I am a photographer that would like to have the ability to process photos on the go. I have a limited budget ($1000-1500). I was looking at the MacNeo. Will this provide the needed processing power to run Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom with no issues?
iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 26
Adobe - Adobe Photoshop on desktop technical requirements
Adobe – Lightroom Classic system requirements
If we go by benchmarks for M-series MacBook Airs, and for rhe iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, the chip in the Neo probably would score somewhere between
So the CPU and GPU performance might be perfectly adequate if you had enough RAM.
While Adobe lists 8 GB of RAM as the minimum for Photoshop, the recommended about is 16 GB of RAM or more. They say the same thing about Lightroom Classic.
An old rule of thumb is that if a software developer lists both "minimum" and "recommended" requirements,
It's slightly more complicated than this – I remember there being benchmark videos on YouTube from somebody who called himself "ArtIsRight" (???) in which he performed various tests on other Apple Silicon Macs which had anywhere from 8 GB to 32 GB of RAM. On some tasks, the 8 GB machines did very well, and on others, I believe that the conclusion was that a photographer would benefit from having as much as 32 GB of RAM. (I don't think that video had any tests with larger amounts.)
But it's easy to configure a M5 MacBook Air or Pro with a plain M5 chip with 24 or 32 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the current Neo cannot be ordered with more than 8 GB.
Adobe - Adobe Photoshop on desktop technical requirements
Adobe – Lightroom Classic system requirements
If we go by benchmarks for M-series MacBook Airs, and for rhe iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, the chip in the Neo probably would score somewhere between
So the CPU and GPU performance might be perfectly adequate if you had enough RAM.
While Adobe lists 8 GB of RAM as the minimum for Photoshop, the recommended about is 16 GB of RAM or more. They say the same thing about Lightroom Classic.
An old rule of thumb is that if a software developer lists both "minimum" and "recommended" requirements,
It's slightly more complicated than this – I remember there being benchmark videos on YouTube from somebody who called himself "ArtIsRight" (???) in which he performed various tests on other Apple Silicon Macs which had anywhere from 8 GB to 32 GB of RAM. On some tasks, the 8 GB machines did very well, and on others, I believe that the conclusion was that a photographer would benefit from having as much as 32 GB of RAM. (I don't think that video had any tests with larger amounts.)
But it's easy to configure a M5 MacBook Air or Pro with a plain M5 chip with 24 or 32 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the current Neo cannot be ordered with more than 8 GB.
Plain and simple, no. Adobe recommends a minimum of 16GB of RAM, no exceptions. Both Lightroom and Photoshop reli heavily on graphics cards with access to more RAM than the mere 8GB shared with the processor.
You could probably get by with the web version of Lightroom, but serious photo work requires a much more capable machine. Sorry.
With your requirements and the budget you mention, I would suggest a MacBook Air over the newly released Neo. For a better price, check the refurbished store.
https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/macbook-air
smithykeith wrote:
I am a photographer that would like to have the ability to process photos on the go. I have a limited budget ($1000-1500). I was looking at the MacNeo. Will this provide the needed processing power to run Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom with no issues?
So what are you using right now to process your photos?
Go to agree with stedman1 on that. Adobe products are resource hogs.
Hello~ I concur with my fellow members. You may find the Neo a little light for your needs.
https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/compare/
~Katana-San~
Is MacNeo powerful enough for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom?
