Will an Apple Studio M2 be noticeably faster than my iMac 2020 I9/64GB/4TB?

[Eric Brody]

When Apple Silicon was just on the horizon, I decided I needed to replace my aging 2013 Mac Pro trashcan and got a 2020 iMac i9/64GB/4TB/AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB machine to "tide me over" until Apple silicon matured. I use an NEC PA271W monitor with Spectraview calibration; the iMac monitor just sits there.

My work is with Sony A7R5 landscape files in Lightroom and Photoshop. I do a fair amount of focus stacking and a few other intensive tasks. My files reside on a couple of OWC Thunderbay boxes in a RAID 5 configuration. The Apple stores no longer load Photoshop on their demo machines so it's really hard to tell by testing in the store and none of my friends have an Apple Studio.

I'm considering an Apple Studio, M2 Max with 64GB RAM and a 2TB SSD.

I wonder if I will notice an operational difference should I upgrade.

Any thoughts and comments would be welcome. Thanks.

Eric

[digitaldog]

The GPU and intergraded RAM is a big factor here. The difference in M1 vs M2, not as much. For example, on a smaller (but you can get the idea) 24.5MP raw, Enhanced Denoise in ACR/LR, takes 12 seconds on my M1 MBP (64GIGs of RAM).

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/04/18/denoise-demystified

Need for speed. Denoise is by far the most advanced of the three Enhance features and makes very intensive use of the GPU. For best performance, use a GPU with a large amount of memory, ideally at least 8 GB. On macOS, prefer an Apple silicon machine with lots of memory. On Windows, use GPUs with ML acceleration hardware, such as NVIDIA RTX with TensorCores. A faster GPU means faster results.

[diane29]

Hey! Your current iMac setup is already pretty powerful, but the Apple Studio M2 Max with upgraded specs sounds promising for your photo editing tasks. With the M2 chip, you might notice a boost in performance, especially during intensive tasks like focus stacking. The increased RAM and SSD size should contribute to smoother operations too. I'd recommend checking out some reviews or user experiences to get a more detailed comparison. It could be a significant upgrade, but it's always good to gather as much info as you can before making a decision. Good luck!

[kers]

I would wait till the M3 or M4 apple studio... Your imac is very powerful already. I would not upgrade for a factor 1.5 speedbump unless i have to do everyday work that gets delayed by it.

ps
many Intel processors have OpenVino ;  a AI-interface for the CPU ( so not GPU) that can be used with some programs like Topaz Denoise.
it can be very fast, and faster than some GPU-solutions. You can choose it in the preferences. It is faster with topaz denoise on my mac than a amd radeon vega 64 doing a 46Mp image in about 20 seconds.

[budjames]

It will blow it away! Apple silicon is amazing. My MacBook Air M2 will outperform your i9 iMac.

I upgraded two Macs in my house. One is the MacStudio M1 with 64GB RAM and the other, my main workstation, is the MacStudio M2 with 128GB RAM. Also the new Apple internal SSD in these machines have insane read/write speeds. See attached screenshot of Disk Speed Test that I just ran on my MacStudio M2.

Buy once, cry once! (The same justification we use when we buy expensive camera gear)

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography.

[degrub]

are there any Mods  ?

[Eric Brody]

Manoli,

Thanks. Your comment fascinated me since when I read that comment, it just seemed "generated" to me. I am the OP and am still sitting on the fence about an upgrade. Since I'm an amateur albeit a "serious" one, I'm usually not in a hurry. I'll wait for the M3 Studio, not because I need the speed over the M2, but rather because it will likely be a bigger change. Time will tell. In the meantime, I've got lots of images to process from my recent trip.

[Manoli]

Impossible to reply to the post above - all attempts met w/ <database error>
Will send PM.

[Manoli]

Still unable to post or send PM with links or quote boxes... any administrators present ?

[mcbroomf]

This might be of interest

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1831862/0

It's a series of tests that Jeff made on some of his M3 machines after they came out las year.  You can't see an M3 Studio of course but the Apple silicon works pretty much the same in the MacBook Pro, so an M2 Max MBP can be compared to a Studio M2 Max if configured the same. 

Note that for Adobe Denoise the time correlates to the number of GPU cores.

[Manoli]

... as this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r2D7EG4M38

[mcbroomf]

Yes he has a huge series of tests as well, well worth checking them out.  This one compares the M1/2/3 Max chips (and includes some Pro and Ultras)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yZQpbQbN9w