new Macbook (2015) and Lightroom?

[boca]

hi there, as they started to ship has anyone tried Lightroom on the new Macbook core m?

thinking to order a 1.3 ghz version, but i cannot find anywhere any concesive benchmarks. for travel i used to have a MBA i7, love it, then i tried the dark side with Surface Pro3 i7 (using it right now) but is just not cutting it for me.

the only thing i didnt like about the MBA was the screen resolution, now the new Macbook has a nice retina, but wondering how will perform in real life...

Cheers and many thanks for sharing your experiences,

Dorin

 

[James A.]

hi there, as they started to ship has anyone tried Lightroom on the new Macbook core m?

thinking to order a 1.3 ghz version, but i cannot find anywhere any concesive benchmarks. for travel i used to have a MBA i7, love it, then i tried the dark side with Surface Pro3 i7 (using it right now) but is just not cutting it for me.

the only thing i didnt like about the MBA was the screen resolution, now the new Macbook has a nice retina, but wondering how will perform in real life...

Cheers and many thanks for sharing your experiences,

Dorin

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with a Retina Display and Lightroom runs pretty good. LR6 which was just released is by far the best version in terms of performance. There is still the odd stutter and I'm being 'pretty picky' here. It almost a split second of load between the library and the development module. But like I said, its way better than any previous version which use to stutter here and there. Adobe has been doing a great job of improving Lightroom's performance.

I have a decent size library of 38,000 images with about 500gb of files. All of its loaded on to a USB 3 external drive with the previews sitting on my internal SSD with 30 days of retention before having to load the previews again.

 

[James Wages]

thinking to order a 1.3 ghz version, but i cannot find anywhere any concesive benchmarks.

All 3 MacBook 2015 CPU speeds are benchmarked here (take note of the 64-bit scores):

Loading…

browser.primatelabs.com

Benchmarks of the 2015 MacBook Pro 13":

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browser.primatelabs.com

And here's an article that offers an at-a-glance comparison of all 3 CPU speeds:

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9to5mac.com

 

[boca]

thinking to order a 1.3 ghz version, but i cannot find anywhere any concesive benchmarks.

All 3 MacBook 2015 CPU speeds are benchmarked here (take note of the 64-bit scores):

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?q=MacBook8,1+1.3

Benchmarks of the 2015 MacBook Pro 13":

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?q=macbook+pro+2015

And here's an article that offers an at-a-glance comparison of all 3 CPU speeds:

http://9to5mac.com/2015/04/25/first...op-model-rivals-1-4ghz-imac-2014-macbook-air/

 

[walkaround]

hi there, as they started to ship has anyone tried Lightroom on the new Macbook core m?

thinking to order a 1.3 ghz version, but i cannot find anywhere any concesive benchmarks. for travel i used to have a MBA i7, love it, then i tried the dark side with Surface Pro3 i7 (using it right now) but is just not cutting it for me.

the only thing i didnt like about the MBA was the screen resolution, now the new Macbook has a nice retina, but wondering how will perform in real life...

Cheers and many thanks for sharing your experiences,

Dorin

Here's a review with a Photoshop test in it:

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www.anandtech.com

"This being another multi-threaded test, the MacBook throttles harder and this leaves it towards the rear of the pack. Performance is roughly on par with many of the Core i5 MacBook Airs, but it becomes a more significant gap once we step up to the i7, and I’d expect something similar if compared to a 2015 MacBook Air.

From a throttling standpoint, at just 28 seconds long I don’t believe we’re seeing any kind of significant thermal throttling in this benchmark. Rather the MacBook is falling behind on the basis of maximum clockspeeds and power limits, having to pull back because sustaining 2.4GHz for 28 seconds puts it outside of its power envelope for too long. Meanwhile on a conceptual basis I don’t see such a small laptop as the MacBook being used too much for Photoshop, but out of all of Apple’s ultra-portables, the MacBook does end up being the best fit due to its excellent screen."

Not the best results, but about what I expected. I too was interested in it, because it seems to be the best screen Apple has put in a laptop, ever. But the switch to all wireless accessories does pose some challenges with all my current external storage (SD cards + usb hard drives), and the throttling may be really annoying in real use. In the end, the 2015 Macbook is sexier, but a Macbook Pro is probably a better Apple laptop choice for the photographer.

 

[ArtAlt]

.....
I have a decent size library of 38,000 images with about 500gb of files. All of its loaded on to a USB 3 external drive with the previews sitting on my internal SSD with 30 days of retention before having to load the previews again.

YIKES. You reminded me - one can do editing in Lightroom on previews, smart previews or full size files. I think. And if true, perhaps the speed of workflow varies due to file sizes and resolution? Perhaps previews or smart previews are the ticket to a fast workflow in MacBook 2015?

 

[SpaceDoc]

Here's a review with a Photoshop test in it:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9136/the-2015-macbook-review/9

In the end, the 2015 Macbook is sexier, but a Macbook Pro is probably a better Apple laptop choice for the photographer.

My fear, my fear ... [I am editing 36 MPx D800 files ...]
... as sexy as the 12" is ... ;-(

SpaceDoc
.

 

[boca]

Anyone had a chance by now to run a Lightroom on the new MacBook?
Cheers,
Dorin

 

[uniball]

Each of us have own definitions of what's acceptable performance. I'd be very leary of loading LR on the new MacBook and expecting decent performance.

My wife bought an i7 1.7, 8gb Air which we used last year as our travel for months at a time machine. I used it extensively with LR. After we got back I ordered a top spec custom build rMBP. My baseline for comparison was a 2.8 c2d iMac with 6gb and an ssd internal which ran LR quicker than the Air.

Again, my levels of acceptable performance and using a 7 year old iMac as the baseline for acceptance. I'm beyond delighted with the rMBP.

 

[boca]

Ok, if this is for real I'll just order one, seems rather too snappy, browsing through pics as fast as Photomechanic

 

[walkaround]

Ok, if this is for real I'll just order one, seems rather too snappy, browsing through pics as fast as Photomechanic

Wow. Thanks for posting that Dorin. That changes my whole thinking on it.

 

[James Wages]

I posted a comment under that YouTube video asking the CPU speed and asking if the max. of 8GB of RAM is limiting. I think the RAM limit is a key decision. I am still using an early 3.06GHz iMac 24" at the office which has RAM maxed to 8GB. I find it limiting. (It's also interesting to note that in terms of CPU performance, the 2015 MacBook beats my 3.06GHz 24" iMac, as per Geekbench scores.) My iMac at home is a late 2009 QuadCore i7 with 16GB of RAM. Since my wife has her own user, anything less than 16GB slows the machine to a crawl (which is why I upgraded to 16GB.) I also find FCPX and PS and pretty much the entire machine running noticeably faster than my DuoCore at the office.

 

[walkaround]

I posted a comment under that YouTube video asking the CPU speed and asking if the max. of 8GB of RAM is limiting. I think the RAM limit is a key decision. I am still using an early 3.06GHz iMac 24" at the office which has RAM maxed to 8GB. I find it limiting. (It's also interesting to note that in terms of CPU performance, the 2015 MacBook beats my 3.06GHz 24" iMac, as per Geekbench scores.) My iMac at home is a late 2009 QuadCore i7 with 16GB of RAM. Since my wife has her own user, anything less than 16GB slows the machine to a crawl (which is why I upgraded to 16GB.) I also find FCPX and PS and pretty much the entire machine running noticeably faster than my DuoCore at the office.

--
JDW

Do Ps and Lr use multiple cores? My Lenovo W530 has an i7-3630QM and 8GB, and it has no problem chewing through image editing. Its geekbench scores are 3000 & 11000, way higher than the Macbook, but maybe overkill, even though it's over 3 yrs old.

 

[James Wages]

PS uses multiple cores, yes:

Loading…

forums.adobe.com

 

[uniball]

Ok, if this is for real I'll just order one, seems rather too snappy, browsing through pics as fast as Photomechanic

That's quite impressive. As are a few other videos I watched. But he was not doing anything that would task resources. Who knows how large his previews are, or how many presets he has loaded, of how large a cache he set, or what scrolling quickly in grid view looks like, or sharpening, or noise reduction.

There is a group of 3 of us with Lightroom loaded (Aperture is my default, C1 is my future). All with modestly spec'd Mac's, comparable to my wife's Air. Our performance is comparable and I would not suggest it's quick. I don't like working with any of the aforementioned apps on my wife's Air. On my rMBP it's a very different experience.

If a 1.2 MHz CPU with a retina display can deliver superior performance than an Air, my kudos to Apple.

 

[Tom_N]

If a 1.2 MHz CPU with a retina display can deliver superior performance than an Air, my kudos to Apple.

1.2 MHz CPU? Did someone drag an Apple ][ out of a closet and overclock its CPU by 20%?

 

[James Wages]

If you think that's funny, you'll get a kick out of this...

 

[Hans de Zomers]

Be sure to check the new macbook at your local Apple store first. Overall I found it to be an amazing machine and was ready to order one to replace my 2011 Air. The stunning display, to great performance and awesome trackpad had me convinced right away, but the keyboard was a major turndown. As I'll be typing on his thing all day I have to have a good keyboard with nice "feedback". But the new MB has a new KB that doesn't feel right and so I've decided to wait for the second generation or a new MBA with retina (hopefully in July this year)

 

[boca]

Ok, if this is for real I'll just order one, seems rather too snappy, browsing through pics as fast as Photomechanic

That's quite impressive. As are a few other videos I watched. But he was not doing anything that would task resources. Who knows how large his previews are, or how many presets he has loaded, of how large a cache he set, or what scrolling quickly in grid view looks like, or sharpening, or noise reduction.

There is a group of 3 of us with Lightroom loaded (Aperture is my default, C1 is my future). All with modestly spec'd Mac's, comparable to my wife's Air. Our performance is comparable and I would not suggest it's quick. I don't like working with any of the aforementioned apps on my wife's Air. On my rMBP it's a very different experience.

If a 1.2 MHz CPU with a retina display can deliver superior performance than an Air, my kudos to Apple.

No offense but even browsing like that through the preview is more than impressive if it's for real. Don't forget we are talking about a portable solution, I do not expect it to run as snappy as my retina iMac quad.
For travel I used to use my wife's mba, i7, till I thought to give a try to the Surface 3 Pro i7, liked the idea of the pen, it was like having the Cintiq with me with its standalone processing power...one would think....loading simple preview in less than 1 second would be a dream....so whatever setting of the previews you may say in that video the new MacBook is smoking the SP3, will order one and if it proves the video to be a fake I have 2 weeks return period, need something decent for the road and the video preview (if real) would be more than enough

 

[James Wages]

I went to an Apple Store and played with it. The keyboard is better than typing on my iPad's glass surface, that's for certain. It's different than the traditional MacBook Pro keyboard and the iMac keyboard but not impossible to use for a lot of typing, and I should know because I do a lot of typing. It will just take time to get used to. But since I got used to the flat chiclet keys after having had typed on traditional keyboards (and typewriters) for years, I have every confidence this super-low profile keyboard is learnable as well. How learnable it is for you is perhaps tied to how stubborn you are to accept something new. And all of us have a stubborn streak to some degree.

The appearance of speed on the new MacBook is from the SSD. But the CPU isn't so fast. The CPU ramps up its clock when needed, but only for brief periods (otherwise the machine would overheat). Lightroom may be okay, but I wonder about Capture One Pro 8.x. Capture One Pro 8 (even with all its speed enhancements) can be sluggish even on my QuadCore i7 2.9GHz iMac. Then again, my iMac has a traditional spinning platter HD, not an SSD, so maybe that is why. I don't know.

One other thing I noticed on the new MacBook was double-clicks (double-taps) don't always register as double-clicks. There were times when I would tap rapidly and only get a single simulated tap (haptic feedback). Maybe I was just tapping too fast, but the fact remains I didn't have the same problem when I tested MacBook Pro's which have the mechanical switch in the touch-pad.

If you go to the Apple Store, you should test these things extensively on the 2015 MacBook.

Also note the lack of an SD card slot, and note that if you are wanting to charge the MacBook and use a USB device at the same time, you will need a silly dongle. Apple really should have nixed the Headphone Jack and put another USB-C port there instead. People serious about audio will want a USB DAC and Headphone AMP anyway.