Can a laptop fill my Adobe photoshop/lightroom needs?

Sure.

Also if you start to do heavy duty stuffs, it's only a matter waiting time, how much are you willing to wait? I remember my friend told me many years ago how their G4 Ti book can run FCP3 very well, they just leave it to render for the next 30hrs for a few layers of effects.

Ultimately boils down to your patience. There's also an option to buy a workstation laptop that runs on i9 cpu and Quadro cards with 100% aRGB 17" screen, if you choose to up the ante.

Go for a gaming laptop, as a nice GPU will speed things up a lot for many photography software, including PS and LR. I have the Dell 7567 with GTX 1050Ti, and exporting a 24MP RAW file can take 75 seconds with the i5-7500HQ alone, but takes only 11 seconds with the GTX 1050Ti kicking in. The darktable GUI is also buttery smooth with OpenCL enabled for the nVidia GPU.

Don't worry about the screen if it's not 100% sRGB, you can easily replace the panel with a decent one for around $50-70.

There's a really good deal posted this morning:

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

I have the Dell XPS 15 (9550) which is excellent but as you suggest, heavy. It is not very portable. Fine with Photoshop.

EdvardDa said:

My needs are basically fairly heave use of Lightroom and photoshop. The most heavy use I do (assumably, at least this is where things go slow or not at all these days) are typically stitching of larger panoramas in Lightroom, and certain effects (including third party ones) in photoshop.

Click to expand...

I've got no issues doing Lightroom and PS work on a 2017 HP Spectre x360 with a 4k 15" screen . It's not as fast as my desktop (8 core AMD Ryzen 7) but it's a great on the go solution and the pen touchscreen is great for editing as well.

EdvardDa said:

I have read about laptops as Dell XPS 13 or 15, Macbook Pro etc, but I still don't really understand if these (or similar) are capable of taking on these duties, or if I would still be happier with a proper desktop to do the heavy work?

Click to expand...

I'd avoid Dell like the Plague. Depending on how portable you want it to be you can go for an ultrabook or a more standard laptop. Get at least 16GB of RAM and a good multicore AMD or Intel CPU with a decent display. Get a good screen out of the gate vs voiding warranties by replacing an inferior component.

EdvardDa said:

If the answer is that I should have a proper dekstop, what is your experience with working with Lightroom classic CC from an external hard drive, so that I can switch between using a desktop and a laptop to work on my catalogue/photos?

Click to expand...

IMHO it's a pain in the ass to work with Lightroom Classic on multiple computers. You'll be exporting and importing catalogs like crazy and forget any type of online sync with multiple computers on Classic CC.

My workflow is:

• Import to Lightroom on the Laptop
• Edit/Cull/Etc.
• Export the catalog with originals to either a USB drive or the network share.
• On the desktop import that exported catalog and delete the temporary export

sluggy_warrior said:

There's a really good deal posted this morning:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12033831-d...tb-hdd-g5587-5559red-879-99-tax-free-ship-966

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

Click to expand...

Wow, that is a good deal. Only two downsides are lack of RJ45 for Ethernet, and the webcam points up your nose. If 1TB is not enough for your Raw photos, you can install a larger HDD. Or if 256GB is not enough for your Lightroom catalog, get a bigger SSD.

Do you know what the H indicates, as for the i5-8300H in this model? Seems to be High performance mobile, but I'm wondering if it also means no onboard GPU. This model has a GTX 1060, which is great for Bitcoin mining. ;-)

DavidC said:

I have the Dell XPS 15 (9550) which is excellent but as you suggest, heavy. It is not very portable. Fine with Photoshop.

Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you compare it to? Compared to the small ultrabooks, that's one thing. On other hand you've got those big gaming laptops.

I went to an apple store today and saw the Macbook Pro 15'', and I found that size to be fairly neat. And comparing it to the 13'' version, I find the 13'' screen to be to small to work with. So watching that, I can live with the size of the Macbook Pro 15.

Do you feel the XPS15 is more bulkier than this?

silentstorm said:

Sure.

Also if you start to do heavy duty stuffs, it's only a matter waiting time, how much are you willing to wait? I remember my friend told me many years ago how their G4 Ti book can run FCP3 very well, they just leave it to render for the next 30hrs for a few layers of effects.

Ultimately boils down to your patience. There's also an option to buy a workstation laptop that runs on i9 cpu and Quadro cards with 100% aRGB 17" screen, if you choose to up the ante.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply!

The question about portability vs performance is the nut I'm still trying to crack. I don't really have a sense of how much patience I would have to mount if I'll go with a lightweight laptop!

I came across this from a review site:

"There’s a lot of hype around the i9 not performing as well as expected inside these thin and light laptops, and for the most part that’s true and should come to no surprise.

If you’ll look into the MacBook Pro, XPS 15 or the Zenbook UX580 reviews, you’ll see that the i9 cannot maintain its high Turbo Speed frequencies with continuous demanding loads in these computers, and in some cases performs even worse than a regular i7 Coffee Lake build. In others having the i9 offers a performance boost, but not what you can get from this processor in a thicker laptosp with a more complex cooling system."

Which of cours begs the question, is the form factor of laptops of the size as the Macbook Pro or XPS 15, by nature such that they can't really take full use of the components they have?

sluggy_warrior said:

Go for a gaming laptop, as a nice GPU will speed things up a lot for many photography software, including PS and LR. I have the Dell 7567 with GTX 1050Ti, and exporting a 24MP RAW file can take 75 seconds with the i5-7500HQ alone, but takes only 11 seconds with the GTX 1050Ti kicking in. The darktable GUI is also buttery smooth with OpenCL enabled for the nVidia GPU.

Don't worry about the screen if it's not 100% sRGB, you can easily replace the panel with a decent one for around $50-70.

There's a really good deal posted this morning:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12033831-d...tb-hdd-g5587-5559red-879-99-tax-free-ship-966

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! That G5 seems to be fairly comparable to the Dell XPS15 in some ways. Both having the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5 as an option for instance.

But also quite a bit bulkier!

A question about this though. Does the added room have advanteges in terms of performance. I was explained by another fellow that a laptop could very well have the same perfornace setup to begin with, but performance would drop when in use to avoid overheating, How much is that a factor?

CAcreeks said:

sluggy_warrior said:

There's a really good deal posted this morning:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12033831-d...tb-hdd-g5587-5559red-879-99-tax-free-ship-966

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

Click to expand...

Wow, that is a good deal. Only two downsides are lack of RJ45 for Ethernet, and the webcam points up your nose.

Click to expand...

Wait, I'm confused. I see the RJ45 jack on the left side, between the power jack and USB port?

CAcreeks said:

Do you know what the H indicates, as for the i5-8300H in this model? Seems to be High performance mobile, but I'm wondering if it also means no onboard GPU. This model has a GTX 1060, which is great for Bitcoin mining. ;-)

Click to expand...

I think the H-series aims at notebook for lower power consumption:

The GTX 1060 is the Max-Q version, about 3%-15% slower than the "normal" 1060, but with much better thermal and power control. The 6GB is good for applications making use of OpenGL.

With GTX 1050Ti and up included, it's just too hard to have a thin laptop with efficient cooling. I've tested different Acer, HP, Dell, and MSI gaming laptops and came to the conclusion that the ventilation system need to be designed well with enough space to work well. The HP and MSI, while look thin and cool, couldn't cope well with 2+ hours of gaming and will throttle or the excessive heat will damage the laptop one way or another eventually (mostly affecting solder joints). On the 7567, my daughter and I played Overwatch and PUBG for hours on the weekend and the laptops stayed cool the whole time. That helps with exporting 150-300 RAWs overnight, too.

EdvardDa said:

Thanks for your reply! That G5 seems to be fairly comparable to the Dell XPS15 in some ways. Both having the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5 as an option for instance.

But also quite a bit bulkier!

Click to expand...

but also cheaper

EdvardDa said:

A question about this though. Does the added room have advanteges in terms of performance. I was explained by another fellow that a laptop could very well have the same perfornace setup to begin with, but performance would drop when in use to avoid overheating, How much is that a factor?

Click to expand...

Depends on your usage. The thin laptop can do well for 1-2 hours of continuous cranking. Most photography software won't tax the GPU continuously at max performance in regular use, only when exporting RAW (mostly denoising). So if you don't expect to max out the GPU for more than 1-2 hours, I don't see any problem with a thin laptop.

On the other hand, if you will be gaming for hours, the heat build-up will cause problems as I mentioned in a post above. I've only bought the 7567 to speed up darktable, didn't know that my daughter hooked me into playing Overwatch for hours. Be careful!

Screen-wise, the XPS is more on the "luxury" side, so its screen most likely will be at least 100% sRGB.

itguy08 said:

I've got no issues doing Lightroom and PS work on a 2017 HP Spectre x360 with a 4k 15" screen . It's not as fast as my desktop (8 core AMD Ryzen 7) but it's a great on the go solution and the pen touchscreen is great for editing as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for answering!

So, if I'll end up with just the laptop and making that my workstation - how much performance do I sacrifice? Will it test my patience "all the time" compared to working on a decent desktop, or will things run generally smooth when doing generell tweaks and brush work in lightroom - and just take longer time when for example stitching panoramas and applying filters and stuff like that?

And how much is fan noise an issue when working on your laptop?

itguy08 said:

I'd avoid Dell like the Plague. Depending on how portable you want it to be you can go for an ultrabook or a more standard laptop. Get at least 16GB of RAM and a good multicore AMD or Intel CPU with a decent display. Get a good screen out of the gate vs voiding warranties by replacing an inferior component.

Click to expand...

What is generally wrong with Dell? It seems to have been receiving decent review?

itguy08 said:

itguy08 said:

If the answer is that I should have a proper dekstop, what is your experience with working with Lightroom classic CC from an external hard drive, so that I can switch between using a desktop and a laptop to work on my catalogue/photos?

Click to expand...

IMHO it's a pain in the ass to work with Lightroom Classic on multiple computers. You'll be exporting and importing catalogs like crazy and forget any type of online sync with multiple computers on Classic CC.

My workflow is:

• Import to Lightroom on the Laptop
• Edit/Cull/Etc.
• Export the catalog with originals to either a USB drive or the network share.
• On the desktop import that exported catalog and delete the temporary export

Click to expand...

So having the catalogue on the external hard drive is not a solution in your opinion, even if that would avoid the issue of exporting and importing catalogues?

Having the catalogue on an external hard drive - how much will that affect the speed of things?

EdvardDa said:

sluggy_warrior said:

Go for a gaming laptop, as a nice GPU will speed things up a lot for many photography software, including PS and LR. I have the Dell 7567 with GTX 1050Ti, and exporting a 24MP RAW file can take 75 seconds with the i5-7500HQ alone, but takes only 11 seconds with the GTX 1050Ti kicking in. The darktable GUI is also buttery smooth with OpenCL enabled for the nVidia GPU.

Don't worry about the screen if it's not 100% sRGB, you can easily replace the panel with a decent one for around $50-70.

There's a really good deal posted this morning:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12033831-d...tb-hdd-g5587-5559red-879-99-tax-free-ship-966

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! That G5 seems to be fairly comparable to the Dell XPS15 in some ways. Both having the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5 as an option for instance.

But also quite a bit bulkier!

A question about this though. Does the added room have advanteges in terms of performance. I was explained by another fellow that a laptop could very well have the same perfornace setup to begin with, but performance would drop when in use to avoid overheating, How much is that a factor?

Click to expand...

I think your main advantage right now is price at the expense of battery life and the screen so I'd look into that. I bought a similar Dell laptop a year ago and the 1080P was either TN or a so so ISP but the 4k had 99% sRGB. There is room to put in a second drive, though the XPS IIRC has this as well at the expense of battery life.

sluggy_warrior said:

sluggy_warrior said:

sluggy_warrior said:

There's a really good deal posted this morning:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12033831-d...tb-hdd-g5587-5559red-879-99-tax-free-ship-966

If you prefer thin and light laptop, the Dell XPS is a really good one, just a little on the expensive side.

Click to expand...

Wow, that is a good deal. Only two downsides are lack of RJ45 for Ethernet, and the webcam points up your nose.

Click to expand...

Wait, I'm confused. I see the RJ45 jack on the left side, between the power jack and USB port?

Click to expand...

You are correct, sir. That is one big advantage of buying this gaming laptop instead of a Dell XPS, which usually do not have Ethernet port.

Another big advantage is thermal design, which you point out. Looks like a lot of hot air can move out the back of this laptop.

Is your Dell 7567 the one in which you replaced the screen with 100% sRGB?

P.S. for EdvardDa: playing video, especially 4K video, can max out the GPU.

sluggy_warrior said:

sluggy_warrior said:

A question about this though. Does the added room have advanteges in terms of performance. I was explained by another fellow that a laptop could very well have the same perfornace setup to begin with, but performance would drop when in use to avoid overheating, How much is that a factor?

Click to expand...

Depends on your usage. The thin laptop can do well for 1-2 hours of continuous cranking. Most photography software won't tax the GPU continuously at max performance in regular use, only when exporting RAW (mostly denoising). So if you don't expect to max out the GPU for more than 1-2 hours, I don't see any problem with a thin laptop.

On the other hand, if you will be gaming for hours, the heat build-up will cause problems as I mentioned in a post above. I've only bought the 7567 to speed up darktable, didn't know that my daughter hooked me into playing Overwatch for hours. Be careful!

Screen-wise, the XPS is more on the "luxury" side, so its screen most likely will be at least 100% sRGB.

Click to expand...

Thanks again!

The only gaming I do on regular basis is an old habit of playing Football Manager. That would assumably have me overheating more than the GPU But it would be nice to be able to run other games once-in-a-while.

From what I understand. Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop is mostly using the cpu and memory, but use the GPU to speed up some processes and using certain functions. I have no idea how much that that will strain it.

EdvardDa said:

From what I understand. Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop is mostly using the cpu and memory, but use the GPU to speed up some processes and using certain functions. I have no idea how much that that will strain it.

Click to expand...

Assuming LR/PS is similar to darktable, you won't notice any more load on the GPU than regular usage like web browsing. Think of it this way: it's just using the GPU to make editing operations appear instantly, so mostly will poke the GPU for a second or two, and you're unlikely to make editing constantly every second, so they're just intermittent load that doesn't build up heat.

It will mostly maxing out the GPU only when playing 3D games or exporting from RAW to JPG in batch. I think it's mostly long graphic-intensive gaming sessions that you'll have to worry about.

CBR1100XX said:

I think your main advantage right now is price at the expense of battery life and the screen so I'd look into that. I bought a similar Dell laptop a year ago and the 1080P was either TN or a so so ISP but the 4k had 99% sRGB. There is room to put in a second drive, though the XPS IIRC has this as well at the expense of battery life.

Click to expand...

I agree on battery life, although, nVidia Optimus is pretty good at switching between the IGP and the GTX on-demand.

I'm confused about the screen though. Previous reviews indicated that the FHD version covers 64.2% AdobeRGB (98.9% sRGB) and the 4K version covers 98% AdobeRGB (more than 100% sRGB). So both versions should be good for photography works.

I generally avoid 4K on 15" monitor though, as the high pixel density puts unnecessary load on the CPU/GPU and masks images as tack-sharp, making it's hard to judge the actual sharpness of your photos without over-zooming in (which likely involves interpolation)

CAcreeks said:

Is your Dell 7567 the one in which you replaced the screen with 100% sRGB?

Click to expand...

Yup, I bought the very first generation with crappy TN panel, later generation comes with 52% sRGB IPS. I replaced mine with the AUO B156HAN01.1 from laptopscreen.com, just slid the plastic trim around the screen off, remove the four screws and swap it in.

EdvardDa said:

So, if I'll end up with just the laptop and making that my workstation - how much performance do I sacrifice? Will it test my patience "all the time" compared to working on a decent desktop, or will things run generally smooth when doing generell tweaks and brush work in lightroom - and just take longer time when for example stitching panoramas and applying filters and stuff like that?

Click to expand...

I mainly work with RAW files off my D750 or OM-D M10 and it's not bad at all for editing. Near instantaneous in the latest Lightroom in going from Library to Develop and edits in Develop. Photoshop is quite fast as well. Where it can slow down is imports and exports and video editing. It's because the CPU in mine is a dual core and it can only do so much. Compared to my 8 core desktop where you have to work to slow it down.

EdvardDa said:

And how much is fan noise an issue when working on your laptop?

Click to expand...

Not too much - they will kick in but the noise is tolerable. Seems to be worse when plugged in but on battery they rarely run.

EdvardDa said:

What is generally wrong with Dell? It seems to have been receiving decent review?

Click to expand...

I've been in corporate IT and involved in PC's and such since the early 90's. Dell has always cut very many corners and, can get quite proprietary. In my experience their laptops have been quite cheap feeling and seem to not hold up well. The company I work for issues "Business class" Dell Latitudes and Inspirons and they fall apart quite quickly. Consumer level service and support may also be hit or miss.

I'd never, ever recommend or purchase a Dell anything. There are many other better choices.

EdvardDa said:

So having the catalogue on the external hard drive is not a solution in your opinion, even if that would avoid the issue of exporting and importing catalogues?

Click to expand...

For me it's not an option as I'd not want to carry a copy of my entire library on an external hard drive. The drive can get lost, damaged, etc quite easily on the go. I also like to edit on both the desktop and laptop so keeping changes in sync or remembering to move the drive would be problematic.

What I do is have my main catalogues on the desktop which is the master copy. That is all backed up to another drive and the cloud. If I want to edit something I do the export to a catalog on an external drive and edit that on the road and reimport when I get home.

For photos on the go I import directly to a catalog on the laptop's hard drive or an external. I cull, edit, etc and when I get home export to an external catalog and import into the desktop. It's a pain but does seem to work and keep the main catalog safe.

EdvardDa said:

Having the catalogue on an external hard drive - how much will that affect the speed of things?

Click to expand...

If you get a USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt drive it could be negligible. If not, it may be a little slower. I typically don't edit on external drives but when I do they are USB 3.0 and seem to perform fine.

itguy08 said:

itguy08 said:

What is generally wrong with Dell? It seems to have been receiving decent review?

Click to expand...

I've been in corporate IT and involved in PC's and such since the early 90's. Dell has always cut very many corners and, can get quite proprietary. In my experience their laptops have been quite cheap feeling and seem to not hold up well. The company I work for issues "Business class" Dell Latitudes and Inspirons and they fall apart quite quickly. Consumer level service and support may also be hit or miss.

I'd never, ever recommend or purchase a Dell anything. There are many other better choices.

Click to expand...

Just chiming in a bit from a different perspective. U of MN has been using mostly Dell for years, while MPLS Public Schools mainly use HP, so I have experience in both. My opinion as a guy building and selling desktops since 80286, as well as having CS background, I like Dell as they put a lot of effort in engineering and making things right. Sure, their AC bricks use proprietary pin/jack, but that reduces a lot of technical and legal problems with plugging in a wrong brick and fry the whole computer. Their customer service is also really good, for business you would have part available on your desk the next day. For personal, if it's a hardware-based problem, they don't even ask why I have Ubuntu on a Windows laptop, they're pretty reasonable to deal with.

My family had a variety of laptops over the years: Compaq, HP, Acer, Asus, ... but the last 6 years have been just Dell around the house, and the Dell P1440 with Core 2 Duo is still serving as my Linux box for various automated tasks.

Gaming laptop wise, the current generations (7567, 7577, G3, and G5) have been a huge success being engineered, designed and built really well, beating competitors hand down. The XPS has always been their flagship in ultrabook.

itguy08 said:

itguy08 said:

So having the catalogue on the external hard drive is not a solution in your opinion, even if that would avoid the issue of exporting and importing catalogues?

Click to expand...

For me it's not an option as I'd not want to carry a copy of my entire library on an external hard drive. The drive can get lost, damaged, etc quite easily on the go. I also like to edit on both the desktop and laptop so keeping changes in sync or remembering to move the drive would be problematic.

What I do is have my main catalogues on the desktop which is the master copy. That is all backed up to another drive and the cloud. If I want to edit something I do the export to a catalog on an external drive and edit that on the road and reimport when I get home.

For photos on the go I import directly to a catalog on the laptop's hard drive or an external. I cull, edit, etc and when I get home export to an external catalog and import into the desktop. It's a pain but does seem to work and keep the main catalog safe

Click to expand...

I have about 2TB of photos/videos accumulated since 2000. I store them on a 5TB USB drive at home, a 4TB USB drive at work, and a 4TB Slim drive in my backpack. All are encrypted so I don't worry about loosing them (and I also use them to back up documents and other important stuffs). I manage photos in folders (e.g. 20180913 - karate exam), copying a subset of folders I'm working on to my internal 256GB SSD, and when done, sync them back out to the external USB drives (this is easy to manage with rsync on Linux), then delete and move on to next set. BTW, I don't have a desktop, I carry the Dell 7567 with me everywhere (just have external monitors at home and work).

darktable also has a feature called "Local copies" where it automatically copies selected film rolls to internal drive, then sync back out to external storage when connected:
https://www.darktable.org/usermanual/en/local_copies.html