I have been researching what I want from my next computer and I have been considering recently image quality.
The computer is our view into our photography. But what is the limitations of editing high high quality images. The computer or the monitor?
Looking at the software I use, it is recommended that the memory of the graphic’s card is at least 512 MB. Modern inbuilt Intel graphics and discrete graphics all have at least this.
The other limitation is down to the lookup tables built into the hardware. Laptops generally have 8 bit screens, but external high end monitors have 10 bit hardware, meaning higher quality images and better editing without the possibility of banding becoming an issue.
This means that for general work a basic laptop will do the job, but for detailed colour work you will need to plug it into a high end monitor; for more intensive work then a machine with at least 8 GB of RAM and 512 MB of video RAM, 12 GB of RAM plus 512 MB of video RAM for photoshop.
So for general work a MacBook Air with 8 GB will do the job but for more extreme work at Mac Mini with 16 Gb, or a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro/iMac is required.
