Help me educate myself (new photo editing laptop)

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OK, I could use some help… (specific questions at the bottom following my excessive verbiage up front)

I’m looking to replace my current computer. This may sound strange coming from someone who retired from IT, but I don’t usually keep up with computing / graphics hardware. So, every time I buy I have to come back up to speed more or less. I’m not a gamer and not super GPU-literate.

Also for the record (to avoid potential OS / platform debate):
I like FOSS functionally and philosophically. I have no inherent issue with proprietary software and I use both. I like Linux and prior to my current computer for years my daily driver was Linux / FOSS. I was a Solaris / Linux admin at work. And while I’m not a Microsoft fan :slight_smile: I’ve used Windows for years. In other words, I’m not a zealot – I sometimes dislike them all! LOL

That said, for various reasons – several unrelated to photography – I’ll run Windows on the new laptop …although I can’t guarantee a Linux VM might not grow there. I’ll also use my current FOSS software.

For reference this is my current computer:

Computer:      Acer Aspire A515-45
CPU:           AMD Ryzen 7 5700U 1.8 GHz
Memory:        16 GB
Graphics:      AMD Lucienne - Internal GPU 512 MB
Drive:         500 GB SSD
OS:            Windows 11 Home

Specific points:

  • I’m willing to pay the relatively higher laptop price, feature-for-feature but I’m not interested in spending $5k on it. $2.5k? That’s within the realm of possibilities, maybe the upper end. I want a system that’s reasonably future-proof. I always end up downgrading myself at the last minute and I really don’t want to do it yet again (he says, knowing himself…)

  • Extreme battery life isn’t a concern, since I always plug in wherever I can.

  • A good display is nice, but photo editing will be on my external monitor.

  • Minimum 1TB SSD (2 TB?), minimum 32 GB RAM (64 GB?)

  • GPU? No idea what to look for, but I understand the choices will be more limited than for a desktop. Even a brief web search sets me awash in a sea of (mostly GPU) sales jargon. For example: ASUS ProArt P16 (H7606).

  • Physical network port (RJ45) is a plus

Questions:

  • Any general advice and / or specific recommendations?

  • For most reasonable sized images (i.e., 24 mp), how much system / GPU memory / speed is needed vs. wasted in the real world? Realistic recommendations?

  • I’ve seen opinions on the relative merits of nvdia vs AMD GPUs. Anything to be concerned in the context of new hardware and current drivers?

I might as well stop there and let someone respond… :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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If you want something “future-proof” then I wouldn’t choose anything other than a Framework Laptop, particularly the 13".

32 gigabytes of RAM is enough for nearly anything currently, and AMD and Intel are both pretty good now.

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What are you going to use the GPU for? I know you use ART, and that won’t run on a GPU. Much more choice without a GPU.

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After I posted I thought that wasn’t the best choice of wording… What I meant was, I tend to keep computers (like cars LOL) for a long time, at least in a tech context. I don’t want to buy something merely “better” than my current one – I want to get something as good as possible, given self-imposed budget, etc., something that won’t require hardware updates until I’m ready to replace it.

Yep, you’re right on both counts. However, I have other software that can use the GPU. Also, see my reply above. :slight_smile: I don’t want to restrict myself going forward. Buy once, cry once…

Thanks.

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We are currently at the peak of prices for memory and storage, sadly. While memory came down a little bit, storage has now also gone up, so things are more or less the same.

I love linux and have been eyeing the Framework Pro, but for your usecase, in my opinion the most pragmatic choice, even if you use Windows, is a Macbook Air.

Apple is one of the few companies that had giant memory contracts for fixed prices and is still not raising the price of their products a lot. You gain one of the fastest mobile CPUs for ART and if you ever decide to try out darktable or something else, the GPU performance is there.

It’s hard to buy laptops with strong GPUs, you pay a very heavy premium, and at the moment none(unless you want to pay $4000 for a 5080/5090 laptop) compare with apple when it comes to GPU compute. Nvidia GPU prices are also inflated in laptops due to the AI crunch.

If not I’d say just buy the best Lenovo or Asus with a good repairability index and the strongest GPU possible. The hardware scene currently sucks and it’s the worst time to buy computer hardware in years :frowning:

Edit: A good choice is also a laptop with a strong CPU with integrated graphics + thunderbolt 4, and in the future you can buy an external GPU enclosure and a used GPU, this would probably be the most affordable, the only downside being that you only got access to the fast GPU at home, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem based on your requirements

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I agree, if not urgent and you have a functional machine I would wait 6–12 months.

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Yeah when I was doing a quick PCPartPicker builds for fun… seeing the prices didn’t end up fun. The RAM was almost the most expensive component just behind the GPU (though the choice was a conservative Gainward Ghost RTX 5060…)

I hope I get to build my own machine one day…

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Did I say something wrong somewhere that now requires my posts to be approved before they’re visible?

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Yeah, I hear ya… :slight_smile: Things can run in cycles and maybe I’m jaded (“been there” too often) but other than new tech hardware gaining mainstream adoption I’ve almost never seen prices go significantly down over the long term. As you (@hatsnp) mentioned, when something goes down, something else goes up… especially lately. Instantaneous global communications has helped enable price volatility (i.e., often speculation) in almost every sector.

@Tamas_Papp, yes my current system is still functional (Acer Aspire, Ryzen 5700, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD) but there are a few other factors. One of which is, there’s are rare, but occasional, hardware-induced panics which Acer never fixed. Not often, but “grrrr” when it happens. Also my wife indicated she’d like to have my current one for her use, so, “why don’t you get a new one for yourself?” I gotta tell you – It’s not every day a guy gets that gift. I need to strike while that iron is hot!! LOL

That thought has crossed my mind more than once. But there are a few things:

  • It’s a different platform for me. I’ve used Macs off and on before, but never owned one. Well, that’s not precisely true – I was given an old teal blue “triangular” iMac AOI years ago, which I got rid of after discovering it was good for nothing. :slight_smile: I have nothing against Apple hardware (with three exceptions) but have not been a huge fan of the Mac UX. Maybe that’s just relative unfamiliarity.

  • All commercial / paid software I might run on it would have to be re-bought. And from what I can see my FOSS choices would be diminished as well, both in quantity, quality and frequency. By that I mean, there are less Mac builds in general, Mac builds sometimes have more stability / usability issues and sometimes fewer incremental versions. That’s not endemic to the platform, just a result of most FOSS originating on Linux. Even Windows FOSS builds are more frequent and more stable, from what I’ve seen (I could be wrong).

  • And… It’s taken me 40+ years to start getting over a personal case of serious Apple-allergy brought on long ago by numerous old-MacOS-era, clueless and condescending Apple users regurgitating Steve Jobs propaganda. Typical conversation:

    “My Mac is universally better than your PC.”
    “Really? Why do you say that?”
    “Well It just is.”
    “OK, what makes it better?”
    “…I don’t know but Apple says so.”
    *sigh*

    And FTR that attitude is by no means unique to Apple, but they were the industry standard back in the day. Anyway, that’s on me to grow up get over. :smiley:

I’ve only looked a little so far but I found numerous good reviews of the ASUS ProArt P16 family. For example, there’s a customized H7606WP on NewEgg that’s reasonably decently spec-ed. This is pulled from its blurb, for what it’s worth:

  • AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 12 Core - 24 Thread CPU, 2.0 GHz (Max Turbo Frequency 5.1 GHz), 36 MB Smart Cache

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 w/ 8 GB GDDR7

  • 16.0" 3K (2880 x 1800) 120Hz OLED Touch screen with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut on CPU and Gelid GC Extreme on GPU

  • 2 TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD

  • 32 GB LPDDR5X RAM

  • Windows 11 Home.

  • HIDevolution Promise: Authorized ASUS Build to Order Dealer, thorough quality testing, a 1 Year Warranty, and access to our expert support staff.

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You triggered one of our spam keywords

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Probably my comment about Apple… :stuck_out_tongue:

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All good arguments :slight_smile:

–

That ASUS you mention at the end has great specs. If you can get it at a good price than I believe it would serve you well for a long time, maybe it’s even a bit overkill on performance, but that is never a bad thing as long as its within budget

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I am not familiar with the ProArt line but I always buy Asus laptops, they are great, good value, and so far have been very durable.

You may want to look at the VivoBook Pro 15 line too, you can get it with 2TB SSD and 32 GB ram for about half the money, of course with a weaker GPU. But that may be sufficient for your purposes.

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I’ll check it out, thanks. That’s probably the kind of reasonable thinking I need to employ, but…

:grin:

This may not make sense to some but will to others…

All my life I’ve been almost totally sensible in the stuff I’ve bought. Not that I’ve never made a mistake, but I’ve always opted for the sensible thing, rather than the best thing (for some value of both terms).

And that’s, well, sensible.

Even when I bought my current laptop I told myself to get a better one, but when it came time to click the “buy” button I automatically dropped down a few tiers out of… you got it, sensibility.

This time I’m ready to be less sensible, although I don’t have Elon’s checkbook so I can’t be stupidly non-sensible. But maybe a bit. LOL

Still, your suggestion makes …sense. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I am not saying you should not spend the money.

Just that it may make give you more happiness to spend it on something else.

On this website, cameras / lenses come to mind :wink:

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Yes, me too. But even after working in IT I still (surprisingly?) like computers, so they also bring me happiness… kinda like tacos! :laughing:

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I’ve come across more than one report (several, actually) of ASUS ProArt P16 owners having recurring issues with BIOS related “lockouts” * that required basically reinstalling BIOS from what I read – not to mention lots of quality time with Support. Of course, there will always be issues with any product here and there and satisfied customers don’t usually even write reviews. But these are just consistent enough and just often enough to get my attention, at least. Not saying they qualify as a bad rep but they’re not isolated, at least when they were reported.

* my term, I don’t recall the precise issue(s) other than being locked out at the BIOS level, with the OS not even allowed to boot

That got me looking and I came across this one:

Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition

  • 15th Gen Intel Ultra 9-285H 2.90GHz CPU up to 5.4GHz, 24MB Cache, 16 Cores, 16 Threads, 6 Performance cores

  • GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB GDDR7 Dual (Integrated+Dedicated) Graphics

  • 32 GB RAM

  • 802.11be, Bluetooth 5.4

  • 16.0" OLED 3.2K 120Hz Touchscreen

  • 170W PSU, 84 WHr Battery

  • 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD

  • Ports: HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt 4, SD Reader, Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

…and all the other usual stuff. Good enough to be a contender and depending on config it’s usually a bit less than the ASUS. Hmmm…

And yes, I realize no everyone is interested in my research project, but maybe this info might of use to someone, sometime. :slight_smile:

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It sounds a bit like your specs might be overkill for what you actually need?

I’d recommend going for a CPU with an integrated GPU (iGPU). Personally, I prefer the AMD Ryzen AI 7 or AI 9.

Pair that with 32GB of RAM if you’re running Windows. In my experience, Linux is more efficient, so 16GB of RAM would be fine there

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This is why I always go to a brick & mortar store (the same one in Budapest) to choose a laptop. Their advice is usually helpful, once I tell them what I want they give a good recommendation, and they are acutely aware that if I have a problem the laptop ends up in their store and they have to deal with it. Now Asus has a mail-in warranty scheme, but under the law I still have the option of taking it to the store and letting them handle it. This is why they refuse to sell items that have these kind of generic problems (I know because once I wanted a model of a brand they did not keep in stock and they told me why).

The neat thing about warranty here is that once they tried repair 3 times, they would have to give me an identical, brand new item, or a full refund.

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That’s what I have now, albeit older less powerful tech. One thing I want to get away from, power-wise, is an integrated GPU with shared system memory. I’m looking at 32 GB systems. I have 16 now which can get tight in some photo contexts, but is fine everywhere else. If I were editing video I’d look for 64 GB but video holds no interest at all for me.

Thanks.