iMac with M1 chip: I'm thinking about getting a new iMac. Does anyone have experience with the M1 chip and Lightroom/Photoshop? I ask because it seems that Zoom and the M1 chip aren't...

Houstoncatlover

I'm thinking about getting a new iMac. Does anyone have experience with the M1 chip and Lightroom/Photoshop? I ask because it seems that Zoom and the M1 chip aren't completely compatible. Thanks for sharing any experiences.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Following. Thinking of doing the same.

Machinedoc Loc: Yorktown Heights, NY

I can't say anything about the M1, but I have a new Mac mini with M2 silicon and a 4 year old Macbook Pro with Intel - no problems with L.R. Classic, PS or any of the other Adobe creative suite on either machine. No problems with Zoom either. If there really are problems with Zoom on an M1 based machine I suspect that Zoom will fix them in a hurry.

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

Houstoncatlover wrote:

I'm thinking about getting a new iMac. Does anyone have experience with the M1 chip and Lightroom/Photoshop? I ask because it seems that Zoom and the M1 chip aren't completely compatible. Thanks for sharing any experiences.

Zoom not completely compatible with the M1 chip??? I use Zoom on an M2 MBP and have never had a problem with it. I also use PS/LR on the same computer and have had less problems than when I used PS/LR on my Intel based MBP. The only thing you need to watch out for is whether the plug-ins have been updated. I use Skylum's Aurora which hasn't been updated. But I can run PS under Rosetta and it works fine then. The reduction in performance is not noticeable.

My son and his wife work in the tech industry and, both, work from home. They're on Zoom at least 4 hrs/day and much of the time even longer. They use M1 Macbook Air's. I just called them as asked if they've had any problems with Zoom. Their answer was "No".

Hope this helps

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

I bought the iMac 24 with the 8 core M1 chip and 16GB Ram and am very happy with it. Lightroom and photoshop are much faster and no issues with Zoom. Previous desktop was a 2013 iMac 27 with 32 GB Ram.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

I've been running my M1 Mac Mini with LR Classic for about 18 months with no problems whatever. I use PS a couple of time a year and have had no issues with it either. Recently acquired an M1 Macbook Air and put LR Classic on it. It works fine, too, but I mostly only use it for viewing and culling RAW files - it's one of my daily backup devices when I travel.

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

I have been waiting for a couple of years for Apple to come out with a new 27" iMac with M silicon. Meanwhile my old 27" iMac was two operating systems behind, and it did not look to me that a 27" was in their plans. Even the 24" M1 is the least capable and most poorly equipped of all the Macs today.

So I just broke down and bought the new Mac mini M2 Pro with 32GB Ram and 1TB storage coupled with the Apple Studio Monitor. So far I'm quite happy with the setup. The Studio Monitor is a 5K monitor just like my old 27" iMac. The Mini perks along cool as a cucumber.

All is finally well with all of my software apps as they all needed intervention to get them up and running. The Adobe suite, MS Office, CleanMyMac, Epson Scan, Topaz suite, etc all needed approval from the companies to run them on a new computer. I have no problems now as everything works fine. I can't speak to Zoom App.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

SalvageDiver wrote:

Zoom not completely compatible with the M1 chip???... (show quote)

"They're on Zoom at least 4 hrs/day and much of the time even longer. "

I feel sorry for them!

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Hereford wrote:

I have been waiting for a couple of years for Appl... (show quote)

Will the Mini M2 run two monitors?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Houstoncatlover wrote:

I'm thinking about getting a new iMac. Does anyone have experience with the M1 chip and Lightroom/Photoshop? I ask because it seems that Zoom and the M1 chip aren't completely compatible. Thanks for sharing any experiences.

I would NOT buy an iMac this summer. Wait for the iMacs with the M3 chips in them! The iMac is over two years old now, and due for a refresh. The M1s should be heavily discounted when the M3s come out. And the M3 should be worth the wait. (M2 is current generation.)

That said, I have an M1 MacBook Air with 16GB memory and 1TB of storage. It FLIES through Photoshop and Lightroom. Battery life is insane... I have never run out during a day. I charge overnight and unplug in the morning, and it just runs. It does not slow down on battery like laptop PCs. I connect peripherals with a hub and a 27" LG USB-C monitor that powers the computer when needed.

If you want to know more about all the current Macs, I highly recommend watching the MaxTech YouTube channel, which will probably lead you to a range of other Mac-related channels where experts review the latest gear. https://www.youtube.com/@MaxTechOfficial/videos

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

Manglesphoto wrote:

Will the Mini M2 run two monitors?

The Mac mini M2 Pro will simultaneously run three 4K displays. See Apple's tech specs in the link below:

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Manglesphoto wrote:

Will the Mini M2 run two monitors?

The M2 Mac mini can run two monitors.

The M2 Pro Mac mini can run three monitors.

The distinction is that the M1 and M2 base chips have Thunderbolt 3/USB4, which supports only two monitors. But the M2 Pro uses Thunderbolt 4/USB4, which can support three monitors.

Go watch MaxTech's excellent videos about the new M2 and M2 Pro Mac minis to see which one makes sense.

Bear in mind that the base M2 chip with 256GB storage uses a single NAND chip. If you have an I/O intensive workflow, this is a bottleneck, and you should upgrade to at least 512GB storage, which uses TWO NAND chips in a RAID array, for more speed.

Also bear in mind that the M2 Pro chip with 512GB storage also uses a single NAND chip. If you have an I/O intensive workflow, this is a bottleneck, and you should upgrade to at least 1TB storage, which uses TWO NAND chips in a RAID array, for more speed.

Rendering huge numbers of large files from Lightroom Classic is an example of such an I/O intensive workflow.

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

I have a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip and a MacBook Air with an M2. The former is a 2017 model, the latter a 2022. I use Zoom in the course of my work and am on it almost 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. As is true with most software, updates sometimes cause some need for re-adjusting usage, but I've never had Zoom be a problem. In fact, Bluetooth is more problematic, as I use Airpod Pros, and every device nearby wants to claim them!

Lightroom, ON1 Photo Raw 2023 and Luminar Neo all work to my satisfaction. The AI additions seem to want to "think" for a bit, but the very nature of AI indicates that its results aren't instantaneous.

In other words, I find the M1 and M2 chips completely suitable for photo editing. I will add that a decent helping of RAM (I have 16Gb and 24Gb, respectively) will almost be required.

Houstoncatlover

Thank you everyone. This is great information.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Just Fred wrote:

I have a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip and a MacBook... (show quote)

The 2017 MacBook Pro has an Intel processor in it. The Late 2020 13" MacBook Pro, Late 2020 13" MacBook Air, and the Late 2020 Mac mini were the very first M1 machines.