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2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra: Convert RAW Files to JPEG With Adobe Camera Raw (Hasselblad X1D)
Related: 2019 iMac 5K, 2019 Mac Pro, 2020 iMac 5K, 4K and 5K display, Adobe Camera Raw, Apple Mac Studio, Apple Silicon, Hasselblad medium format, Hasselblad X1D 50C, Hasselblad X1D II 50C, iMac, iMac 5K, Mac Pro, Macs, medium format, Photoshop, video
Unsure which Mac to get or how to configure it? Consult with Lloyd, and see recommended Macs for photographers and videographers.
MPG tested the $7999 Apple Mac Studio M1 Ultra 20-core CPU / 64-core GPU/ 128GB / 8TB SSD , provided on loan for review by B&H Photo, an authorized Apple Mac dealer. Please buy your gear at B&H Photo and OWC/MacSales.com using any link from this site.
About
This test is a real-world task relevant to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom: batch convert raw files to JPEG.
Disk I/O is not a significant factor, the files being small relative to the workload, and on the fast internal SSD.
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Raw file conversion to JPEG — 50-megapixel Hasselblad X1D X3F RAW
See the test notes for details on hardware configuration and software versions.
Camera RAW file conversion is an area where the Mac Studio M1 Ultra shines, beating out all other Macs, chewing through 50-megapixel Hasselblad X1D raw files in about 0.9 seconds each. Handily beating-out the 28-core 2019 Mac Pro, which takes 41% longer.
Unclear is why the X3F raw files take longer than the PhaseOne IQ4 raw files, which are 3X larger. But the raw file format can cause serialization of threads, which is the likely explanation.
Adobe has improved raw file conversion considerably since early 2022. That is evident in the very slow results from the 2019 iMac 5K running Photoshop CC 2021 v22.5.8.

2022 Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 2019 iMac 5K, 2019 Mac Pro 28-core
