02-12-2017, 04:10 AM
When I open a folder of images in my favorite image browser, Photo Mechanic, it will display the thumbnails of the images I need to work on. This is all well and good until I attempt to open several folders with thousands of images in each folder. My Mac Pro 1,1 3ghz Radeon 5570 7200rpm drive struggles. My MBP 2011 17" quad 2.5ghz 5400rpm hd does a bit better. Both still take quite a bit of time to load images.
I decided to email the tech and ask him if CPU or GPU mattered more for loading of the images. The reply I received leads me to believe that I probably would benefit from an SSD. Going forward though, would a newer model such as a used $500 13" 2015 Macbook air 1.6ghz 4GB RAM and 128gb SSD work just fine for Photo Mechanic and minimal Photoshop (crop, adjust brightness)? I am not as young as I used to be and hauling that 17" MBP isn't always a short trip. It would store images I shoot at a game, edit, and ftp to client. I just wonder if it would be fast enough, especially with jpegs when shooting sports. Reading the response from the tech makes me think I could spare my spine some work.
The added bonus of the 2015 model is the Intel Graphics 6000 allows for 60mhz 4K through the Thunderbolt port.
I would use my MBP and MP for the other heavy lifting such as heavy Pshop and video work.
Photo Mechanic Tech:
Photo Mechanic does not use any graphic accelerators for generating the images. All of the work is done by the CPU. The fastest browsing will come from images on a local SSD. Photo Mechanic should be able to browse the NEF files from the D800 just as fast as the matching HQ jpegs, possibly even a bit faster. I hope this helps. Please let me know more details about your system if you have anymore questions with Photo Mechanic in your workflow.
The Generate High quality thumbnails options is to skip the default Exif thumbnail ( 120 × 160 pixels with the black bars on the long edges ) and generate one for the size of the thumbnail box. This option has been in Photo Mechanic since v3, long before graphics cards were used to aid the CPU. I hope this helps.
I decided to email the tech and ask him if CPU or GPU mattered more for loading of the images. The reply I received leads me to believe that I probably would benefit from an SSD. Going forward though, would a newer model such as a used $500 13" 2015 Macbook air 1.6ghz 4GB RAM and 128gb SSD work just fine for Photo Mechanic and minimal Photoshop (crop, adjust brightness)? I am not as young as I used to be and hauling that 17" MBP isn't always a short trip. It would store images I shoot at a game, edit, and ftp to client. I just wonder if it would be fast enough, especially with jpegs when shooting sports. Reading the response from the tech makes me think I could spare my spine some work.
The added bonus of the 2015 model is the Intel Graphics 6000 allows for 60mhz 4K through the Thunderbolt port.
I would use my MBP and MP for the other heavy lifting such as heavy Pshop and video work.
Photo Mechanic Tech:
Photo Mechanic does not use any graphic accelerators for generating the images. All of the work is done by the CPU. The fastest browsing will come from images on a local SSD. Photo Mechanic should be able to browse the NEF files from the D800 just as fast as the matching HQ jpegs, possibly even a bit faster. I hope this helps. Please let me know more details about your system if you have anymore questions with Photo Mechanic in your workflow.
The Generate High quality thumbnails options is to skip the default Exif thumbnail ( 120 × 160 pixels with the black bars on the long edges ) and generate one for the size of the thumbnail box. This option has been in Photo Mechanic since v3, long before graphics cards were used to aid the CPU. I hope this helps.
