Hi, I understand the specs to support PL9. I’m wondering what systems you all use for your day to day support of Photolab and editing and fulfillment for your businesses? Are you running gaming systems, desktops or laptops? I need to purchase a new system and I usually go with a desktop incase I need to expand the system hardware.
I would really like to know what you all use and if you are happy with the configuration? If not, what would you do differently?
Thanks very much!
-Greg
I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 16GB memory and PL9.11 runs fine. There’s been a lot of discussion about PL9 being slow on Mac and Windows PCs but I have had no trouble at all. However, my workflows are fairly minimal as I am just a hobbyist photographer.
Macbook air M3, 24 Gig RAM and 512 gig sd. Works very nicely for my hobby photography.
Mine is a ~12 year old PC I hand built from scratch.
I find PL9 “acceptable” performance wise. It has slow and frustrating moments but things haven’t reached a tipping point yet where it’s unworkably slow. It is frustrating for larger projects though.
Unfortunately the current price of hardware makes the prospect of an upgrade insanely expensive, as everything would need to be changed to make it meaningful.
Take a look here … and also consider the screen size.
If you don’t need portability, you should prioritize a reliable monitor, as it is your “gateway” to image editing. Aside from the fact that eyesight deteriorates over time, you need a device that allows you to work comfortably.
I use a desktop PC I have upgraded gradually during the years I had it. Now its with a Ryzen 5800X with 32GB RAM and a RTX5060 TI with 16GB RAM and two M2 SSD drives and HDD. PhotoLab 9 runs pretty smooth.
Currently on a Apple M4 Mac mini with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
10 Gigabit Ethernet
2TB SSD storage
Apple 27" Studio Display
Runs flawlessly and fast. Never an issue or a crash. I can sleep the Mac, wake it a day later and PL9 is available in a couple seconds right where I left off, every time.
Applying many AI masks slows down things a bit, so I am eagerly awaiting the rumored M6 mini and PL10, both of which I will upgrade to in a New York minute, RAMpocalypse be damned!
“Spend your time wisely - it’s the only money you got”
My main photo editing hardware is my desktop PC:
It runs PL9 without any problems. NB I’m only an amateur editing only a couple of photos per session.
I also have a laptop:
It too runs PL9 without error but it is noticeably less spritely than my desktop PC.
Mac mini M4 32GB & EIZO Monitor. The DXO Programs I run are all snappy
My Windows desktop system is rather top notch with Ryzen 9950x3d-CPU (16 cores), 64GB RAM, RTX5080 GPU (16GB VRAM) and a 27” 4K-Eizo-monitor. I had to purchase a new PC anyway and therefore decided to spend a lot more money than previously intended in order to be safe for the next years.
PL 9.11 runs sufficiently smooth and fast on this system although complex AI-Mask finetuning at very high magnification is sometimes a little bit laggy which is probably due to a non optimized code of the software. But I am talking here about a delay of approx. 1s or so until changes take place. It is therefore not a big drawback.
In any case I would recommend to spend as much budget as you can afford in order to obtain a really satisfying performance of PL which still is a hungry hardware consumer.
Stephan
2019 iMac, not quite good enough for AI presets. I’d need a more powerful GPU.
2020 M1 MacBook Air, better suited for AI presets than the iMac, PL tends to struggle with the small screen, even though it it’s up to spec.
Lightroom Classic runs smoothly on both Macs, AI masks and all. DxO is too resource hungry in comparison.
Imagine if PL v10 solves this and puts it on a par. We’ll be laughing.
The same for me, PhotoLab since years, Mac since years and never a problem 
Desktop
Intel i7-8700k
RTX 5080 16GB
32GB PC3200 DDR4
2 TB PCIe SSD
Laptops
Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX 2.10 GHz
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop 12GB
64GB PC6400 DDR5
2 TB PCIe SSD
Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX 2.10 GHz
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop 8GB
32GB PC6400 DDR5
1 TB PCIe SSD
Runs flawlessly on all three. No complaints with any of them. Be sure to have enough addtional storage if you’re like me and tend to keep everything.
Laptop MSI 18” AMD Ryzen 9 7945 HX3D, 32GB DDR5, RTX 4090, 2x4TB WB black NVMe, runs smooth, export with DP XD3 on 45mp photo’s around 4 seconds.
Macbook pro 14” M4 16GB also runs smooth but export a lot slower.
I switched from a Windows Surface laptop that I was using for PL8 to a MacBook Pro M5 with 24GB RAM when I upgraded to PL9. It runs really well. No need to faff about with video cards/drivers etc. The PL software update process is also much easier/faster on a Mac.
I use a DELL alienware gaming computer. Rendering raw files are fast and so are Exports.
My current rig: Self-built desktop pc. It’s certainly no slouch with DXO Photolab. I also do a moderate amount of gaming - mostly Cyberpunk 2077 @ 4k which it handles just fine for me.
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core Processor (3.80 GHz)
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.2 GB usable)
Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (16 GB)
I have a 16 inches MacBook Pro with M1 Pro processor, a few years old. Photolab works very well.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (3.6 GHz, 6 core), Ram: 32GB, old SSD (not nVME) drives. GPU: Intel Arc B570 10GB. So, its a budget PC, and not latest PC, GPU just one of the cheapest i can buy (as new).
PL works fine. Smooth enough. No complaints. GPU driver quality good.
May worth to check this thread: [Budget GPU for PL] . I think good enough just Ok. Export of one photo 2 second with expensive system, or 5 second with more budget system make in real life a real difference? For some, may yes, for some not. For me 5 sec is just okay - as editing of the photos makes more time anyhow.