M1 Mac - real life photo SW experience

[jz0309]

There have been multiple threads recently on M1 for photo SW usage so wanted to start a dedicated thread to discuss EXPERIENCE with photo software on the M1 based Mac. So whatever you are using, Affinity, Lightroom, Capture One or whatever, every SW goes.

When you respond, please state your config, all M1s have 8 CPU cores, 7 or 8 GPU cores, 8 or 16GB of RAM, and 256, 512, 1 or 2 TB SSD.

For the SW you’re using, please indicate if it is the Apple Silicon version or the Intel version running on Rosetta …

One other comment on the M1, on my MBA the 512 SSD is FAST, read/write speed is ~ 2900 MBps!

 

[jz0309]

There have been multiple threads recently on M1 for photo SW usage so wanted to start a dedicated thread to discuss EXPERIENCE with photo software on the M1 based Mac. So whatever you are using, Affinity, Lightroom, Capture One or whatever, every SW goes.

When you respond, please state your config, all M1s have 8 CPU cores, 7 or 8 GPU cores, 8 or 16GB of RAM, and 256, 512, 1 or 2 TB SSD.

For the SW you’re using, please indicate if it is the Apple Silicon version or the Intel version running on Rosetta …

One other comment on the M1, on my MBA the 512 SSD is FAST, read/write speed is ~ 2900 MBps!

About 10 days ago I received a M1 MBA to replace my 2019 15 MBP, I got a great trade in value that I could not resist.
Config: 8/8 16GB RAM 512GB; Lightroom and Photoshop, both Apple Silicon version

On a day to day usage I use the MBA for morning/evening web browsing and occasional office document work, it also serves as my travel companion for when I go on a multi-day trip with my camera with me. I shoot in RAW, so I want to be able to review and share a day’s worth of photos while not at home, editing is usually light, and Photoshop usage is extremely limited while on the road.

So I did copy my photos from a month from my iMac over to the MBA to see how import etc works, it was ~ 850 photos, ~ 750 raw taking ~ 25GB.
I did build smart previews during the import, no develop settings.
Import took ~ 6-7 min, CPU usage was ~ 750%, didn’t monitor GPU usage
I’ve never timed the import on my iMac, I always let it do its thing and walk away as it is not useable for anything else during import, well at 750% CPU usage, the MBA is not useable for anything else during import either.
I opened 1 of the raw photos in Photoshop, at which point LR RAM usage was ~ 1.6 GB and PS ~ 1GB.

Just some basic scrolling and stuff it felt pretty fast, just the screen, I love it for web browsing and such, but I cannot use if for any kind of serious LR/PS work, not that I want to as that is not why I got the MBA.

Overall I am very satisfied with the MBA, including the screen, performance it feels at least on par if not better than my MBP, battery life is fantastic (indicating 18-20hrs), and, no fans so no noise whatsoever …

For my purposes I think this M1MBA will do a great job for the years to come, very happy with my purchase

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Just the base M1 MBA, 7/8/256 config. I use DxO PureRAW (which appears to be a mix of Intel/M1 architecture) to do an initial pass of my images, and then do my final tweaks in darktable, which is Intel only. Performance is perfectly fine for my 20MP RAW files. I put a copy of final edits in Photos as well, so I can access them anywhere.

I had a quad core 2020 Intel MBA before this, and the M1 really just blows it away. Everything feels faster, battery life is great, and there's no fan at all. I just went with the base config to see what the next gen models look like. I'd love to get a 16' model with the M1 or whatever Apple has planned next.

 

[tizeye]

Following as I see it in my future when the 14/16 MBP is introduced. My 2013 15" MBP is "due" an upgrade and I didn't want to go 16" of current Intel based generation. Hopefully they don't cut the power/capability of the 14" too much as 16" is just too large.

Just packing for some international travel next week. Normally, I keep the notebook in a nice case, but a 3rd carry-on is an issue with airlines, so limited to camera/lens case and backpack. MBP just fits - very tightly - where designed for a Camelback bladder, and 16" is just slightly too large.

 

[kenoh]

M1 Mini 8/8/16/512
Adobe LR and PS universal binaries

Replaced 2016 MBP 15” 16mb 256gb i7 2.6ghz quad

When running Rosetta, noticeable slow down compared to apple silicon native. Few gotchas in form of PS not running plug ins and also having to restore some presets as M1 LRc now sync’s presets direct to CC where previously I was selectively doing them vi LR CC desktop.

Very happy though

 

[stillcrazyman]

M1 Mini 8/8/16/512
Adobe LR and PS universal binaries

Replaced 2016 MBP 15” 16mb 256gb i7 2.6ghz quad

When running Rosetta, noticeable slow down compared to apple silicon native. Few gotchas in form of PS not running plug ins and also having to restore some presets as M1 LRc now sync’s presets direct to CC where previously I was selectively doing them vi LR CC desktop.

Very happy though

Do you find the graphics acceleration / gpu powerful enough for using the tools - healing brush, masking and such ?

My 2018 mini seems to choke when I need to use those kinds of tools.
I invested in an external gpu which did help, but was too unstable with some programs to be useful.

 

[Clix Pix]

I haven't used my M1 13" MBP (16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD) all that much for editing but the few times I have it has been pleasingly responsive and quick. My plan is that when the 14/16" M-series machines are released this fall that I'll be replacing my 2018 15" MBP with one of them, assuming that the larger machines will have more ports than the M1 MBP does, plus the ability to go to 32 GB or 64 GB RAM, etc.

My primary editing software is DXO PhotoLab 4 and I've been very happy with it so will continue with it when the time comes; I haven't checked as to whether or not it is now also native to the Apple Silicon chip platform, as that hasn't been an issue yet -- I know that the last time I edited something on the M1 machine it was still using Rosetta, as that was a while ago. I also use Luminar AI for occasional finishing touches or for a real quickie editing, and it, too, worked fine on the M1 and I think it's still also still using Rosetta.

Oh, and Topaz's various programs work pretty quickly and smoothly since they updated most of them, something I've noticed in the 2018 Intel machine, so I imagine that they will be great on an M-series machine as well, but I haven't installed any of them on the 13" MBP, since I would not be doing serious editing on there where I might have a need for Topaz.

Presumably by the time the new larger MBPs are released more software will have been made native to the new platform, eliminating the need for Rosetta. That said, I haven't had any problems with it, seems to work smoothly and transparently, just as promised.

 

[kenoh]

Do you find the graphics acceleration / gpu powerful enough for using the tools - healing brush, masking and such ?

My 2018 mini seems to choke when I need to use those kinds of tools.
I invested in an external gpu which did help, but was too unstable with some programs to be useful.

Compared to my MBP it replaced, it is much much smoother in real world usage. Surface blurs are massively faster in PS and when dealing with lots of layers it doesn’t choke the way my other machines did.

I miss using NIK plugins from PS but I can build my images and save back to LRc then go to NIK and then pull back into PS if I really need to - yes cumbersome but alternate is to run in PS intel via Rosetta and that is not ideal.

We will have to wait until our fav plug ins are updated to work with the new Adobe standards

 

[dimme]

I am curious what display people are pairing with the M1 Minis for photo use. I have read the 27" LG 5K that Apple sell is a disaster (but maybe I only hear bad things). Most 27" displays are 4K which also seems problematic with photo editing because of scaling.

 

[Clix Pix]

I don't have an M1 Mini -- have the 13" M1 MBP -- and I don't connect it to an external monitor. I have the 24" LG 4K Thunderbolt 3 monitor that Apple used to sell in their stores connected to my 2018 MBP and it has worked well for me with regard to image editing. I prefer the 24" size because the display itself is physically easier for me to handle when I have to move it and also in actual use I don't need to swivel my head from one side to the other when reading text on it. That said, there are times when I wish I did have a little more screen real estate while editing images.....

 

[kenoh]

I am curious what display people are pairing with the M1 Minis for photo use. I have read the 27" LG 5K that Apple sell is a disaster (but maybe I only hear bad things). Most 27" displays are 4K which also seems problematic with photo editing because of scaling.

I am using a Lenovo Think Vision T27p-10 27”4K and it works brilliantly. No scale issues or anything.

 

[400]

Really must get deeper into what I can do past a few simple tweeks (hobby camera user not a pro) but a panorama seemed to take as long as my old 2013 iMac. New iMac 8/8/16 1tb.
Affinity Photo, 16 CR2 files for one image outputted at TIFF though it was one of the first things I tried.
Fans ramped up as well on a video conversion though I might have been asking a lot and the App concerned is not M1 I think.

 

[kenoh]

Really must get deeper into what I can do past a few simple tweeks (hobby camera user not a pro) but a panorama seemed to take as long as my old 2013 iMac. New iMac 8/8/16 1tb.
Affinity Photo, 16 CR2 files for one image outputted at TIFF though it was one of the first things I tried.
Fans ramped up as well on a video conversion though I might have been asking a lot and the App concerned is not M1 I think.

Yep, the performance only becomes visible when running M1 binaries.

 

[400]

And I have just discovered how to tell the difference. Sweet. The app was indeed Intel.

(edit, the video converter not Affinity)

 

[Ay-Yo-Its-Edge]

Full time Photographer and I have M1 Mini 8/8/16GB/1TB BenQ PD2720U 27" 4K using LRC/PS/Capture One Pro and in my real world use it's one of the slowest systems I have used in terms of serious workflow. Not importing/exporting but color grading, retouching, resolution enhancing, heavy edits. Just curious if anyone else has input or has experienced issues?

I know this is an old thread but I just found it and hoping to get some opinions from others and wanted to see how everyone's long-term real world photo editing is going? Just opening LRC drops available RAM to about 4GB free and that's before any editing or sending to PS for heavy edits. A couple mask added and it's high memory pressure and nearly non responsive. I know it's the cheapest Mac to get but I came from a 2014 27" retina iMac spec'd out and it would run circles around the mini (screen died and I couldn't rationalize the cost to replace the screen due to it's age) during long editing sessions.

 

[r.harris1]

Full time Photographer and I have M1 Mini 8/8/16GB/1TB BenQ PD2720U 27" 4K using LRC/PS/Capture One Pro and in my real world use it's one of the slowest systems I have used in terms of serious workflow. Not importing/exporting but color grading, retouching, resolution enhancing, heavy edits. Just curious if anyone else has input or has experienced issues?

I know this is an old thread but I just found it and hoping to get some opinions from others and wanted to see how everyone's long-term real world photo editing is going? Just opening LRC drops available RAM to about 4GB free and that's before any editing or sending to PS for heavy edits. A couple mask added and it's high memory pressure and nearly non responsive. I know it's the cheapest Mac to get but I came from a 2014 27" retina iMac spec'd out and it would run circles around the mini (screen died and I couldn't rationalize the cost to replace the screen due to it's age) during long editing sessions.

A very much improved workflow for me on the 16 inch M1 Max 64/32/16/10 driving an older LG 5k monitor with Capture One and PS (latest of each). Coming from the 16 inch Intel reasonably well kitted out, I’m super pleased with performance, with Capture One in particular. Imports, preview generation on a variety of raw file vendors and sizes, masking tasks, grading and exports are all noticeably faster for me. It makes good use of the GPU and also the CPU cores. C1 moving to Metal for the M1 chipset has been nice. PS hasn’t been a slouch either but I only use it for a very few things if needed so haven’t really pushed it too hard.

 

[Ay-Yo-Its-Edge]

A very much improved workflow for me on the 16 inch M1 Max 64/32/16/10 driving an older LG 5k monitor with Capture One and PS (latest of each). Coming from the 16 inch Intel reasonably well kitted out, I’m super pleased with performance, with Capture One in particular. Imports, preview generation on a variety of raw file vendors and sizes, masking tasks, grading and exports are all noticeably faster for me. It makes good use of the GPU and also the CPU cores. C1 moving to Metal for the M1 chipset has been nice. PS hasn’t been a slouch either but I only use it for a very few things if needed so haven’t really pushed it too hard.

The M1 Pro/Max I've only seen & heard good things about, I was curious on user experience with the M1. All the hype from reviewers and YouTubers I feel were extremely exaggerated for real workflows. I'm waiting to see what's announced in March and if it's only M2/low end consumer (not price but spec & performance) releases I'll pick up an M1 Max 24GPU/64GB/1TB and trade in or sell the Mac mini.

 

[r.harris1]

The M1 Pro/Max I've only seen & heard good things about, I was curious on user experience with the M1. All the hype from reviewers and YouTubers I feel were extremely exaggerated for real workflows. I'm waiting to see what's announced in March and if it's only M2/low end consumer (not price but spec & performance) releases I'll pick up an M1 Max 24GPU/64GB/1TB and trade in or sell the Mac mini.

My wife has an M1 and I kicked the tires with Capture One before buying mine. When it wasn’t also driving my monitor it did surprisingly well on most tasks but I felt my Intel MBP had a small edge, especially on exports, albeit with a lot of heat and fan noise, which I have yet to experience on any M1-based machine. A small amount of warmth yes, but only on something like a longer running export of full-size TIFFs of large raws. Performance dropped a small amount when driving my monitor. I didn’t run PS.

 

[deeddawg]

Full time Photographer and I have M1 Mini 8/8/16GB/1TB BenQ PD2720U 27" 4K using LRC/PS/Capture One Pro and in my real world use it's one of the slowest systems I have used in terms of serious workflow. Not importing/exporting but color grading, retouching, resolution enhancing, heavy edits. Just curious if anyone else has input or has experienced issues?

Depending on your workflow it could be memory related. Remember the current M1 Mini's are the lower tier versions with max of 16GB ram. While my M1 MBP with 16GB ram is fast for everything I do, I'm at the hobbyist level these days (I've 2nd-shot for a pro in the past) and likely not putting the load on my system with LRC/PS that you're likely putting on yours.

If you've not done so, open the Activity Monitor app, go to the Memory tab, then go about your photographic workflow.

Watch the Memory Pressure graph down near the bottom, see if it stays green or shows a bunch of yellow or even red. Given that Adobe apps aren't exactly memory efficient, I'd wager you'll see some red showing up. If that's the case, your next system should be 32GB ram minimum.

 

[Ay-Yo-Its-Edge]

Depending on your workflow it could be memory related. Remember the current M1 Mini's are the lower tier versions with max of 16GB ram. While my M1 MBP with 16GB ram is fast for everything I do, I'm at the hobbyist level these days (I've 2nd-shot for a pro in the past) and likely not putting the load on my system with LRC/PS that you're likely putting on yours.

If you've not done so, open the Activity Monitor app, go to the Memory tab, then go about your photographic workflow.

Watch the Memory Pressure graph down near the bottom, see if it stays green or shows a bunch of yellow or even red. Given that Adobe apps aren't exactly memory efficient, I'd wager you'll see some red showing up. If that's the case, your next system should be 32GB ram minimum.

I believe it's 100% memory related, I started to track it with memory clean & activity manager. Once I start doing any large edits the memory pressure is stuck in the yellow/red. Unfortunately I drank in the kool-aid from all the YT reviews about it's speed, performance, and the most annoying "16GB unified is like 32GB regular memory". In the real world 16GB will always be 16GB and 32GB(what I had in my 2014 iMac) will always be 32GB and with the real performance, 100% more ram for real work loads is like night and day. The performance also takes a hit using the 4K monitor, overall the M1 mini has been my worst apple purchase in 20 years (yeah I know, I'm getting old).

 

[whiteonline]

I believe it's 100% memory related, I started to track it with memory clean & activity manager. Once I start doing any large edits the memory pressure is stuck in the yellow/red. Unfortunately I drank in the kool-aid from all the YT reviews about it's speed, performance, and the most annoying "16GB unified is like 32GB regular memory". In the real world 16GB will always be 16GB and 32GB(what I had in my 2014 iMac) will always be 32GB and with the real performance, 100% more ram for real work loads is like night and day. The performance also takes a hit using the 4K monitor, overall the M1 mini has been my worst apple purchase in 20 years (yeah I know, I'm getting old).

I appreciate the followup to this thread.
YT reviewers are there for clicks. Generate excitement with an over-the-top key frame to get the video out as quickly as possible. They have no incentive to be objective (it’s actually quite the opposite).
The casual computer consumer put far too much confidence into random people in video-form.

 

[deeddawg]

I believe it's 100% memory related, I started to track it with memory clean & activity manager. Once I start doing any large edits the memory pressure is stuck in the yellow/red. Unfortunately I drank in the kool-aid from all the YT reviews about it's speed, performance, and the most annoying "16GB unified is like 32GB regular memory". In the real world 16GB will always be 16GB and 32GB(what I had in my 2014 iMac) will always be 32GB and with the real performance, 100% more ram for real work loads is like night and day. The performance also takes a hit using the 4K monitor, overall the M1 mini has been my worst apple purchase in 20 years (yeah I know, I'm getting old).

Sounds like you've identified the issue, and when the next wave is out you'll be able to rectify matters.

Although the unified memory structure creates some efficiencies, that whole 8-is-like-16 or 16-is-like-32 stuff was an exaggeration - particularly when dealing with stuff like Adobe software which is not known for its memory efficiency.

 

[jz0309]

Sounds like you've identified the issue, and when the next wave is out you'll be able to rectify matters.

Although the unified memory structure creates some efficiencies, that whole 8-is-like-16 or 16-is-like-32 stuff was an exaggeration - particularly when dealing with stuff like Adobe software which is not known for its memory efficiency.

This, both LR and PS are RAM HOGS