future-proofing step up from where I'm at.

Again this is a work machine for my business, would like to have the breathing space to tackle bigger projects than I have to date and I intend to use it for the next 7-10 years as I have with all my previous macs ... but not naive enough to think that is a certainty anymore.

 

[Lordart]

Ok just having another look at the specs of my Mini Pro vs Studio Max/Ultra ... not to obsess over specs but to try to zoom in on what would give an actually worthwhile 'step up' as mentioned. No point in going through all the hassle and expense of new mac & migrating everything etc etc if it's not actually upgrading what matters... sooo

Far as I can see Pro to Max the improvements would be in Memory bandwidth, GPU and Ram ...

Memory bandwidth ... how fast CPU talks to Ram - doubling this from 200GB/s to 400GB/s sounds useful

GPU seems mainly for video stuff (as I'm mainly working on complex static images I am guessing I won't see much difference with slow down / lag if I have a whole bunch more GPU cores??)

Ram ... not sure I even want to ask opinions on this but safe to say 'enough' is good whatever amount that is

Now the annoying thing is as far as I can tell CPU is what digital artists like myself should try to maximise if performance is the issue ... and the Ultra is where that shows the real jump from 12 to 24 cores and 800GB/s bandwidth...

🤔

 

[ignatius345]

*sigh* ... I don't remember the exact specifics but UI and performance related & enough places from genuine users simply asking for help or reporting the issue to cause me concern, with those who have 32gb experiencing them and those with 64gb and above reporting no such issues - I understand your scepticism! Annoyingly I can't easily find the threads again ... (edit found one at least - see below!) ... it was either on this forum, Apple community, Adobe community or a variety of those...

The important thing to remember when you're cruising through online forums is that the people who are posting the most are the people who are having problems. So you tend to bet the impression that "a lot of people" are having Issue X or Issue Y, simply because the people whose Macs are working great for their workflow are generally not going to bother seeking out some forum to talk about that fact.

Me and my team at work do quite a bit of Illustrator and InDesign work. We're mostly all on M1 Minis with 16GB of RAM. The only time I've seriously bogged mine is on really physically large Illustrator artboards with gobs of effects layers -- and sometimes displaying very large and intensive vectors in PDFs. Day to day use, though, even "just" 16GB is working great.

 

[Lordart]

The important thing to remember when you're cruising through online forums is that the people who are posting the most are the people who are having problems. So you tend to bet the impression that "a lot of people" are having Issue X or Issue Y, simply because the people whose Macs are working great for their workflow are generally not going to bother seeking out some forum to talk about that fact.

Me and my team at work do quite a bit of Illustrator and InDesign work. We're mostly all on M1 Minis with 16GB of RAM. The only time I've seriously bogged mine is on really physically large Illustrator artboards with gobs of effects layers -- and sometimes displaying very large and intensive vectors in PDFs. Day to day use, though, even "just" 16GB is working great.

100% agree re skewed impressions online due to the kind of people who would be bothered to post online - a big frustration of trying to get a feel for pros/cons of anything these days...!

Interestingly the main situation where I noticed my previous quad core 2012 Mini with 16GB Ram bog beyond workable speeds was a huge Illustrator file with a large artboard, many effects layers and high res psd placed images... or simply trying to load the website of a well known grocery shop! 1st limits of spec and the 2nd simply being outdated.

Briefly tested an M1 base lvl Mini with 8GB Ram and it halved the load times, the M2 Mini Pro 32GB ram improves that further and also vastly improves the size and complexity of Photoshop files I can deal with... but still I'm finding 'limits' when doing 'normal' work (as in not actively trying to push the system but ending up with a large, complex file while producing what the client needs)... the question is can I take it another step up with any version of the Studio?

I think I may have set things off in a rather distracting direction by naming the thread about and mentioning the Adobe/Sonoma/Ram issues ... yes they triggered my pondering but realistically were only part of my questioning the wisdom of M2 Mini 32GB over M2 Studio 64Gb+ for my needs and best future proofing.

 

[Lordart]

Renamed thread to something more accurate - hope that's ok?

 

[picpicmac]

yes they triggered my pondering but realistically were only part of my questioning the wisdom of M2 Mini 32GB over M2 Studio 64Gb+ for my needs and best future proofing.

YouTube channel ArtIsRight is made by a professional photographer, and he has run many comparisons between all Apple Silicon CPUs in various boxes. Art makes the point over and over that if one is doing Photoshop (or LR) one should get more RAM, and if one does video one should get an Ultra chip. That's the tradeoff between memory and processor cores one should make.

Recommend you look up some of Art's videos.

 

[Lordart]

YouTube channel ArtIsRight is made by a professional photographer, and he has run many comparisons between all Apple Silicon CPUs in various boxes. Art makes the point over and over that if one is doing Photoshop (or LR) one should get more RAM, and if one does video one should get an Ultra chip. That's the tradeoff between memory and processor cores one should make.

Recommend you look up some of Art's videos.

Aha yes I have already seen his videos - very cool stuff but while there are obviously some real similarities (large file sizes + effects layers used) the workflow and layer style is somewhat different. I have never touched LR myself being a professional illustrator / graphic designer and not a pro photographer I mainly am drawing+painting large images with hundreds of layers, effects, masks, textures, etc and need detailed brushwork to remain snappy and responsive at any stage. Might be working on multiple of these types of files at once and also have Illustrator open with it's own complex file/s...

Real world testing / comparisons of systems from guys like Art really are super cool but would be nice to see if people in my situation with more tech knowledge / experience of the Pro/Max/Ultra from a artist/designer perspective have the same results. Before silicon it was always boost the CPU & Ram to the maximum you can afford and you're set.