Apple M1 Macbook pro tested until failure with Photoshop
I have been testing the new Apple M1 Macbook pro with Photoshop and other applications.
I have to say I’m actually shocked by the performance on this little laptop.
I have been testing the base version with 8Gb of ram. You would think you can barely even run Photoshop with 8 gigs, but this little beast beat out the loaded 16″ MacBook pro with 64Gb of ram in some of my tests. I have been using the native M1 version of Photoshop ARM, as well as Photoshop 2021, and I give you the results of all those tests.
It struggles when I throw a huge 20k 64 layer file at it. But shockingly it is able to process this file. Check out my video reviews to see these different tests and my recommendations.
Adobe has released a public beta of the ARM version of Photoshop. It does have some features that are missing, and under development right now, they are.
Known Issues:
- Many features are still not available in this version of Photoshop, and some features may experience slow performance. Please refer to the following known issues before submitting feedback.
- Features NOT PRESENT IN THIS VERSION:
- Camera RAW
- Select Sky/Sky Replacement
- Refine Hair (in Select and Mask)
- Liquify Filter: Face Aware features
- OilPaint filter
- Video timeline and file format support
- All CEP-based Panels (CC Libraries panel, 3rd party extensions)
- Adaptive Wide Angle
- Shake Reduction
- Face Detection underlying Color Range skin tones and Content Aware Move functions
- Match Font/Font Similarity
- Rich Tooltips, Coach marks for Discovery Panel tutorials
- Microsoft Dial support
- File Info Panel
- Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode menu item disabled
- Content Aware Fill
- Content Aware Scale
- Content Aware Move
- Focus Area
- Auto-Blend Layers
- Photomerge
- Spot Healing Brush
- Patch Tool
- Healing brush
- Some File formats not supported:
- Features present, but with limitations or bugs:
- Import from Lightroom Photos via the home screen does not work
- Filter Gallery functions may seem to hang but will eventually succeed
- All 3D-related functions are limited; either very slow or not fully rendering 3D content; includes 3D printing, 360 panorama editing, normal and bump map filters, Lighting Effects
- Scrubby Zoom behavior is erratic
- Changing stroke pixel size not working as expected
- Opening hundreds of files could cause a crash
- Several features are running slower on M1 native devices; these will be optimized over time:
- Select Subject (may have bugs due to misclassification)
- Object Aware Matting (in Select and Mask)
- Object Selection
- Preserve Details 2.0 Upscale (Image Size dialog box
In my tests, Photoshop 2021 is running fine under Rosetta 2, but not quite getting the speed it will under native M1.
I will be testing Lightroom soon and posting the results, as well as comparing the 16Gb version. This new direction for Apple is game changing. We haven’t see this type of performance increase before. On top of that, the way it manages power is something. It has 8 cores, 4 are for performance, and 4 for efficiency. As a result, I found the battery life amazing, more than twice the useable time as any laptop I’ve ever used. To top it off, the machine stayed very cool through all my tests.
My suggestion is if you need a laptop right now and don’t mind waiting for the native versions of your favorite apps, go ahead and by it, its a great machine. (But first make sure the apps you need will run on this M1).
If you are patient and have a little time, I’d wait for the apps to be running natively, as well as the next Gen. Yes, the next version is alway going to better, no matter when you buy. However, we will see more options in the future including iMac and MacBook Pros with larger screen as well as the Mac Pro eventually running apple silicon. For Pros with heavy lifting, you might wait for a 32 or 64Gb versions, or even the M2. Also I suspect that apple with be redesigning the MacBook pro pretty soon around this chip. Having said that, the design of the current model is very good, with a nice bright retina display and the scissor keyboard (thankfully not the butterfly design which I really dislike).
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