Why Slider Performance Matters in Lightroom: My Experience with M1 Macs

As a photographer, I rely heavily on Adobe Lightroom to edit my images. One aspect that's crucial for me is slider performance. In my previous setup on an old iMac, I had to move the sliders very slowly to allow Lightroom to render the changes I was making. It was frustrating and slowed down my workflow.

When I upgraded to an M1 Mac Mini, I was pleasantly surprised by the significant improvement in slider performance. My new Mac Mini's processor is more powerful than my old iMac's, which means I can make adjustments quickly without having to wait for Lightroom to catch up.

What's important to me is not necessarily speed, but rather responsiveness. I don't mind if the processing takes a little longer on an M1 Mac - I'd rather walk away and come back to it later than have to deal with slow performance. Apple has touted the M1 processor as one that improves performance across both Macs and iPads, and Pfeiffer Consulting found that the M1 MacBook Pro outperforms its Intel-based counterpart.

Most reviews of M1 Macs focus on import and export speeds, HDR merge, and panoramic merge, but I think it's worth noting that my new Mac Mini has a more powerful discreet graphics card than my old iMac. This means better performance in tasks like image editing.

I've been using Adobe Lightroom Classic on my 2017 MacBook Pro with 16GB of memory, and while it's not the fastest processor out there, it's still capable of handling demanding tasks like photo editing.

In the past, I briefly considered switching to a different photo editing tool when Adobe moved to a subscription-based payment plan. However, I was disappointed by those alternatives and ultimately came back to Lightroom Classic, which remains my go-to choice for image editing.

For those considering purchasing an M1 Mac, I'd recommend checking out Adobe's support status for Lightroom Classic on Apple Silicon Macs and the Apple M1 processor. With its powerful processing capabilities and improved graphics card, I'm confident that the M1 Mac will continue to deliver excellent performance in Lightroom.

Lightroom mac mini