27 inch 5k iMac specs for Photoshop and Lightroom

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27 inch 5k iMac specs for Photoshop and Lightroom

Hi all,

I am a hobby photographer (own a Nikon D750) and I am interested in purchasing a 27 inch 5k iMac for Lightroom and Photoshop. What configuration should I be looking at to ensure reasonable (runs smoothly 95% of the time) performance? I generally update every 3-4 years max, so I want to be somewhat future proof without overspending as I'm sure there will be something even better by 2018-2019. I currently own a late 2011 base configuration 13 inch Macbook Pro and other than the gorgeous 5k screen, it is only the Photoshop and Lightroom performance that is really convincing me to upgrade as it is still a great everyday task computer.

Cheers,

Emma

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Dec 5, 2015 6:27 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 5, 2015 6:30 PM in response to em.angeletti

Photoshop minimum requirements for a Mac > https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

For Lightroom > https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/system-requirements.html

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Answer 2

em.angeletti Author

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Dec 5, 2015 6:36 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks Carolyn 🙂. I was looking at that and thought the base configuration would be sufficient but was wary as I have heard stories where people have run with the minimum to recommended specs and still experienced decent amounts of lag.

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Answer 3

Dec 8, 2015 4:29 AM in response to em.angeletti

I just purchased a new 27" 5k iMac this past week. I went with the fusion drive model with 8 gb ram ($1999 model). I bought it primarily to edit photos with Lightroom and Photoshop and have been extremely pleased with the performance. I notice no lag of any kind. My new iMac replaces a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 quad core with 16 gb ram. The iMac blows the old Mac Pro out of the water when it comes to performance, even though the iMac only has 8 gb of ram. I highly recommend the fusion drive model over the base 27" iMac model. Not only is the fusion drive faster than the 7200 rpm hdd, but the fusion drive model also includes an upgraded graphics adapter as well. If later on you find that you want more ram, you can install it easily in the 27" iMac.

Hope this helps with your purchase decision.

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Answer 4

em.angeletti Author

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Dec 5, 2015 8:20 PM in response to DownEasta

Thanks, yes I was definitely looking to upgrade to a fusion drive, was also considering upgrading to 16gb of ram as well but wasn't sure on i5 vs i7 plus the differences between the graphics cards,

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Answer 5

Dec 6, 2015 8:19 AM in response to em.angeletti

I don't think you would have any issues with Lightroom or Photoshop with the i7 processor and 16 gb ram. If I could have fit that in to my budget, I would have gotten that model as well. As I said, the model that I purchased with the i5, fusion drive and 8 gb ram has handled everything that I've thrown at it so far without an issue. I've done some importing, editing and printing from Lightroom. I haven't done anything extensive in Photoshop (no compositing or other major edits) on the new iMac as most of my normal, everyday workflow is within Lightroom (90%).

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Answer 6

Ralph9430

Level 7

21,998 points

Dec 6, 2015 8:55 AM in response to em.angeletti

I purchased the original iMac 5K a year ago. I often run Photoshop, InDesign (or Dreamweaver), MS Word, and MS Excel simultaneously without problems. But I did upgrade my system. I added the 1 TB Fusion Drive and the i7 processor. The iMac came with the base 8GB of RAM.

The RAM is user upgradeable so I purchased a 16 GB upgrade kit (2 x 8 GB modules) from Other World Computing. Adding the 16 GB to the stock 8 GB results in my iMac having 24 GB RAM. The extra RAM can also be added later since the RAM sockets are user accessible on the back of the iMac.

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