Is switching from Windows to Mac a good idea? (for photo retouching)

[SdeGat]

I have been a Windows user since its inception (yes, I'm that old).

I have a decent machine (see below) but have been experiencing really annoying speed issues with Lightroom Classic (LrC).

I have consulted forums for a few years but cannot solve my issues. I'm out of ideas.

Is is time to switch to a Mac Studio or something like that?

Or is my computer fine for the task? And I just need to find the issue/setting that's causing the problems?

I'm dealing with 45, 61 and 100 mpix RAW files all the time. Basically no video.

(Throughput on my M.2 SSDs is fine but there is a latency sometimes when, for example, I drag a bunch of files between two folders, the cursor just stops in between the two windows. And Windows usually executes the copy properly after the hiccup. Could that issue be linked to the LrC problems?)

Thanks.

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro, Version 10.0.26100
DirectX runtime version: DirectX 12
Driver: Studio Driver - 581.29 - Wed Sep 10, 2025
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz
RAM: 64.0 GB
Storage (4): HDD - 1.8 TB,SSD - 1.8 TB,+2 more (all M.2 NVME)

Graphics card
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
Direct3D feature level: 12_1
CUDA cores: 5888
Graphics clock: 2475 MHz
Resizable BAR: No
Memory data rate: 21.00 Gbps
Memory interface: 192-bit
Memory bandwidth: 504.048 GB/s
Total available graphics memory: 44956 MB
System video memory: N/A
Shared system memory: 32674 MB
Dedicated video memory: 12282 MB GDDR6X
Video BIOS version: 95.04.3e.c0.5b
Device ID: 10DE 2786 13CE196E
Part number: G141 0345
IRQ: Not used
Bus: PCI Express x4 Gen3

Display (1): BenQ SW2700 (Clone)
Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (native)
Refresh rate: 60 Hz
Desktop colour depth: Highest (32-bit)
HDCP: Supported

 

[s_grins]

As a long time Windows user I recently switched to Mac Mini. It's an impressive piece of hardware but I find it utterly unintuitive and despite what I had heard believe Windows has a more accessible and logical user interface. Don't underestimate just how big the switch will be.

Thanks Paxo, I am worried about that I must say.
Maybe the fresh reinstall as many suggested is worth a try…

I've never understood why people think MacOS is less intuitive (or harder to use) than Windows. They are pretty much the same. Screen controls move right to left, some keys in different places but can be swapped with key map, forward delete requires wide keyboard.

The always-there menu is a great boon to usability if you ask me. Migrating to a new Mac is simple. There's even a Windows to Mac migration assistant, which I have not used, but I've gone Macbook to Macbook twice. Applications come along, no re-install.

Homebrew gives you pretty much all of Linux with minimal effort.

It's true Windows runs more applications. My wife has Sibelius music notation (W10 only) Sony Vegas (easy to replace) and Quicken (obsolete). Regarding photo software, ACDSee works better on Windows, and iMatch is Windows only.

The biggest adventure of Windows is a freedom of hardware choice. I can build Windows running PC by myself, ordering components from different vendors, while Mac is a locked system, and your freedom of choice is very limited

 

[Night Pixel]

As a long time Windows user I recently switched to Mac Mini. It's an impressive piece of hardware but I find it utterly unintuitive and despite what I had heard believe Windows has a more accessible and logical user interface. Don't underestimate just how big the switch will be.

Thanks Paxo, I am worried about that I must say.
Maybe the fresh reinstall as many suggested is worth a try…

I've never understood why people think MacOS is less intuitive (or harder to use) than Windows. They are pretty much the same. Screen controls move right to left, some keys in different places but can be swapped with key map, forward delete requires wide keyboard.

The always-there menu is a great boon to usability if you ask me. Migrating to a new Mac is simple. There's even a Windows to Mac migration assistant, which I have not used, but I've gone Macbook to Macbook twice. Applications come along, no re-install.

Homebrew gives you pretty much all of Linux with minimal effort.

It's true Windows runs more applications. My wife has Sibelius music notation (W10 only) Sony Vegas (easy to replace) and Quicken (obsolete). Regarding photo software, ACDSee works better on Windows, and iMatch is Windows only.

The biggest adventure of Windows is a freedom of hardware choice. I can build Windows running PC by myself, ordering components from different vendors, while Mac is a locked system, and your freedom of choice is very limited

I build quite a few Windows machines to use for work but always had Macs for personal use. I will always choose Mac because everything just works. Now that Apple makes its own chips it is even better.

I know many folks love to build and maintain Windows machines. But there is a lot of maintaning go on there. Macs work great and the latest M4 series of chips are plain fantastic. No worries about incompatibility of hardware and drivers and other nonsense.

But each to their own. Most Windows advocates never touched a Mac so they do not have any experience to make a fair comparison. I have used both over decades and always choose Mac.

 

[s_grins]

As a long time Windows user I recently switched to Mac Mini. It's an impressive piece of hardware but I find it utterly unintuitive and despite what I had heard believe Windows has a more accessible and logical user interface. Don't underestimate just how big the switch will be.

Thanks Paxo, I am worried about that I must say.
Maybe the fresh reinstall as many suggested is worth a try…

I've never understood why people think MacOS is less intuitive (or harder to use) than Windows. They are pretty much the same. Screen controls move right to left, some keys in different places but can be swapped with key map, forward delete requires wide keyboard.

The always-there menu is a great boon to usability if you ask me. Migrating to a new Mac is simple. There's even a Windows to Mac migration assistant, which I have not used, but I've gone Macbook to Macbook twice. Applications come along, no re-install.

Homebrew gives you pretty much all of Linux with minimal effort.

It's true Windows runs more applications. My wife has Sibelius music notation (W10 only) Sony Vegas (easy to replace) and Quicken (obsolete). Regarding photo software, ACDSee works better on Windows, and iMatch is Windows only.

The biggest adventure of Windows is a freedom of hardware choice. I can build Windows running PC by myself, ordering components from different vendors, while Mac is a locked system, and your freedom of choice is very limited

I build quite a few Windows machines to use for work but always had Macs for personal use. I will always choose Mac because everything just works. Now that Apple makes its own chips it is even better.

I know many folks love to build and maintain Windows machines. But there is a lot of maintaning go on there. Macs work great and the latest M4 series of chips are plain fantastic. No worries about incompatibility of hardware and drivers and other nonsense.

But each to their own. Most Windows advocates never touched a Mac so they do not have any experience to make a fair comparison. I have used both over decades and always choose Mac.

I do not advocate for Windows. I simply state the fact tha it is impossible to build your Mac dream machine.

The rest of your reply does not deserve a responce.

 

[Night Pixel]

As a long time Windows user I recently switched to Mac Mini. It's an impressive piece of hardware but I find it utterly unintuitive and despite what I had heard believe Windows has a more accessible and logical user interface. Don't underestimate just how big the switch will be.

Thanks Paxo, I am worried about that I must say.
Maybe the fresh reinstall as many suggested is worth a try…

I've never understood why people think MacOS is less intuitive (or harder to use) than Windows. They are pretty much the same. Screen controls move right to left, some keys in different places but can be swapped with key map, forward delete requires wide keyboard.

The always-there menu is a great boon to usability if you ask me. Migrating to a new Mac is simple. There's even a Windows to Mac migration assistant, which I have not used, but I've gone Macbook to Macbook twice. Applications come along, no re-install.

Homebrew gives you pretty much all of Linux with minimal effort.

It's true Windows runs more applications. My wife has Sibelius music notation (W10 only) Sony Vegas (easy to replace) and Quicken (obsolete). Regarding photo software, ACDSee works better on Windows, and iMatch is Windows only.

The biggest adventure of Windows is a freedom of hardware choice. I can build Windows running PC by myself, ordering components from different vendors, while Mac is a locked system, and your freedom of choice is very limited

I build quite a few Windows machines to use for work but always had Macs for personal use. I will always choose Mac because everything just works. Now that Apple makes its own chips it is even better.

I know many folks love to build and maintain Windows machines. But there is a lot of maintaning go on there. Macs work great and the latest M4 series of chips are plain fantastic. No worries about incompatibility of hardware and drivers and other nonsense.

But each to their own. Most Windows advocates never touched a Mac so they do not have any experience to make a fair comparison. I have used both over decades and always choose Mac.

I do not advocate for Windows. I simply state the fact tha it is impossible to build your Mac dream machine.

The rest of your reply does not deserve a responce.

Well, there is such a thing called Hackintosh. Some folks have concocted their dream Macs but this is really a niche thing. So to say you cannot build your "Mac dream machine " is categorically false. You are most likely restricted to Intel processors however:



Building the physical machine is the same as any PC. Installing macOS is the part that requires some work as not all motherboards will do. Those who do this are pretty dedicated to making happen.

As I said before, given latest Apple Silicone there really is not need to go through this as the current crops of Macs can handle just about any task. If you are gamer then you are a Windows user as many AAA games run on Windows only so Mac, Linux and Unix folks are left out.

As an aside, why do you feel it necessary to add insults to your comments. as in "

The rest of your reply does not deserve a responce."?

Can't you jus make your point and leave it at that?

You know Rule Number 1 , don't you?

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know." - Diane Arbus

 

[Austinian]

Well, there is such a thing called Hackintosh. Some folks have concocted their dream Macs but this is really a niche thing. So to say you cannot build your "Mac dream machine " is categorically false. You are most likely restricted to Intel processors however:

I built a Hackintosh a long time ago just for grins, and for quite a while they were popular in some circles. However, as you correctly say, it's Intel-only. The problem with a Hackintosh today as I see it is that AFAIK there will be no future Intel-based updates from Apple after the current macOS 26. For me, that would be a showstopper.

 

[CAcreeks]

The rest of your reply does not deserve a responce."?

Can't you just make your point and leave it at that?

You know Rule Number 1 , don't you?

This reminds me of a scene in Red Dwarf, a sci-fi parody from BBC North.

Rimmer – "What's more important, a man's life or your lunch?"

Cat – "That question doesn't even deserve an answer."

 

[StephaneB]

I do not advocate for Windows. I simply state the fact tha it is impossible to build your Mac dream machine.

And it is not necessary. What defines the Mac experience is not the hardware performance, it is enough whatever the model. What defines the experience is the software, MacOS, which you can't change anyway.

Regarding my statement of all Macs having enough performance, it is meant provided you choose according to your needs. And it is even more important not to overestimate your needs than to not underestimate them. The M CPUs are absolutely amazing in combination with the OS. I say that because with Apple, overestimating your needs costs a lot. But the price/performance ratio is excellent throughout the range.

 

[Don Simpson]

Like some others, I've been using and supporting multiple ecosystems since the 60's (yikes). After retirement 10 years ago, both my wife and I bought 27" iMacs and sent our Windows laptops to recycle.

Both these iMacs are still running fine with those beautiful 5K screens. But the latest Topaz, DXO, and Adobe S/W is outstripping their Intel processors and an upgrade to Apples "M" chip is required. Unfortunately, you cannot re-chip Apple's CPUs, but since they are still running strong, we'll have to live with the last "non-subscription" viable S/W.

That's our story, but in your situation there is more to converting to a Mac. Yes, it is an environment change that takes time to adapt to. You wouldn't like it at first. You can't mess with the guts of the O/S with ResEdit and spend hours to get a driver to work. And I do miss those "Blue Screens of Death"; so dramatic. And viruses, I've never had a Mac virus checker even since 1984.

Ok, I've dumped on PCs a bit, but if properly set up and spec'd, they are perfectly fine. Probably less expensive and faster. But the biggest benefit is you won't have to re-purchase or relearn your S/W.

And not all Windows S/W has been ported to the MacOS. I mitigated that by running a program called Parallels with both WinXP and Win10 virtual machines. So I can have 3 OS's running at the same time in separate windows on Mac desktop. My "purchased" versions of Photoshop CS6, Microsoft Visio, etc. run just fine.

In the end, your least disruptive move might be getting your Windows environment updated and running smooth. Your photo editing S/W will work as good on Windows as any Mac. I'd look at moving to a Mac based on other reasons.

 

[s_grins]

I do not advocate for Windows. I simply state the fact tha it is impossible to build your Mac dream machine.

And it is not necessary. What defines the Mac experience is not the hardware performance, it is enough whatever the model. What defines the experience is the software, MacOS, which you can't change anyway.

Regarding my statement of all Macs having enough performance, it is meant provided you choose according to your needs. And it is even more important not to overestimate your needs than to not underestimate them. The M CPUs are absolutely amazing in combination with the OS. I say that because with Apple, overestimating your needs costs a lot. But the price/performance ratio is excellent throughout the range.

Well, you are paying extra $400 or more when you buy Mac.

And, please, do not tell me how amazing is M CPU. I'm a user Mac Book Pro

 

[SdeGat]

There are lots of interesting points in this thread (in a short period of time actually).
And I am sorry to not address every point individually.

Bottom line for me seems to be a fresh reinstall of Windows 11 to (potentially) fix any underlying Windows issues that could be affecting LrC. That’s a lot of work but certainly cheaper than a new computer.

Some were asking about my LrC issues since I did not elaborate on that. I wasn’t specific on that because that was not the question I wanted to ask at this time. And I’ve been stuck with those problems for a few years without any improvement.

I did get a lot of « update your gpu drivers » and « turn off your antivirus » over the years but, needless to say, nothing helped.

Note that Photoshop and Lightroom (non classic) run fine as well as my other applications. But obviously LrC is the most complete version and the one I want to use.

The main issues with LrC are:

1. The link with the GPU sometimes breaks and LrC says it will no longer use the GPU. Restarting LrC usually fixes that.
2. LrC is slow to respond to hitting « D » to use the develop module. Like a few seconds.
3. The worst is selecting pictures with a click of the mouse or hitting « p » to flag as picked. Each takes a few seconds as well. That means I cannot select a bunch of pictures by clicking all over the place in the grid screen. I have to wait a few seconds after a click (until highlighted) and then click on the next one and so on. This is driving me crazy. I get the same behavior with the pick flash.

There you are and thanks again to all those trying to help.

 

[BobKnDP]

One thing that could be worth a try:

Image your existing OS.

Clean install Windows. Then install LrC. See how it runs.

You could then restore your old Windows installation.

On my system, I could image C: in about 10 minutes. (Macrium Reflect.) I could restore that image in roughly the same amount of time.

I last did it to check whether failed USB ports on a new motherboard were a driver issue or a hardware one. It turned out to be the latter. Fortunately, it was within the shop's return period, so I didn't have to deal with an RMA with the MB maker. The replacement MB has been trouble free.

 

[SdeGat]

One thing that could be worth a try:

Image your existing OS.

Clean install Windows. Then install LrC. See how it runs.

You could then restore your old Windows installation.

On my system, I could image C: in about 10 minutes. (Macrium Reflect.) I could restore that image in roughly the same amount of time.

I last did it to check whether failed USB ports on a new motherboard were a driver issue or a hardware one. It turned out to be the latter. Fortunately, it was within the shop's return period, so I didn't have to deal with an RMA with the MB maker. The replacement MB has been trouble free.

Interesting approach. Thanks Bob.

Adobe had me run LrC from a separate account on the same machine for testing purposes. Note that this approach would have the same Windows install and the same issues.

 

[teph]

After having been a Windows user since Windows 3.1 I recently switched to a MacBook pro with 1TB drive and 48 Gb of ram. It took some time to get used to the system but nothing extraordinarily. I watched a lot of a person who posts under the name MacMost and that was very helpful. I switched from LR 6.14 to NitroPhoto by the developer who used to work on Aperture. The programme is rather new, but has constant updates and works pretty well if you can do without AI. Personally I am happy to have made the change.

 

[Ken Seals]

1. The link with the GPU sometimes breaks and LrC says it will no longer use the GPU. Restarting LrC usually fixes that.
2. LrC is slow to respond to hitting « D » to use the develop module. Like a few seconds.
3. The worst is selecting pictures with a click of the mouse or hitting « p » to flag as picked. Each takes a few seconds as well. That means I cannot select a bunch of pictures by clicking all over the place in the grid screen. I have to wait a few seconds after a click (until highlighted) and then click on the next one and so on. This is driving me crazy. I get the same behavior with the pick flash.

Have never seen 1. happen since I started in LR V2

For 2 and 3, check to see in the catalog settings if your previews are set to Auto. That will create previews that match you screen resolution. If your previews are not currently matching the screen resolution, LrC will have to remake previews as you move from one image to another.

 

[Ken Seals]

I have been using Windows on home built machines since the late '80s. Currently on a Win 11 high spec PC. ( see my signature)

I also have been using MacBook Pros for the last 10 years, mainly for travel. My current MBP is a 2021 M1 Max 2TB SSD and 64GB. I have all Adobe apps installed on both and see no difference in the way Lightroom Classic or Photoshop run on those machines, speed of response included. It did take me years to learn the in and outs of Mac OS, but now I'm completely comfortable with it, except for Finder which is very limited compared to my file management software Opus Directory on Windows.

I did find out that Finder will not copy all of a large folder of files without skipping a lot of them.

I would be fine to ultimately switch to MAC for everything, but my system for backups includes using my most recent hand me down PC as a file server for backup through my 2.5 GB network.

 

[dj_paige]

Bottom line for me seems to be a fresh reinstall of Windows 11 to (potentially) fix any underlying Windows issues that could be affecting LrC. That’s a lot of work but certainly cheaper than a new computer.

Also a suggestion is to create a new user profile in Windows and install LrC in that new user profile. Which is less painful that re-installing your operating system.

--
Paige Miller

 

[Gato Amarillo]

- snip -
The main issues with LrC are:

The link with the GPU sometimes breaks and LrC says it will no longer use the GPU. Restarting LrC usually fixes that.

I had this issue a number of times with Photoshop, but it seems to have disappeared with recent updates. (I'm running the beta PS, so get updates more frequently than the stable version.)

 

[Kipplemaster]

I have used both quite a lot, including building my own windows machines for over 30 years.

About 12 years ago I guessed that the reason for various crashes etc might be my home-made PCs and treated my wife to a Macbook Air. It was pretty nice and I got myself a Macbook Pro shortly afterwards. But the annoyances (crashes, printers sometimes randomly not printing, etc) were basically the same.

Now in our family my wife and daughter have Macs, I have gone back to the PC and my son also uses PCs because he is a gamer. I use PC laptops for work. Mac and PC are pretty similar! But moving from one to the other is a bit annoying, probably more like using two different brands of camera than having one left-hand drive and one right-hand drive car but you can become ambidextrous to it.

People can get quasi-religious over brand-loyalty, just as much about computers as they can about cameras. Obviously that is complete nonsense but it does mean you can't often trust a lot of what people post on forums. Someone on this website once tried to justify to me why it was perfectly rational that Apple had a "touchbar" on a selection of their laptops but not the other laptops nor the desktop computers, for example. It has subsequently disappeared.

I am quite envious of my daughter's Macbook Air M4. That is a very nice neat, silent piece of equipment which will run all day on the battery. But doing AI denoise on a 42mp RAW file in Lightroom takes 2 minutes on that and about 16 seconds on my desktop PC.

 

[SdeGat]

Bottom line for me seems to be a fresh reinstall of Windows 11 to (potentially) fix any underlying Windows issues that could be affecting LrC. That’s a lot of work but certainly cheaper than a new computer.

Also a suggestion is to create a new user profile in Windows and install LrC in that new user profile. Which is less painful that re-installing your operating system.

Thanks Paige.

Adobe had me create a new user profile (account) but I did not reinstall LrC as I still had access to the same LrC that was already on the computer. Maybe that was not a very useful test.

 

[davinci953]

I have been a Windows user since its inception (yes, I'm that old).

I have a decent machine (see below) but have been experiencing really annoying speed issues with Lightroom Classic (LrC).

I have consulted forums for a few years but cannot solve my issues. I'm out of ideas.

Is is time to switch to a Mac Studio or something like that?

Or is my computer fine for the task? And I just need to find the issue/setting that's causing the problems?

I'm dealing with 45, 61 and 100 mpix RAW files all the time. Basically no video.

(Throughput on my M.2 SSDs is fine but there is a latency sometimes when, for example, I drag a bunch of files between two folders, the cursor just stops in between the two windows. And Windows usually executes the copy properly after the hiccup. Could that issue be linked to the LrC problems?)

Thanks.

<snip>

I have a similar build and hope to get at least one more year from it. Try tweaking the following settings in the Nvidia control panel for Lightroom. You can do the same for Photoshop. Lightroom is GPU intensive for a number of tasks. I saw improvements in rendering, general editing, and masking with the changes.