Not all that impressed with M1 chip…anyone else?

My new iMac with M1 chip is much faster with both RAW and JPEG files using Photos (which is the only PP program I use) than my Intel based Mac was

Lol - I know, I know, but as a jpeg shooter for years and years, I find that DPP gets the canon color the closest to their jpegs without too much fiddling. And I like how little fiddling I can actually do. From a workflow standpoint, it's still the fastest for me. I used LR for a while, but found myself playing with all the dials...and my Mom told me I would grow hair on my palms from doing that...

Yeah - I actually think that throttling could have a lot to do with it. Be interesting to run the same test on a 13" M1 MBP, since it actually has a fan, so it shouldn't throttle heavy tasks as much. To be fair, though, in this test it didn't start fast and then slow down. It was consistently as slow as my older windows laptop, from the first file on.

jamiewexler wrote in post #19345709
Lol - I know, I know, but as a jpeg shooter for years and years, I find that DPP gets the canon color the closest to their jpegs without too much fiddling. And I like how little fiddling I can actually do. From a workflow standpoint, it's still the fastest for me. I used LR for a while, but found myself playing with all the dials...and my Mom told me I would grow hair on my palms from doing that...

You can store "recipes" in C1 and Lightroom so if you fiddle a lot up front you likely could get no fiddle later.

Some shortcomings to the M1 chip and specifically the Thunderbolt 4 port are now coming out. See https://www.digitaltre​nds.com …-their-thunderbolt-ports/

I've been having a good time on an M1 Max Macbook Pro. The performance vs. the heat and noise level has been much better compared to prior Intel-based Windows and Mac PC's. The Mac Studio was recently released too and I believe that the new Mac Pro is on its way some time this year or next year.

I would still recommend maxing out RAM and giving enough total internal storage so that you aren't using a large amount of your SSD space, and investing in proper Thunderbolt 3/4 docks and external hard drive and SSD's for your editing (200 MB/s to 2500 MB/s are nice)

MacBook Pro 14” with M1 Pro and 16GB Ram.

Lightroom is way faster than my 6year old PC. No complaints from me.

I want to test how it would handle R3 RAW files.

Apple is great at selling stuff, eh.

#itsadvertising

I got the M1 Macbook Air (2020) with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD, it's one of THE best investments i could have possibly made. It handles photo and video files from the R6 (another excellent investment) with ease. I work with a political figure on a daily agenda and this laptop offers the portability/horsepower I need to work everything.

Edit.: I understand this laptop is not for everyone, it is just my experience.

Do you have it hooked up to an external monitor and external hard drives? How is it as a desktop replacement?

I am using Lightroom Classic and Photoshop on a 4K monitor. Would this configuration work well?

While never a Mac/Apple user, I see headlines and read into articles enough
to see that there's a trend with M1 products with throttling due to overheating.
I can't cite specific examples now, but a Google search will turn up mostly this:

The current M1 (and maybe now the M2) devices are built into devices which offer
poor designs or abatement methods for heat dissipation.

With M1 devices specifically, I've read into more than a couple of articles
which describe heat-related performance issues being resolved through some
basic disassembly to add inexpensive thermal-transfer tapes or compounds.
It seems to me that Apple's designhaus has fallen short of providing solid
thermal abatement, with the slack being successfully nullified by many DIYers.

I'll reiterate that I've never been a MAC user, but the above is something
consistent that I've seen in reports since the M-chip introduction.

That's always been an issue with MacBooks. Having their slim designs, there's been less thermal dissipation...and smaller batteries that doesn't put out as much power (compared to "roomy" gaming PC laptops). One of the reasons for the Apple Silicon chips was to have a more efficient design that didn't need as many watts. With their benchmark tables, Apple had a disclaimer about RAW performance not being the same as the highest end gaming laptops.

I have a MacBook Pro Intel I9 that I used to use as my work and everyday laptop. During heavy operation (rendering or some development tasks), the fans would really spin up and case become hot. Overall, battery life is still good (think it's because of the driver optimization and the software). My work wound up being incompatible with Mac software, so for work I'm now using a Dell XPS with dual boot Linux and Windows. The Dell is good quality, and I take it if I want something to throw HDMI videos/streaming service on TVs while traveling. The MacBook, though, still is lighter and more "slim" form factor.

One of the main issues I saw people complain about with the M1 was USB incompatibilities due standards that are licensed by Intel. I think when it comes to performance of the M chips, things also ride on if your software is written for the chipset. If you're editing video with DaVinci or editing photos with Adobe, then they're at a state where they have optimized versions for M series. But my development software at work is very unlikely to have anything that's not for x86 chipsets.

My M1 air runs Lr and Ps flawlessly and that's all I really need it for. As for all the launch hyperbole, those benchmarks didn't translate into much of a speed difference in my actual workflow. My 2015 iMac and my 2017 MPB handled my workload almost as fast but both of those were loaded. I do have an XPS13 that my Air absolutely kills but that machine isn't really setup for editing.

flickserve wrote in post #19398477
MacBook Pro 14” with M1 Pro and 16GB Ram.

Lightroom is way faster than my 6year old PC. No complaints from me.

I want to test how it would handle R3 RAW files.

I have a 16" M1 Pro with 16gb ram and it handles LR, PS, PM and R3 files without issues. I have it hooked up to a 32" Dell 2k and a 27" LG 4k in clamshell mode.

Interesting:

davesrose wrote in post #19421562
...One of the main issues I saw people complain about with the M1 was USB incompatibilities due standards that are licensed by Intel...

USB-IF is the voluntary governing body of USB standards:

As Apple is listed as an active member while Intel still is too, I have to wonder what licensing Intel lords over others, if any.