Lightroom Classic CC 8.0 on MacBook Pro 13" 2,7 GHz i7 (2018)?

[Arcimboldo]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about getting a new MacBook Pro 13" 2.7 GHz i7 with 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD to run Lightroom Classic CC 8.0 on it. I would be editing 42 MP RAW on it, both compressed with around 43.5 MB or uncompressed with about 85.8 GB per image. As far as I understand system requirements, the spec of that machine should be ample to do that.

Now here's the catch: I usually edit on an external display - the laptop display I mostly use on the go. Currently my external display is an NEC MultiSync PA271W with 2560 x 1440 pixels but I'm planning on moving to a 4k or 5k monitor sooner or later, running in 'Best (Retina)' mode. According to Apple, the new MacBook Pro 13" drives up to two 4k or one 5k external displays. However, Adobe recommends 2 GB of dedicated VRAM to run Lightroom Classic on such a large display, and I'm asking myself whether the Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 of the 13" with its 'borrowed' RAM is up to the task?

I'd highly appreciate if anybody could report on their experience with this combination, the full-fledged MacBook driving a 5k monitor, with Lightroom and rather large RAW files? (Due to circumstances, I will not be able to return the MacBook once I bought it.)

Thanks, and cheers
Heiko

 

[Chancha]

Retina / HiDPI screens as you may have already known, is a bitch for LR to roll with. It used to be really bad when retina was new, now a few years down we got a little more computing headroom in PC/Macs so the stress has been lessened, and then Adobe has done a notable amount of optimization for LR during the Classic rename/switch.

But still. I have both a 5k iMac 2017 maxed, with an external 27" low-DPI display via mDP (2560x1440). On the iMac, LR experience is in general smooth for culling and metadata stuff (library module), but I can easily tell it struggles to keep up with the pixel count if I use the app full screen on the 5K side for adjustments (so the develop module is on this 5k side). If I flip around the screen roles the performance feels similar, since the preview side still needs to do real time re-draw of the photo also. Only when I use just the ext 2K monitor, with the 5K side not used at all for LR windows, then I get somewhat breezy performances.

Now my above setup isn't exactly the same as your plan, but as a reference of how much impact a 5k screen can do to LR workflow I think it helps you a bit. The MBP2018 are quite well performing compared to iMac 2017, the 13" is already at quad core but as you have noted, the lack of dGPU means the VRAM is drawn from shared bank of DRAM which is "only" maxed at 16GB. Unlike Photoshop, LR itself does not ask for endless amount of RAM so I am unsure if the specific setup of a 2018 13" + 5K ext display will create a bottleneck there. But in general laptops have never been that great for LR usage anyway, I have a 2015 MBP 15" maxed, some times I have to do quick LR editing on the road with it and the experience is never pleasant. It gets the job done but it really chokes more than I would like it to. And that's without attaching an ext monitor or even there is, it is just a 1920x1200 Eizo. And this MBP already has a dGPU with I think 2GB VRAM.

If you are very inclined on getting the 2018 13", and you got a 2560x1440 NEC which is already great in color reproduction and accuracy, my advise is to not think too much about adding/replacing it with a 4k or even 5k. As of now, reliable professional monitors that have hardware calibrations are available in 4k of course, but they are costly, and not that necessary IMO. Unless you work in 4k video delivery, otherwise the need to proof / color grade a UHD or even DCI-4K at full screen is just not there. For photos / stills, you have the liberty to zoom in 100% and out to fit size on demand so that a display needs not to show all the pixels at once. What's more important is the real estate or the scaled PPI for interface, where I consider a 27" at 2560x1440 pretty ideal for desktop usage.

 

[Arcimboldo]

@Chancha What you're writing makes perfect sense - great idea to check in the activity monitor whether GPU is important for my usual working style. As far as 4k and 5k displays are concerned: I normally keep my boxes for six or even more years so would like to know that the 13" is future-proof in that respect, because you never know what you are going to do within such a long timespan. But you're right, actually I'm very happy with the NEC and would not seriously think about exchanging it unless it stopped working beyond repair. And NEC even after the more than six years I use the PA271W already still does not offer a 4k model in its pro range. And if all else fails, I could still resort to an external GPU, which currently are 2x as fast as even the dGPU in the 15" MBP.