Presumably future Apple Silicon chips will support more RAM, more USB4 (Thunderbolt 3) ports, and more external monitors.

Wait a year at least until things get sorted out. I never recommend being an early adopter of new tech. There is a third-party technology called DisplayLink that allows M1-based MacBook Airs and Pros to drive multiple monitors. This is probably due to some limitation of the M1 chip. (See technical specifications on Apple site.) It can be a very-high-resolution monitor, but you are limited to the one. The first Apple-Silicon-based MacBook Airs and Pros only support one external monitor.

In addition the first M1 MacBooks apparently have problems with dual monitors which IMO is essential for photo editing. Adobe is working on native versions of other applications, like Lightroom Classic. There are native versions of Photoshop, Lightroom (cloud version), Affinity Photo, and Office 2019. I would like to add I wouldn't buy an M1 MacBook just yet because so few apps run natively on the platform. Memory is cheap these days so don't scrimp. If your budget allows it I recommend a Thunderbolt 3 compatible dock as a long term investement. That said the M1 chip SSD is extremely fast and efficient so Big Sur makes extensive use of virtual memory and you can exceed the actual amount of physical RAM without even noticing it.īesides that you need to consider the MacBooks, at least the current models, have only 2 Thunderbolt ports, so whatever you need to do you'll have to either use WiFi or connect a dock with Ethernet, HDMI and/or DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-A, ports etc. OK, opening and quitting apps and saving docs is extremely fast on the M1 chip but it's a drag to have to do it often.

So maybe LR will run with 8GB today but what about in a couple of years, five years, etc.? A Mac is a long term investment.Ĭonsider also that you will have several applications opened at the same time: LR, a browser, a mail app, a word processing, etc., that all hog the memory too. During the last decade while the size of the RAM steadily increased because it became cheaper, the applications took more and more advantage of it and unabashedly hogged it as if the memory was all theirs. Expensive but it's to stay on the safe side. Is 8G RAM enough for this ? or shall i get the 16G RAM ? I am planning to get a MacBook M1 mainly for Photos Editing using Lightroom and Photoshop.

M1 macbook air illustrator