Anyone use a 27" iMac Pro for Lightroom Classic/Photoshop Post work?

[Smudgerer]

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My ageing 2014 iMac might soon have to be put out to grass as current software updates, ( Adobe LrC and PS mainly ), and larger M11 files are leaving the old girl out of breath these days........And it cannot be updated to current OSX Sytems or some Adobe update features too, so it's time to step up a bit I guess.

I like the 27" iMac working format and I'm well used to it, so presently I am looking at the iMac Pro as a replacement but can't find too much useful relative information on it's value / use with LrC and PS, does anyone here use that machine for their post production and if so, how does it add up?

My LrC and PS usage is very simple, I don't do heavy post work nor do I mess with layers / masking and so on, I just need to find a good iMac solution now if possible.

Any clues or comments would be appreciated.........Thanks!

[Jeff S]

I can’t comment on iMac, having recently upgraded my 2009 Mac Pro to a Mac Studio, which is so much more capable despite its tiny size. I couple it with a separate 27” monitor.  I will say, though, that the new masking tools in LR Classic are simple and fast to use, and keep getting better with each update. You might be surprised and delighted if you haven’t experimented at all.  The new “landscape” mask, with one click, can recognize the scene and generate multiple masks (water, vegetation, sky, buildings, etc) as desired. One needn’t be a heavy PP user to realize some often quick and easy image enhancements. 

[Einst_Stein]

I have 2017 27” iMac and 2019 27” iMac. Both have similar configuration except the 2017 maintenance expired much longer. When they are within maintenance, both work fine for my still photos but I am not a power user.  I also like Apple 27” monitor. 

My 2017 version needs to be replaced, not performance issue, but the primary disk is too small for the current LRC/PS. I tried to use it as the monitor if I add Mac Mini. Unfortunately Apple‘s evil policy that intentionally prevent to take that path. So I have to go either the 24” iMac or the much much more expensive route of new 27” monitor. 

After study around, I conclude the best and cost effective choice for me is go with Mac Mini and non-Apple 27” monitor, I have friend very happy with Phillip 27” high gamut monitor ($600). The Mac Mini would be 24GB / 1TB or 24GB/ 2TB. I get comments that 32GB may not be utilized efficient enough to worth the upgrade from 24GB, (due to current Mac Mini architecture?)

Another suggestion from friends is not to buy Mac with integrated monitor. Due to Apple’s marketing strategy, when it is about to retire, the monitor will no longer be useful. It will end up as a total waste. Getting external nice monitor, either Apple or non-Apple, should be the right way to go.
 

[Pieter12]

I use a 2019 27" iMac loaded to the gills with 128GB RAM.

[Smudgerer]

11 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Yes, still going strong. By all means get another one if you are used to it.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Thanks Al..........I think that's what I will plumb for, cheers!

[marchyman]

If staying current on software is important to you be aware that the next version of macOS won't run on the 2019 iMac if reports are to be believed.

I like to stay current mostly for security updates and tend to replace phones and machines when they can no longer run the latest OS.  That means new hardware every 6-8 years.   I know many other don't care and are quite happy sticking with older versions of the OS.

[oldsalt]

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I'm on my 2020 27" iMac (Sonoma 14.6.1) and it's running like a swiss watch... no problems with LR & Photoshop

Good luck 

[pedaes]

I used a late '24 27" I-Mac until recently. Fantastic machine but was getting very slow with the superb new LrC AI masks so I have moved to Mac Mini Pro. LrC Library on external SSD with another local SSD running through Time Machine as first backup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lincoln_m]

macOS Sequoia 15.5. 2019 27"5K iMAC 24GB RAM (I don't think I'll be able to upgrade to macOS 26 in September 2025 because this is now an old MAC so I might have to go to MAC Studio in a few years when they stop updating macOS 15.x Sequoia) 

Lightroom Classic Lr 14.4, Ps 26.8.1, Camera Raw 17.4.1

Seems fast enough for 24Mpixel DNG and even spotting on 220MB film scan DNGs but I do have some occasional issues with the external HDD and fast SSD used for Lr Library editing.

Sorry for this long essay, it didn't start out as a long response.

I'm using 2019 27" 5k iMAC the top of the range at the time but not a customised one. 3.7GHz 6-core with Radeon Pro 580X 8GB GPU. At the time I was updating from an older 27" iMAC (2560x1440 not Retina) and because the display on the 5k iMAC had 4x the number of pixel I decided I needed the best GPU Apple could give at that time with at least 4x the speed and 4x RAM to cope with rendering on the 5k display. I was using Apple Aperture 3.0 at that time which made heavy use of the GPU.

I upgraded the RAM (you could back then) from the tiny out of the box 8GB to 24GB RAM by adding 2x8GB =16 GB.

I soon moved to Adobe Lightroom Classic (Lr + Ps) in 2020 and I'm now on latest macOS Sequoia and LrC, Ps versions.

I use an external WD 2TB SSD (1000MB/s) APFS (case sensitive) for my ~8 different  Lr catalogs but that keeps getting the disk directory corrupted so I lose all my Lr catalogs and alll the edits. But everytime I close Lr I get it to save a backup zip of the catalog ###-v14.lrcat file on the iMAC's HDD and now every month (will need to be weekly) I back up my catalog files which are the imported copies of the files organised by Lr into dated folders. I keep a backup of the Leica DNGs and film scan (also DNG now) files on both the iMAC HDD and another SSD and also on separate external HDDs.

In my various Lr Libraries I have imports of 24M pixel M10 DNG Raw files and 37Mpixel (222MB per 16-bit per colour) film scans but even when I'm doing spotting on these 220MB film scans Lightroom response is OK I'm hoping it's because of the external 1000MB/s SSD and the 24GB RAM and fast GPU (for 2019) with 8GB RAM. Only when I export say 100 film scan images to jpeg or tiff does the GPU really kick in and I can hear the iMAC fan working for a change. Lr doesn't seem to use the GPU as much as it does the CPUs, or if it does it's so quick I can't see the %GPUs in use via the Activity Monitor App.

I still have the hidden nighttime shutdown on my iMAC (not visible in Preferences anymore). If I've left my LrC open (forgot to shut down earlier) it tries to ask is I want to Backup the Catalog while the Mac is shutting down, but I'm not there to see. Often I find the Mac didn't shut down overnight because of Adobe and I get a message asking if I want to tell Adobe about the issue, send a report. Sometimes that process corrupts the SSD and so it's not mountable and can't be fixed by Disk Utility First Aid because it can't read some file that is supposed to say how much space there is. Slowly over the next few days I get the older copies of my Lightroom catalogs (~200GB each) and unpack the Backup catalog zip file to rebuild the Catalog. The backup has the metadata for new imported images but not the actual file , you get a grey thumbnail, and File Not Found in the Library Metadata. I use show in finder to find were the file (was) in the Lr Library Folder and make a new folder with that name and copy over the file (sort of manual import) into the Lr Library Folder then Lr can apply my changes and display the preview.

To prevent issues with the Fast SSD getting corrupted I'll shutdown Lr before the MAC auto shutdown at night and try and keep my Lr full backups updated every week so If I do have to reformat the SSD and rebuild the Lr catalogs I won't have to do so much manual work to get my years of Lr edits back.

Also particularly with my LaCie 2bigDock (2x4TB mirror) disk I get a message from my Mac that the disk wasn't ejected properly. But I didn't do anything! I suspect something happens when I go away and the iMac goes into sleep after the screensaver has done its thing for 10mins.

I never know if it's a good idea to have this switch on in Preferences> Energy>

Put hard disk to sleep when possible   [on]

my iMAC has 2TB HDD with 128GB of internal SSD in the Fusion Drive. I don't know if that button only affects the internal disk or if it messes with the Thunderbolt 3 external disks like the LaCie or my SSDs. The SSDs also get that Disk Not Ejected Properly message sometimes. Possibly the Thunderbolt 3/USB-C controller (T1 chip?) may be causing these issues.

 

Personally for me "upgrading" to the MAC mini doesn't work as it doesn't have all the external ports (no SD card reader) that I'd need for my current setup. I'd "need" the Mac Studio (MAX not Ultra) for all the T5 and USB-C 4.0 and even the USB-A for CD/DVD writer/player and Film Scanner and SD card reader. Then I'd have to get a big display (LG OLED 43" ??) and also a web-cam. So that's not going to happen soon.

 

I think the 2020 iMAC 27" 5k will be upgradable to macOS 26 in September 2025 so as you like the iMAC that might be a good upgrade if you can find one?

Good Luck, Lincoln

[Einst_Stein]

I use 27" rerina 5K of 2017 version and 2019 version. I do simple work, just load photos from camera, do simple tweak, and export to TIFF and JPG. My biggest files are from S3 (64MP). 

On 2017 version, I use external 2TB SSD, 32GB RAM, MOS-13.  External SSD is must because the on-board SSD is only 128GB. It works fine. I might need to max RAM to 64MB (see below).

On 2019 version, internal storge and 64MB RAM, MOS-15. Since this is my wife's computer, I only use it for printing. However, when I print to 17" printer within LRC, it is very very slow, actually never finished. I have to export to TIFF or JPG then print without Adobe. I have checked yet, but I suspect it needs to max RAM  (128GB).  

If I find myself print a lot, I would consider a new Mac Mini, with 2TB ~ 4TB SSD and 24MB RAM.  

[lincoln_m]

Einst_Stein, Surely you mean 2019 iMAC has 64GB of RAM not 64MB ? When you print from 2019 iMAC where is the actual photo in your LRC Library? Is it on the 2019 iMAC HDD or over your network on your 2017 iMAC SSD? I'm not sure how going from 64GB RAM to 128GB RAM would help speed up the printing of a 64MPixel file (384Mbytes for a 3 colour 16-bit per colour 64M pixel image)when the Mac already has enough RAM for 166 photos of that size.

How is the printer connected to the 2019 iMAC ? Via LAN ethernet or USB cable or WiFi ? What's the speed of the connection?

Do you have Lightroom Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor set to either Auto or On to Use Graphics Acceleration which is needed for Exporting and maybe Printing.

There is also a cache file setting which I have set to 16GB    

But oops! I've just realised that my cache file is actually on my iMAC HDD /Library/Caches/Adobe Camera Raw 2  !!!! So that's why I hear a noise from my HDD when I'm editing photos on my Lr catalog that I think is on the external SSD images and catalog. But if it's caching for some reason (big RAW file or TIF) then it'll be using the iMAC internal storage which could be the slow (50MB/s) HDD or it might be the fast (2000MB/s) 128GB SSD part in the Fusion Drive?

I'll change my Cache file to be on the fasting SSD to see how that works. It;s probably not good to be thrashing the Fusion Drive while editing my Photos because that might limit the lifetime of the Fusion Drive and therefore the iMAC.

By making this post I might have helped my Mac live longer. I used to find, during my working life, that thinking out loud would often accidentally provide a solution without the other person even having to respond to my thought/question.

Cheers.

 

[Einst_Stein]

6 hours ago, lincoln_m said:

Einst_Stein, Surely you mean 2019 iMAC has 64GB of RAM not 64MB ? When you print from 2019 iMAC where is the actual photo in your LRC Library? Is it on the 2019 iMAC HDD or over your network on your 2017 iMAC SSD? I'm not sure how going from 64GB RAM to 128GB RAM would help speed up the printing of a 64MPixel file (384Mbytes for a 3 colour 16-bit per colour 64M pixel image)when the Mac already has enough RAM for 166 photos of that size.

1.  Thanks for the correction. 
2. when print from 2019, the files are on 2019 on- board HDD. 
3:  Thanks again for the analysis.  I don’t have answer, and I am just guessing if the memory size is the matter. I should have a way to check the memory and CPU usage to determine if it is really the memory, but when it happened, the whole computer is basic frozen except that round circling. I have to kill the task, go back toLRC, do the export, then print it without the LRC. 
4, Printer is connected through WI-FI , I didn’t check the metwork speed on the printer side, on the computer side, the checksPeed score is about 100 something almost at the end of the meter, should be very fast. 
5, I don’t remember the performance setup, I will check when I get home. But I have a vague impression that zi saw some error messages about using GPU.

6. I don’t feel problem when exporting, it only happened when printing 17” wide large print. Printing same photo in 8.5x11 is OK.

7.  Besides max memory capacity, I have also thought to use external SSD for storing the photo files, but it is less likely the key problem. 

6 hours ago, lincoln_m said:

How is the printer connected to the 2019 iMAC ? Via LAN ethernet or USB cable or WiFi ? What's the speed of the connection?

Do you have Lightroom Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor set to either Auto or

On to Use Graphics Acceleration which is needed for Exporting and maybe Printing.

There is also a cache file setting which I have set to 16GB    

But oops! I've just realised that my cache file is actually on my iMAC HDD /Library/Caches/Adobe Camera Raw 2  !!!! So that's why I hear a noise from my HDD when I'm editing photos on my Lr catalog that I think is on the external SSD images and catalog. But if it's caching for some reason (big RAW file or TIF) then it'll be using the iMAC internal storage which could be the slow (50MB/s) HDD or it might be the fast (2000MB/s) 128GB SSD part in the Fusion Drive?

I'll change my Cache file to be on the fasting SSD to see how that works. It;s probably not good to be thrashing the Fusion Drive while editing my Photos because that might limit the lifetime of the Fusion Drive and therefore the iMAC.

By making this post I might have helped my Mac live longer. I used to find, during my working life, that thinking out loud would often accidentally provide a solution without the other person even having to respond to my thought/question.

Cheers.

 

 

[lincoln_m]

It could be the Printer Drivers on your iMacs. You didn't say which Make/Model printer you have.

Recent macOS version updates have caused issues with my Canon MG7150 A4 Printer/Copier/Scanner in that I can no longer use the Canon Scan Utility because the new macOS 15 (and maybe macOS 14 before) no longer supports the scanner drivers. Fortunately for me I have the Vuescan software for my Minolta Elite 5400 film scanner which also works with my Canon A4 scanner for document scans to PDF. But when I initially noticed the Scan Utility not working I think I also got a forever spinning coloured wheel or if it could scan (B&W doc) then the image was all corrupted because the scan to PDF or JPG driver code wasn't working anymore.

My Canon MG7150 is still able to print from Lightroom. I guess that might change with new macOS in future but I probably won't be able to upgrade to macOS 26 in September 2025 because my 2019 iMac won't be compatible. A new Mac and new macOS would probably also require a new printer.

I've looked and Canon don't seem to have a replacement Printer/Copier/Scanner All-in-one like my MG7150 anymore. I just hate it when manufacturers' new kit doesn't have the same good spec as older kit. I'm not even sure if they have Apple Air Play or whatever anymore. I suppose if new printers are on the WiFi then it's on the network and so it doesn't need to be Apple specific?

[Einst_Stein]

Now I think it is very likely the printer drive. When I install the ICC from Epson, some ICC apps say not compatible, need to contact Epson to update, though install printer driver itself is OK and about 6 paper ICC are OK too. It might be the 32-bit vs. 64-bit problem.

I will contact Adobe and Epsonfor for clarification and  further assitant. 

[Jeff S]

To repeat a theme, another reason I like ImagePrint software is that it replaces the Epson driver and avoids many of the Epson-Adobe-Apple compatibility issues.