What's the critical factors determining image processing speed on non-GPU laptops - (re UFS memory)?

Any mid-range laptop should work for this just fine. I travel with an Lenovo Ideapad 5, no dedicated GPU, 16 GB ram, i5-1135G7 CPU, and it works fine for culling, editing, and even occasional application of heavy modules like D&S.

If anything, I would consider a laptop with at least 16GB RAM. They are pretty common these days and you may find 8GB constraining.

Note that if the CPU has a weak integrated GPU (many Intel CPUs do), Darktable can still make use of it with OpenCL and it can help.

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