Perennial upgrade question

[Stuart Carlton]

I am a new user of DXO Photolab having recently been seduced to buy PL9! Currently this is running on a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB Ram and 512 GB storage. To date I have encountered no problems and it seems to be functioning well if for some functions perhaps slower than I would like ( selecting masks and exporting for instance) although this is not unmanageable.

I have been wondering if an upgrade to an M4pro MBP (I use a 16inch screen) would be beneficial. I would expect an improvement in performance but is that actually so and would it be a significant improvement?

The other element is the consideration of whether this would also offer some future proofing. I think we all all experience declining performance as software updates begin to tax our computer operating systems. Financially this may be a good time to change with maximum trade in allowance and still a reasonable price for a replacement.

Opinions (polite ones please! ) would be welcome to help me get off the fence!

 

[LarryRC]

I am a new user of DXO Photolab having recently been seduced to buy PL9! Currently this is running on a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB Ram and 512 GB storage. To date I have encountered no problems and it seems to be functioning well if for some functions perhaps slower than I would like ( selecting masks and exporting for instance) although this is not unmanageable.

I have been wondering if an upgrade to an M4pro MBP (I use a 16inch screen) would be beneficial. I would expect an improvement in performance but is that actually so and would it be a significant improvement?

The other element is the consideration of whether this would also offer some future proofing. I think we all all experience declining performance as software updates begin to tax our computer operating systems. Financially this may be a good time to change with maximum trade in allowance and still a reasonable price for a replacement.

Opinions (polite ones please! ) would be welcome to help me get off the fence!

I use a 16” macbook pro and an 12.9 inch ipad pro for the weight and size issues you outlined.

 

[Stuart Carlton]

I am a new user of DXO Photolab having recently been seduced to buy PL9! Currently this is running on a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB Ram and 512 GB storage. To date I have encountered no problems and it seems to be functioning well if for some functions perhaps slower than I would like ( selecting masks and exporting for instance) although this is not unmanageable.

I have been wondering if an upgrade to an M4pro MBP (I use a 16inch screen) would be beneficial. I would expect an improvement in performance but is that actually so and would it be a significant improvement?

The other element is the consideration of whether this would also offer some future proofing. I think we all all experience declining performance as software updates begin to tax our computer operating systems. Financially this may be a good time to change with maximum trade in allowance and still a reasonable price for a replacement.

Opinions (polite ones please! ) would be welcome to help me get off the fence!

I use a 16” macbook pro and an 12.9 inch ipad pro for the weight and size issues you outlined.

Is that an M4? Weight is not an issue but a 16inch screen is. just trying to determine if the upgrade from M1 to M4 is worth the expense.

 

[LarryRC]

I am a new user of DXO Photolab having recently been seduced to buy PL9! Currently this is running on a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB Ram and 512 GB storage. To date I have encountered no problems and it seems to be functioning well if for some functions perhaps slower than I would like ( selecting masks and exporting for instance) although this is not unmanageable.

I have been wondering if an upgrade to an M4pro MBP (I use a 16inch screen) would be beneficial. I would expect an improvement in performance but is that actually so and would it be a significant improvement?

The other element is the consideration of whether this would also offer some future proofing. I think we all all experience declining performance as software updates begin to tax our computer operating systems. Financially this may be a good time to change with maximum trade in allowance and still a reasonable price for a replacement.

Opinions (polite ones please! ) would be welcome to help me get off the fence!

I use a 16” macbook pro and an 12.9 inch ipad pro for the weight and size issues you outlined.

Is that an M4? Weight is not an issue but a 16inch screen is. just trying to determine if the upgrade from M1 to M4 is worth the expense.

My 16” MBP is the top of the line M4. This gives faster memory, more memory and more CPU and GPU cores. I don’t know your exact configuration (ie: # of cores). And i upgraded from an iMac using i9 chips so i can’t say exactly.



So looking at benchmarks especially those designed to measure photo processing tasks I would expect the speed increase to approach 2x for some tasks. That would be comparing low end to low end or high end to high end. The new 16” nano display is also quite nice for anti glare and HDR!

 

[JPAlbert]

Whatever you decide to get (have you considered a Mini?), DON'T get just 16gb of RAM.

Get at least 24, 32gb is better.

The "needs of the OS" are going to grow in the years ahead, and perhaps your needs, as well. 16gb -- 4, 5 years from now -- probably isn't going to be "enough" any longer.

That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[LarryRC]

Whatever you decide to get (have you considered a Mini?), DON'T get just 16gb of RAM.

Get at least 24, 32gb is better.

The "needs of the OS" are going to grow in the years ahead, and perhaps your needs, as well. 16gb -- 4, 5 years from now -- probably isn't going to be "enough" any longer.

That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

I agree and i got 64gb. Probably overkill but it means i can easily run PS, LRC and 10 other programs at once with no noticeable slowdown. Also very large image files are a breeze.
It is also unified memory so it adapts to the current processing needs. It is my main computer now when docked.