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2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max: Photoshop Filters
Related: 2019 iMac 5K, 2019 Mac Pro, 2020 iMac 5K, 4K and 5K display, Apple MacBook Pro M1, Apple Silicon, CPU cores, filters, iMac, iMac 5K, laptop, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Macs, Photoshop, video
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MPG tested the Apple 16.2" MacBook Pro with M1 Max Chip Z14X000HR, a maxed-out model in all ways except 4TB SSD instead of the maximum 8TB SSD.
About
This set of tests with these Photoshop filters offers a general look at what kind of performance can be expected with commonly-used filters.
If below are out of date: view current Mac wishlist and all current OWC wishlists.
Results: Photoshop Filters
Lens Corrections: Adaptive Wide Angle, Lens Corrections, Lens Flare
Pixellate: Color halftone, Crystalize, Facet, Mezotin, Mosaic, Pointillize
Noise: Add Noise, Despeckle, Dust and Scratches, Median, Reduce Noise
Blur: Blur Gallery
Various: Oil Paint, Emboss, Liquify
Distort: Pinch, Polar Coordinates, Ripple, Shear, Spherize, Twirl, Wave
Sharpen: Sharpen Edges, Smart Sharpen, Unsharp Mask
The 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max wins on every filter, so long as OpenCL is enabled.
Some filters are slightly faster witih OpenCL off, but Sharpen is hugely slower with OpenCL off. So much so that OpenCL should be left enabled.
Except that there is a nasty bug in Smart Sharpen that makes it unusable with OpenCL.
The slow Sharpen performance with OpenCL off turns shows a performance bug in Photoshop in that it is using only a single CPU core on the MBP M1 Max, versus multiple CPU cores on the Intel-based Macs. Indeed, running Photoshop in emulation as an Intel app on the MBP, the time is 3.2X faster in emulation than with native code, because most of the CPU cores get used.
As per Adobe engineering, Jan 2022:
Everything written in OpenCL is being rewritten for Metal on macOS this year. OpenCL and OpenGL are dead. I believe SmartSharpen is at the top of the list to move to Metal off of OpenCL.
Toggle to compare with OpenCL ON/OFF.
2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max vs 2019 iMac 5K, 2020 iMac 5K, 2019 Mac Pro
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