Just got G9 and DxO PL... hallelujah!!

glassoholic wrote:

Jefftan wrote:

will buying a M1 mac mini significantly improve Deep PRIME performance compare with my current intel i7 10th generation?

A modern discreet GPU will decrease processing times the most. Even having a basic GPU like a Geforce 1650 with a good CPU will probably be more important than having the fastest current CPU and no discreet GPU.

Background: I'm an event pro who shoots a ton of very-high-ISO images with MFT and 35mm-format cameras. I often have to deliver 500-1000 images within 48 hours. Batch processing noise reduction has long been the biggest bottleneck in my workflow.

I have tested the above theory and participated in DxO's online forums extensively, and these conclusions are broadly correct. PRIME noise reduction in PhotoLab 4 and earlier versions relies on the CPU. This is why I bought an 8-core 2013 Mac Pro two years ago to speed up my large batch exports from PhotoLab 3, making it a dinner-time task rather than an overnight task. DeepPRIME, OTOH, relies on the GPU, which is why my M1 Mac mini, with 8 GPU cores, is twice as fast on this task. An AMD RX580 would be about 2x faster than my mini. Interestingly, an RX5700 XT, which has overall graphics performance about 2x faster than the RX580 on many tasks, is only about 10% faster on "compute" tasks such as DeepPRIME processing. Thus, an RX580 XT seems to be the price/performance sweet spot in terms of DeepPRIME processing. On this task, an Intel mini with Blackmagic eGPU or similar will outperform the M1 mini. However, the M1 mini will outperform, by a large margin, on CPU-intensive tasks. My M1 mini's CPU performance is about on par with my 8-core Mac Pro's, which is to say very good.

I was happy with PRIME on my Mac Pro, and my M1 mini delivers the same speed with DeepPRIME. So, while I don't get faster processing by moving to M1 & DeepPRIME, I do get significantly better high-ISO image quality at the same speed as before. I could cut my processing time roughly in half by using PRIME, but to me DeepPRIME is worth the wait. If the next-gen mini has a better GPU, I'll upgrade, likely at a cost of just a few hundred bucks, and cut my processing times substantially.

In fact, I already have a workaround to cut my processing time in half, which is to split the job between my mini and base-model $999 M1 MBA. The MBA, with 7 GPU cores, is 90% as fast as the mini for DeepPRIME. My Intel MBP was never fast enough, compared to my Mac Pro, to make it worth splitting a batch job. I thought about replacing the MP & MBP with an M1 MBP, but when I realized I could have a M1 mini + M1 MBA for just $400 more, it was a no-brainer. I'm glad I got both, because after buying them I realized that $400 had nearly doubled my available processing power for the one task where it matters to me. Yay!

Whether it's cameras or computers, it really does depend on how you use them, and there's no best one-size-fits-all solution. Which is why I have 1/2.3", 1/1.7", 1", MFT and 35mm sensors.