Buying advice for a professional illustrator buying a laptop

[jimywig]

Hi everyone I have had a look at the forum but didn’t spot an answer that quite fit my questions.

I am a professional illustrator looking to by a new Mac laptop. I will use an external display and cintiq so it has to be a pro.

I primarily use Photoshop (files can be largish 5gb+) and illustrator. I then do some secondary work in animation. So After Effecte and Blender. This is the lesser part of my work but something I still need to be able to service. Blender is my weakest skill set but something I am looking to expand in as I have been slowed down literally and figuratively in this area by my old computer.

I can’t spring for a max so it’s m2 pro or m3 pro.

If a refurbed m2 pro pops up with 32 gb ram 12/18 and a 1TB storage I would consider that.

Beyond that I’m stuck between m3 pro 11/14 38gb 1Tb or 12/18 38gb 512 all for roughly the same price. I’m really confused what will give the best bang for buck for my workflow. I have a grasp of the benchmarks etc but I’m interested which would work better for my use case real world .

My understanding is PS and Illustrator are single core so any would be fine but don’t they both take advantage of gpu?

Does the ray tracing and meshshader in the m3 give a real advantage over the m2 pro. I have four weeks to sort this so unless a relevant m2 pro comes onto the refurbished store I will be going m3. I have to purchase from apple As I have credit from them.

Thanks everyone!

 

[MBAir2010]

Hi everyone I have had a look at the forum but didn’t spot an answer that quite fit my questions.

I am a professional illustrator looking to by a new Mac laptop. I will use an external display and cintiq so it has to be a pro.

I primarily use Photoshop (files can be largish 5gb+) and illustrator. I then do some secondary work in animation. So After Effecte and Blender. This is the lesser part of my work but something I still need to be able to service. Blender is my weakest skill set but something I am looking to expand in as I have been slowed down literally and figuratively in this area by my old computer.

Beyond that I’m stuck between m3 pro 11/14 38gb 1Tb or 12/18 38gb 512 all for roughly the same price. I’m really confused what will give the best bang for buck for my workflow. I have a grasp of the benchmarks etc but I’m interested which would work better for my use case real world .

My understanding is PS and Illustrator are single core so any would be fine but don’t they both take advantage of gpu?

Does the ray tracing and meshshader in the m3 give a real advantage over the m2 pro. I have four weeks to sort this so unless a relevant m2 pro comes onto the refurbished store I will be going m3. I have to purchase from apple As I have credit from them.

Thanks everyone!

perhaps a Mac Studio would fit your needs?

I am performing graphic design on my MacBook Air M1 without a hitch, and use the mac Mini m1 for detail.
two years ago I dropped Photoshop and Illustrator and now only use affinity design and a drawing app on the iPad
since they are all I need, besides scanning software for a Canon 1999 model.

these Macs I use are menial as one can get
whereas the MacBook you have insight will perform graphic design and illustrations incredible.

hoped this helped

 

[jimywig]

perhaps a Mac Studio would fit your needs?

I am performing graphic design on my MacBook Air M1 without a hitch, and use the mac Mini m1 for detail.
two years ago I dropped Photoshop and Illustrator and now only use affinity design and a drawing app on the iPad
since they are all I need, besides scanning software for a Canon 1999 model.

these Macs I use are menial as one can get
whereas the MacBook you have insight will perform graphic design and illustrations incredible.

hoped this helped

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yeah I have used affinity. Good software. For me at the moment I need the interoperability or psd, ai. InDesign and Ae.

I should have said I am ruling out the studio. It looks awesome but every time I’m not in the studio and I need to do some work I end up having to use the iPad as my primary device. As great as it is there is always an issue that needs to be worked around. For that reason I’m going for a laptop.