Is an M1 Max complete overkill for photography?

[mollyc]

OK, giving this a shot ...


View attachment 13844

did it work??

 

[Clix Pix]

I"ve been mulling over the whole what-will-my-next computer-be scenario, too, and initially in my mind was set to go with the 16" MBP but then along came the Studio machines.... I already have a very nice 24" LG 4K Thunderbolt 3 monitor which currently is plugged into my 2018 MBP and this setup works nicely as a desktop replacement. However, I tend to spend most of my time on the computer at home, anyway, rather than transporting it to different locations, even within the house. I have a 2017 12" MacBook plus the 2020 M1 13" MBP for that as well as a 12.9" iPad Pro which sits on the computer workstation much of the time but also is perfectly comfortable out on the deck with me and in the bedroom as well. I'm covered for portability and travel, although I sure haven't done any traveling over the past two years.

This whole chip supply shortage and delayed manufacturing/delivery situation has certainly given me plenty of opportunity to weigh all the pros and cons of each setup and since my 2018 MBP is still kicking along just fine at the moment (knock-on-wood!) I'm not in any great hurry, thank goodness. A Studio machine would work quite nicely for me, as my condo unit is small and I have my computer workstation in the living room where I can look out at the lake and this location is also fairly central to the rest of my household. One advantage of the Studio over the 16" M1 MBP would be more ports, as I do tend to copy data between two external drives at a time, or sometimes even three. With the M1 MBP there are only three Thunderbolt ports and one of those would wind up being occupied by the monitor since I use the Thunderbolt connectivity rather than other options. Since I have other devices for portability the fact that the Studio would be a permanent resident on the computer workstation would not be an issue for me. Also, I think one of these machines would still be physically manageable for me in situations when it did need to be moved, like the MBP, albeit obviously heavier.

Decisions, decisions....

 

[Renzatic]

I this isn't exactly X-Plane or photography related, but if the Studio Max can handle Zbrush this well, it's a fairly safe assumption to say that it can probably handle whatever you throw at it.

...and it gets bonus points for Zbrush not even being an Apple Silicon native application.

 

[Citysnaps]

I just just Youtubed up this video. This was benchmarked on the MBP Max, but this shouldn't be a problem, since it and the Studio Max are identical in practically every conceivable way.

Thanks - appreciate it!

Need to give it some more thought. With the feature/attribute sliders maxed out it appears GPU% was pretty high at 88%. But... that was with pretty simple smooth hills green backgrounds of low complexity.

I'm guessing flying in urban areas with lots of buildings and other infrastructure, say San Francisco/San Francisco Bay Area/NYC/Hong Kong/etc the GPU percentage would be higher. Don't really know, just speculation.

Also...the upcoming X-Plane 12, which will be M1-native (not sure if that drives GPU%, might not) will come with and handle greater number of objects and more complex scenery. And with more realism with respect to weather and water. To what extent, I don't know.

 

[Renzatic]

Also...the upcoming X-Plane 12, which will be M1-native (not sure if that drives GPU%, might not) will come with and handle greater number of objects and more complex scenery. And with more realism with respect to weather and water. To what extent, I don't know.

If it helps to let you wrap your head around the potentials a little more, the 32-core GPU in the Max is roughly, shakily sortakinda equivalent to a Geforce 2070.

It's hard to gauge outright, since there aren't that many Apple Silicon native games out there. X-Plane 11 is using 88% of the GPU through Rosetta, but will it be that taxed if it were a native application? How much of a gain can you expect if it were native? Who knows!

So I'd just consider it about like a 2070, and go from there. The 64-core Ultra? Maybe a 2080? It's hard to say, because performance gains from the Max to the Ultra don't seem to scale quite as linearly in performance as it does from the the M1 to the Pro to the Max. For a safe, fairly conservative estimation, I'd consider the Ultra to be about 30-50% faster.

 

[DT]

did it work??

Not yet. Maybe the cosmic-powers-that-be are having supply chain issues ...

 

[r.harris1]

I may ultimately get an M1 Ultra whatsit but I am pretty happy with an M1 Max, maxed except for storage. It has made a very measurable difference in speed for my Capture One workflow and occasional runs into Photoshop. More than any upgrade ever, I have to say. Double digits increase. I'm still hanging with with a first gen LG 5k. Do it! I love the portability with the laptop.

 

[mollyc]

Okay, I'm back with a really dumb question. I've been a Mac user since 2008 and you would think I would know how to do this...but no.

I found a machine at B&H and ordered it last night, and it should be here Tuesday. I have always used Migration Assistant and basically just copied my old machine to my new one. I don't want to do that this time. I probably have tiny junk files from 2008 still on my current computer, although I tried deleting all that stuff when I moved to Catalina. I want to basically set up as new, especially since I will want the M1 optimized programs.

I can easily manually copy stuff like documents and photos, my LR catalog, and "day to day" files. But I don't want to lose all my preferences for things like Photoshop and LR, all those hidden settings that get stored in Library and other hard to find areas. How do I get that stuff copied over without using Migration Assistant?

 

[Cmaier]

Okay, I'm back with a really dumb question. I've been a Mac user since 2008 and you would think I would know how to do this...but no.

I found a machine at B&H and ordered it last night, and it should be here Tuesday. I have always used Migration Assistant and basically just copied my old machine to my new one. I don't want to do that this time. I probably have tiny junk files from 2008 still on my current computer, although I tried deleting all that stuff when I moved to Catalina. I want to basically set up as new, especially since I will want the M1 optimized programs.

I can easily manually copy stuff like documents and photos, my LR catalog, and "day to day" files. But I don't want to lose all my preferences for things like Photoshop and LR, all those hidden settings that get stored in Library and other hard to find areas. How do I get that stuff copied over without using Migration Assistant?

*Usually* apps store things like that in

//Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/[application name]

If you copy those files manually, it will usually, but not always, work.

 

[mollyc]

*Usually* apps store things like that in

//Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/[application name]

If you copy those files manually, it will usually, but not always, work.

So you recommend just copying the entire Preferences folder for the corresponding program?

 

[Cmaier]

So you recommend just copying the entire Preferences folder for the corresponding program?

Yep. I’d do it before installing the app.

 

[mollyc]

Yep. I’d do it before installing the app.

Oh, that's good to know, I would have installed the applications first. Thanks so much.

 

[Cmaier]

Oh, that's good to know, I would have installed the applications first. Thanks so much.

It would probably work either way

 

[Yoused]

Also, do not copy the contents of the folder, copy the folder itself, just to be sure you capture any hidden files. In the olden days, I put /~me in its own partition, allowing me to do a full clean OS install without disturbing any of my own settings.

 

[Renzatic]

Also, do not copy the contents of the folder, copy the folder itself, just to be sure you capture any hidden files. In the olden days, I put /~me in its own partition, allowing me to do a full clean OS install without disturbing any of my own settings.

I'm assuming /users/blah is a lot like the home folder on Linux, right? If so, putting that in it's own partition is really the way to go.

 

[Yoused]

I'm assuming /users/blah is a lot like the home folder on Linux, right? If so, putting that in it's own partition is really the way to go.

On macOS there was a .plist somewhere in /Library where you could set the user directory. Not sure how it works now.

 

[Roller]

Okay, I'm back with a really dumb question. I've been a Mac user since 2008 and you would think I would know how to do this...but no.

I found a machine at B&H and ordered it last night, and it should be here Tuesday. I have always used Migration Assistant and basically just copied my old machine to my new one. I don't want to do that this time. I probably have tiny junk files from 2008 still on my current computer, although I tried deleting all that stuff when I moved to Catalina. I want to basically set up as new, especially since I will want the M1 optimized programs.

I can easily manually copy stuff like documents and photos, my LR catalog, and "day to day" files. But I don't want to lose all my preferences for things like Photoshop and LR, all those hidden settings that get stored in Library and other hard to find areas. How do I get that stuff copied over without using Migration Assistant?

What I did when I set up my Mac Studio was copy the old Mac's internal drive to an external SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then I ran Migration Assistant off the external drive, but didn't copy applications. When the new computer was running, I manually installed all my apps. This was easier than expected, since it was easy to find installers online or download the apps from the App Store. I started with 1Password, since that's where all my software licenses are stored. When I was finished, my preferences and other settings seemed to be intact.

 

[Cmaier]

What I did when I set up my Mac Studio was copy the old Mac's internal drive to an external SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then I ran Migration Assistant off the external drive, but didn't copy applications. When the new computer was running, I manually installed all my apps. This was easier than expected, since it was easy to find installers online or download the apps from the App Store. I started with 1Password, since that's where all my software licenses are stored. When I was finished, my preferences and other settings seemed to be intact.

Downside to that is you will have a lot of library files for apps you may no longer have installed on your machine. If you care about that sort of thing.

 

[Roller]

Downside to that is you will have a lot of library files for apps you may no longer have installed on your machine. If you care about that sort of thing.

True. I’ve cleared most of that stuff out manually. I know there are apps that claim to automate the process, but I’m not sure I trust them.

 

[Cmaier]

True. I’ve cleared most of that stuff out manually. I know there are apps that claim to automate the process, but I’m not sure I trust them.

Personally, I’ve just done migration assistant moves (either machine-to-machine or machine-to-disk-to-machine) that forms a straight lineage all the way back to around 2008. My mac still has powerpc binaries and such floating around. Doesn’t seem to be causing me any difficulties.