For my portable PhotoLab 9 solution I need to replace my current ASUS Zephyrus 14" (4 1/2 years old) with a more capable machine. I’m weighing the MSI Creator M14 14" vs the ASUS TUF A14.
For pricing, they are in the same ballpark, but with 16GB RAM for the ASUS against 32GB for the MSI, both running RTX 4060 GPUs. The ASUS comes with two NVME slots.
One difference is the battery; 53.5 Wh for the MSI vs 73 Wh for the ASUS. The MSI uses a charger with a coaxial plug, apparently without USB-C charging capability, while the ASUS has a proprietary charging plug and also allows charging via USB-C.
The DXO minimum RAM requirement is 8GB, with the recommended RAM is 32GB. In terms of operational flexibility, I tend towards the ASUS. Does anyone have enough experience with running PhotoLab 9 on Windows 11 with 16GB RAM (and with an RTX GPU) to render an opinion?
Look carefully at the requirements for noise reduction and AI masks. These are the real power hogs and, not just for RAM but more so for video memory/card type.
It might work but you might find yourself waiting around a lot
In portable use, I’m less likely to be doing much masking (it’s a rare event even on my tower computer). Also, I find PureRaw to be very effective with noise reduction for input files…Feed it the batch and let it go to work. If I need an NR tweak whilst in PhotoLab, I generally go to Topaz Denoise AI.
The big computer at home handles the more complex processing. In a response from DXO: “Your new desktop tower, with its Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF processor, Radeon RX 7900 XT, and 64 GB of RAM, is more than capable of running DxO PhotoLab 9 , including the latest AI features such as DeepPRIME XD3 and AI Mask.”
I don’t think so. Remember that this is for portable (domestic travel and other away-from-home uses) and secondary use at home.
In this use case, battery life and the ability to charge through a USB-C port are important. The laptop candidate with the 32 GB of RAM could only be charged with a proprietary AC adapter. The one with 16GB of RAM has a battery with 36% more capacity and has both proprietary fast charging and USB charging.
As for noise reduction and other intensive effects…
I do noise reduction and very light sharpening with PureRaw before opening PhotoLab. Load the batch, check the settings, and hit the “GO” button. This may seem old-school, but in Photoshop days it was noise reduction first, and sharpening last. If I need to make additional noise adjustments whilst in PhotoLab, I open Topaz Denoise AI. I do a lot more low light/high ISO shooting than most people, so the noise issues need to be addressed at the beginning.
Similarly, final sharpening is usually done with Topaz Sharpen AI. It’s not as automated, which is exactly what I want – the ability to start with a choice of models, and then fine tune.
I’m less likely to get into masking and other intensive PP adjustments on a laptop anyway, especially 14 inches.
As mentioned earlier, the GPU may be the more critical element. To some extent, a fast CPU and fast RAM will help a little – or at least be less of a bottleneck.
Page file size must be left to AUTOMATIC (system managed), it must not be set manually to a maximum fixed values.
I have seen a couple of programs that would react VERY badly to not having the pagefile set to “automatically system managed”, even on machines with plenty of RAM.
Sure I had it set manually too for years, very stable too.
But a couple of times, I found games that crashed HARD if it was not set as system managed. And that would crash even with a HUGE pagefile of the “manually set kind”.
Bad programming for sure, but since then I set it to automatic: doesn’t hurt, and gives me peace of mind.
A program may be a memory hog, but it’s never a good idea to deny it all the resources it needs (or thinks it needs).
Hi,
I’m using Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14AHP9
AMD Ryzen7 8845HS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB
16GB RAM
Everything is working. All the basic adjustments are working smoothly.
Loading of a folder of 1k images takes a while. AI masks are working fine with few seconds delay. Exporting if there are AI masks and AI denoising is taking a bit long.
To note - different file sizes impact performance. 20mpx RAW are processed noticeably faster than 44mpx RAW files. So if you are shooting with 100mpx medium format camera you may encounter issues that are not known to me.
It’s unlikely your laptop will run for long on a battery as performance mode will be your best friend so really think about how you are going to charge it.
Also keep in mind that there are some issues with AI features in PL9 working on Win11 & Nvidia graphics.
Thanks for your response and observations. I decided to buy a 16GB ASUS TUF Gaming A14 (arrived today). I’ve had an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for 4 1/2 years and it worked well up to PhotoLab 8 and PureRaw 5. But I didn’t think it would make the move up to PhotoLab 9 – and DXO confirmed that.
Comparing the specs: Considering that this ASUS is sold as a gaming laptop, it’s not surprising that it “specs up” one level from your Yoga. Interesting is that this ASUS 2024 model is often sold with a Ryzen 7, but ASUS also offered some with Ryzen 9 – and the 2025 models have Ryzen 7s with some power management changes.
Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14AHP9 ~~~ ASUS TUF Gaming A14 FA401 (2024)
The other 14" laptop I considered was an MSI Creator with 32GB of RAM. However, the battery was 53.5 WH compared to the 73 WH for the ASUS. That might have been OK, but charging the laptop was only through a coaxial connector with no USB-C charging capability. The ASUS has a 200 Watt charger with a proprietary connector, but accepts 100 Watt charging through a USB-C port. Portability is a priority here.
One I get the new laptop loaded properly I’ll be able to run both PhotoLab 8 and the PhotoLab 9 demo on the same machine, as well as both PureRaw4 and PureRaw5. It will be interesting to see how they perform.
I’ve had mine manually set for literally years and my system is stable enough.