My partner has a CanonRP which takes pictures at a resolution of 6240 x 4160. They’re currently using a MBP from about 2016 with 16GB of RAM. The screen is beautiful to work with - but any image processing in Lightroom can be measured in half-minutes. It takes a LONG time to see a change.
The laptop basically doesn’t leave the office. I’ve been trying with the idea of upgrading to a newer MBP or an iMac or a Mac mini + a cinema display. I’m trying to keep it under 3K.
The cinema display and iMac don’t seem to be as bright as the MBP screen which I found odd. I’m also not sure if performance impacts of using an M4 vs M4 Pro. I’m sure whatever is picked out will smoke the existing machine.
I’m looking for advice that anyone can offer. My partner doesn’t want to venture outside of the apple ecosystem.
Thanks in advance!
Any newer MBP will be an amazing upgrade from a 2016.
Even a refurbished M2 would be a huge upgrade, what the specs are showing is that the M4 should crush what he has now.
If you have the option, go with MORE RAM;
The M4 lineup is kinda confusing mess.
I’d take a look at the chart at https://arstechnica.com/apple/2024/10/apples-m4-m4-pro-and-m4-max-compared-to-past-generations-and-to-each-other/
If it were me, and this was the main workload, I’d seriously look at the $1600 Mac Mini with the 10 performance core variant.
But that said, ANY M4 is going to be so much faster than that 2016 laptop that she’ll be happy.
The basic M1 CPU dunked on the highest end CPU from the 2019 MacBook Pro. Even the base M4 CPU is lightyears ahead of whatever 2016 machine they have now. Almost not even comparable.