SL files and new Apple iMac configuration

[vinicio]

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Have to change my iMac 27 with a new one; working a lot in studio, and now with the SL2 shooting only photos, not working on video, I am in trouble to decide if it might be better to configure the new iMac with 64 Gb RAM pushing on:

processor (i7 vs i10)

video card

any suggestion?

Thanks for your replies 

 

[T25UFO]

Always go for the most RAM and the fastest processor.  It pays in the long run with all software.

I don’t think the video card will have much impact on photo files.  My son is a video editor working with Adobe editing software etc, and he needs the fastest video card, but this doesn’t help his still photo work.

Apple website also provides advice on hardware selection.

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[PCPix]

2 hours ago, T25UFO said:

Always go for the most RAM and the fastest processor.

...and hard drive size almost doesn’t matter as you’ll be filling up external drives with archives and back-ups.

I keep the on-board hd at between 40 and 60% full and move older picture folders to external archives whenever it looks like I’m approaching 60%.

[EddieCheddar]

The 27 iMac is the last iMac in which you can add the RAM later.  So buy your iMac from Apple with their lowest RAM option (8GB?).  Then buy additional RAM from places like MacSales, and install it yourself.  Super simply to do.  You may want to get as much RAM as you can afford.  This will save you cash, which you can instead configure into your iMac for the higher processor.

[caissa]

Ram is important, the processor speed not really (they are all fast enough to work on photos). And don’t forget the ssd disks.

32 GB works fine for me, but more is always better. Actually the web browsers use most memory. So turn off the browsers while you are editing photos or videos.

[Photoworks]

I am getting New iMac too.

Since this is usually going to be around for 5 years, I am getting the 10 core and the best 16MB video card.

Programs use the video card to create the preview in CaptureOne and now Lightroom too.

RAM can be added later to 64BG for 180$. I would not get more since the system does not manage mach more.

 

[caissa]

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The video cards are usually important for 3D and games. Overkill for editing photos. Also the high number of cores can only be used by special programs. Most photo editors do not use more than a few processors in parallel. Check with the software creator what they recommend.

Edited August 20, 2020 by caissa

[zeitz]

Last summer I upgraded from a MacPro 2013 (32GB, 6 core, Fire Pro) to a MacMini 2018 (32GB, 6 core, internal Intel graphics) and then to the same MacMini with a Sonnet 650 eGPU and an AMD WX8200 card.  I measured the load time for 72 still images into Bridge for each of the three configurations.  I made see separate folders with the same images for a fair comparison.  I reported the results in this subforum, but I did not keep the numbers.  Each step did result in faster performance, but not a huge difference.  The truth is that Adobe products do not make the best use of graphics processors, which is surprising to me.

The value of this speed depends on the user.  I take thousands of pictures a weekend at auto races.  Any processor (core and GPU) improvement is important to me.

With Mac's Activity Monitor you can see how many cores are being used while you work.  I was surprised that the number of cores used is high.

[caissa]

The number is high because the OS switches between the processors dynamically. This does not mean that they are used in parallel, but just serially. (But much too fast for humans.)

To make good use of parallel processes/threads ask the software providers what they recommend and if there are special settings to increase the number used.

But if you have many processes (e.g. many web browser sessions), then there are hundreds of threads that give the impression of parallel work. But each single job uses just a small part.

The load times are not a useful measure for processors, the times are probably more influenced by the type of disks used. If you edit images then there are some functions that need a lot of processing power. If these are implemented in parallel on several processors only the software developers can tell - so ask them about it.

Edited August 28, 2020 by caissa