Hi all,
I’m about to get a MacBook Neo. Does anybody have experience with running / compiling Darktable for that thing? is it a bit performant?
(only for basic edits and culling on the way I guess)
The standard dmg’s should run if I’m correct.
It is just MacOS, I have personally no experience with it. But it is just MacOS so it should run. How fast will be interesting question…
I’m running darktable on a M1 macbook pro, which is significantly higher end, but also significantly older. It should still have the upper edge by some margin (due to more ram, more memory bandwidth, and active cooling), but my guess would be that for culling & light editing you should be fine. Heavier edit stacks could make it struggle, and batch processing large collections are likely to run into the limits of passive cooling somewhat quickly.
It also probably depends on how heavy the pictures you want to process with are. Things in the 12 to 24 megapixel range are probably fine, but if you are shooting on a high-res body (45MP+), the Neo’s base 8GB of RAM and lower memory bandwidth mean you’ll need a lot more patience. It will work, but expect some stuttering on heavy files.
Then again, this is just informed guesswork, I could be off.
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Yes, I see no reason it shouldn’t. Works on my M1.
Darktable is fine on the the lowest spec M1 macbook air, so it should be fine on the neo. Diffuse or Sharpen will be slower than on a beefier computer. AI selection works with the low models only, which I think is fine. My raws are 24 MP. Do you feel you might eventually buy a high-res camera? If so, if you post a link to some playraw, maybe someone can test the high-res image for you.
no, I have a 24 mp only. My other compu’s are a M1 (16GB) and a 2021 core i5 with 16 GB, so no high expectations. (BTW, Darktable did fly on my i7 7700 (2017) with 16 GB and nvidia gtx1060ti before it died.
My ThinkPad T14 gen1 struggles a bit with darktable. True, it doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, and it happens mostly with deep pixelpipes and even more with the AI modules.
However the Neo is essentially a laptop with an iPhone Pro processor and although the latter is quite decent, I would keep my expectations not too high. Also the limited memory could be a problem.
Arguably, the gpu made it fly.
Neo is a good package and welcome in terms of being the lowest tier. However, my suggestion would be to purchase a 2nd-tier laptop if possible because the leap in power and quality would be substantial if you could afford it. By nature of your question, address your hesitancy by buying the more compelling choice. 