Photography question M3

[macman4789]

Hi,

I’m just wanting some confirnation of what I already think! But I am right in thinking that M3 Pro chip will be more than suitable for the next 3-5 years for a semi pro photographer with occasional video? I’m just considering whether the base M3 Max would be overkill for the limited GPU tasks that are involved with photography and dealing with pictures of 48mp and above. The M3 Pro has 18 GPU cores and Max 30 GPU. Is there a huge difference in performance??

Many thanks

 

[ksj1]

I think the M3 Pro will work really well for what you describe. Unless you are denoising hundreds of images at once I don't think the Max will provide much of a performance improvement. I would get more memory instead.

 

[macman4789]

I think the M3 Pro will work really well for what you describe. Unless you are denoising hundreds of images at once I don't think the Max will provide much of a performance improvement. I would get more memory instead.

Thanks for this. Yeah, I was thinking 36GB RAM which I would assume would be more beneficial?

 

[ksj1]

Thanks for this. Yeah, I was thinking 36GB RAM which I would assume would be more beneficial?

Yes, though now that I think about it, 18 might be fine for how you use it today. I would probably get the upgrade myself though.

 

[Miltz]

Hi,

I’m just wanting some confirnation of what I already think! But I am right in thinking that M3 Pro chip will be more than suitable for the next 3-5 years for a semi pro photographer with occasional video? I’m just considering whether the base M3 Max would be overkill for the limited GPU tasks that are involved with photography and dealing with pictures of 48mp and above. The M3 Pro has 18 GPU cores and Max 30 GPU. Is there a huge difference in performance??

Many thanks

I had the M1 Pro 16GB model and it definitely couldn’t handle my work. Things became so unbearable I had to upgrade. Had I gone with a M1 Max with 32GB of ram I probably wouldn’t have to upgrade. My issues began when I got a new camera with 60 megapixel raw files. 2 years ago when I got my M1 I was using 24. Point is going with Max if you can.

 

[xRem]

I have a M1 Max MBP (64 GB Ram), and a M1 Air (16 GB Ram) and I shoot with two cameras in RAW. One is producing 24 MP images, the other is at 47 or so MP. Basic processing works similar on both machines and while there is a difference on the 24 MP images between the M1 Max and M1, it's not really all that relevant. However my M1 Air is struggling with the 47.3 MP images at times. Not so bad that it's making working impossible, but enough to bother me a tiny little bit. Either way, I feel it's down to the Ram and not the chip. So for your use case, make sure you get at least 32 GB Ram (especially if you are working with large Raw files), everything else is a doozy.

 

[macman4789]

I had the M1 Pro 16GB model and it definitely couldn’t handle my work. Things became so unbearable I had to upgrade. Had I gone with a M1 Max with 32GB of ram I probably wouldn’t have to upgrade. My issues began when I got a new camera with 60 megapixel raw files. 2 years ago when I got my M1 I was using 24. Point is going with Max if you can.

Thanks for this. Do you think it was more a RAM issue though? Do you think GPU wise it could handle it? When you say handle your work, was it writing/exporting a problem?

 

[macman4789]

I have a M1 Max MBP (64 GB Ram), and a M1 Air (16 GB Ram) and I shoot with two cameras in RAW. One is producing 24 MP images, the other is at 47 or so MP. Basic processing works similar on both machines and while there is a difference on the 24 MP images between the M1 Max and M1, it's not really all that relevant. However my M1 Air is struggling with the 47.3 MP images at times. Not so bad that it's making working impossible, but enough to bother me a tiny little bit. Either way, I feel it's down to the Ram and not the chip. So for your use case, make sure you get at least 32 GB Ram (especially if you are working with large Raw files), everything else is a doozy.

Thanks for this. Is your M1 Max absolutely fine with both files? You’ve not had any struggles with that? Just trying to establish if there is any GPU struggles or just like you say RAM.

 

[Miltz]

Thanks for this. Do you think it was more a RAM issue though? Do you think GPU wise it could handle it? When you say handle your work, was it writing/exporting a problem?

The main issue is RAM and GPU. It also depends on your work flow. If you edit one image at a time in photoshop/camera raw with nothing else open it's fine. But if you want to work on multiple images and keep them open while having Adobe bridge open and lets say safari, forget it. For me personally I like to work the way I want to work and not have to close everything to edit one image at a time etc. Also you don't know what camera you'll have 2-3 years from now. A lot of the new features in Photoshop use a lot of the GPU so going with the Pro isn't a good idea if you want speed. With a few 60 megapixel images open, camera raw open, bridge open, my M1 Pro 16GB was dying. Simple tasks were lagging, not to mention my swap file was getting hammered which can and will kill you SSD in the long term. People forget about the SSD death if you hammer it with a swap file all day. I have 36GB now and zero swap is used.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi,

I’m just wanting some confirnation of what I already think! But I am right in thinking that M3 Pro chip will be more than suitable for the next 3-5 years for a semi pro photographer with occasional video? I’m just considering whether the base M3 Max would be overkill for the limited GPU tasks that are involved with photography and dealing with pictures of 48mp and above. The M3 Pro has 18 GPU cores and Max 30 GPU. Is there a huge difference in performance??

Many thanks

I have an M2-Pro with 16 GB RAM. The M3-Pro is a little faster but the M2-Pro seems to handle photos with no isues. I tend to work through a soot, one image at a time

Your issue will be storage. You will need a large external SSD drive, the faster, the better.

But what if you own more than one computer? My current method is keeping all the data on a Synology NAS. The NAS has five drive bays. I use it for bulk storage and it can be accessed by any of my computers, or the wife's computer or by my Apple TV devices or ISO devices.

All this data needs to be backed up to at least two different places

I don't shoot multi-camera RAW 4K. If I did I'd need more RAM. Also you'd need more screen space to see everything, at least another monitor. Once you have several video tracks, some stills and a few audio tracks you are into a bigger computer and bigger monitors. But for basic editing the load on my M2-Pro is no worse than photo editing.

Get more RAM if you will be working on lots of media all at the same time. But for that you need more screen space too.

 

[macman4789]

The main issue is RAM and GPU. It also depends on your work flow. If you edit one image at a time in photoshop/camera raw with nothing else open it's fine. But if you want to work on multiple images and keep them open while having Adobe bridge open and lets say safari, forget it. For me personally I like to work the way I want to work and not have to close everything to edit one image at a time etc. Also you don't know what camera you'll have 2-3 years from now. A lot of the new features in Photoshop use a lot of the GPU so going with the Pro isn't a good idea if you want speed. With a few 60 megapixel images open, camera raw open, bridge open, my M1 Pro 16GB was dying. Simple tasks were lagging, not to mention my swap file was getting hammered which can and will kill you SSD in the long term. People forget about the SSD death if you hammer it with a swap file all day. I have 36GB now and zero swap is used.

Thanks for this, it does make sense. You get told that the Max chips are only for the highest end/niche/3D work etc but then hearing from people that some PS tasks would struggle on the Pro makes me wonder whether to just get the base Max chip. I was planning on getting the Pro chip with upgraded 36GB RAM…. But it’s whether the GPU is strong enough.

 

[macman4789]

I have an M2-Pro with 16 GB RAM. The M3-Pro is a little faster but the M2-Pro seems to handle photos with no isues. I tend to work through a soot, one image at a time

Your issue will be storage. You will need a large external SSD drive, the faster, the better.

But what if you own more than one computer? My current method is keeping all the data on a Synology NAS. The NAS has five drive bays. I use it for bulk storage and it can be accessed by any of my computers, or the wife's computer or by my Apple TV devices or ISO devices.

All this data needs to be backed up to at least two different places

I don't shoot multi-camera RAW 4K. If I did I'd need more RAM. Also you'd need more screen space to see everything, at least another monitor. Once you have several video tracks, some stills and a few audio tracks you are into a bigger computer and bigger monitors. But for basic editing the load on my M2-Pro is no worse than photo editing.

Get more RAM if you will be working on lots of media all at the same time. But for that you need more screen space too.

Thanks for this. Yes you make very valid points that you need to consider screens, future cameras etc. do you use photoshop at all? Have you ever felt the GPU wasn’t able to cope with your demands? Thanks

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

I am in the same kind of question right now as OP, i want to get a MBP for editing 20 to 60mp RAW photos, and occasional 4k/1080/8k video. I will not be doing huge batch editing i think. I also ofcourse want to use it for normal stuff like browsing and emails, with good battery life. When i will be doing heavy stuff, like the editing, i will usualy be plugged in. Most of the time of using the laptop i will be using it docked at my desk connected to an external 4k/5k monitor. I dont travel a lot. I have decided that i want a 16 inch model as it has better thermals and larger screen which both are super important to me, and the 16 just feels right in my hand after testing it in a store. Oh, and i will be doing some occasional Blender. None of this is professionally btw, just a serious hobby, though i will be making money off of my photography some time in the future i think, and i want it to be fast.
My problem is that, since i am in europe, poland and germany to be specific, the prices arent great. I know that i will probably be fine with an M1, or M2, but i am a little bit worried of not having the ray tracing and mesh shading of m3, which does appear to yield big gains compared to M2 and M1. Thing is though, since i do Blender only occasionally, and not professionally, and i can wait, maybe M1/M2 is good enough? That would be great, since M3 is expensive here. With M1, i can have money left over for a nice display, bunch of other accessories, and a nice lens. With M3, i really can only afford the camera for now i think. Over time then i get stuff.
So here is the question, which do i get? I can get a M1 Max MBP maxed out with a 1tb ssd, for 3k. Or, i can get a M3 Pro MBP 16 inch base model for that money. Or a M2 Pro MBP 32gb. It seems like the M1 makes the most sense, and it has more gpu cores and more ram, which will no doubt be helpful right? Please help.
Thanks in advance.

 

[dwig]

For still photography, RAM is the most important factor. Memory bandwidth follows as a close second.

When I upgraded my workstation in the gallery last year I choose the Studio with the base M1 Ultra. The primary deciding factor was RAM. It's been a good choice for my rather massive ~2-16Gb PSB files.

 

[torifile]

I temporarily had the M3 Pro 18 gig config. Denoising a 60 MP file from my camera took 45 seconds.

I exchanged it for an M3 Max and denoising takes 25 seconds.

It’s that much faster. And if you’re upgrading the base RAM of the M3 Pro, it’s not that much more expensive.

 

[macman4789]

I temporarily had the M3 Pro 18 gig config. Denoising a 60 MP file from my camera took 45 seconds.

I exchanged it for an M3 Max and denoising takes 25 seconds.

It’s that much faster. And if you’re upgrading the base RAM of the M3 Pro, it’s not that much more expensive.

Thanks for this comparison to give me an idea. However what about in just usability? I would expect the Max to come out on top in a linear test like that or benchmark but in terms of handling the files, editing day in day out is there a difference between the M3 Pro and Max?

 

[torifile]

Thanks for this comparison to give me an idea. However what about in just usability? I would expect the Max to come out on top in a linear test like that or benchmark but in terms of handling the files, editing day in day out is there a difference between the M3 Pro and Max?

In general use, even my M1 MBA handled everything well. Any differences weren’t notable. It’s those heavy-lift tasks that ultimately made me upgrade. Coming from my M1, with its 2 minutes/file denoise, I’m extremely happy.

 

[zach-coleman]

I do occasional hobby photo editing on a M1 (base) with 16GB of RAM. You'll probably be fine with a Pro. The only time I notice genuine slowdown is when I'm using the Lightroom AI de-noise feature. (It takes 40-60 seconds per photo) But all M chips besides the Ultra have the same number of neural cores, so you're not going to be able to get around that.

I've re-exported my entire Lightroom library (about 1,000 photos) to jpegs from RAW when I was moving to iCloud Photos and it only took about 20 minutes with my config.

I would consider 32GB of RAM depending on your use case, but you very well might be fine with 16 for 4-5 years.

Edit: Just saw the post about the M3 Pro vs Max being faster at denoise. That's odd... I guess it accelerates with the GPU... get the Max then, I suppose?

 

[MacDevil7334]

Edit: Just saw the post about the M3 Pro vs Max being faster at denoise. That's odd... I guess it accelerates with the GPU... get the Max then, I suppose?

Unlike the M1 and M2 generations where the Max chip only got you more GPU cores, upgrading to the M3 Max gets you more CPU and GPU cores. The (unbinned) M3 Pro is 6 efficiency cores and 6 performance cores while the M3 Max is 4 efficiency and 12 performance cores. That and the GPU cores explains the denoise time difference.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

For still photography, RAM is the most important factor. Memory bandwidth follows as a close second.

When I upgraded my workstation in the gallery last year I choose the Studio with the base M1 Ultra. The primary deciding factor was RAM. It's been a good choice for my rather massive ~2-16Gb PSB files.

Thanks, but i am worried i might need ray tracing for Blender...

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

M3 max would be perfect for me, but its soooo expensove and would not leave any money for anything else really. Should i consider a Ultra Mac Studio for around 3k? I would lile a laptop, thiugh.

 

[macman4789]

M3 max would be perfect for me, but its soooo expensove and would not leave any money for anything else really. Should i consider an Ultra Mac Studio for around 3k? I would lile a laptop, thiugh.

Yes, it’s just Apple has prices the top end of the M3 Pro not that far from the M3 Max so it’s whether it’s worth it to make that jump or not.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

Yes, it’s just Apple has prices the top end of the M3 Pro not that far from the M3 Max so it’s whether it’s worth it to make that jump or not.

I think M3 Max is worth the jump definitely, as M3 pro is not much of a jump from m2 pro but m3 max is...problem is even M3 pro is aay too expensive for whst you get, i can get a base model m3 pro mbp for the same price as a maxed out m1 max!

 

[TinyMito]

M1 Pro is doing fine with my RAW photos with Capture One. I don't know why still a question if it is enough with >M3 Pro. Probably I don't work with high megapixel photos.

 

[Miltz]

I will say something I didn’t mention before. No one should upgrade from a M1 Pro to a M2 Pro or M3 Pro. The benefits will be minimal in adobe based photo editing. The Max is the only worthwhile upgrade. Now if you’re coming from an intel based machine you’ll find the M3 Pro really nice assuming you’re not going to upgrade your cameras and use cases after you get a new laptop.