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most laptops - Windows or Mac are almost un-upgrade-able. This is due to the GPU being integrated into the motherboard. Sure RAM is but that will only get you so far as you've experienced first hand. 32gb is massively overkill if your processor and GPU aren't up to scratch. Whilst MBPs are fine you will probably save some money if you go down the Windows route. Mainly because Apple skimp big time on their graphics card and mix and match intel chips with AMD gpu's. If you're running a lot of 3d or video work then an i7 with hyper-threading is the one for you. If you're just photoshopping and working in 2d then a mid range i5 will be perfectly fine. Again if you're trying to do 3D your GPU is most likely your bottleneck. Aim to get a minimum of 2GB or VRAM - 4GB would be ideal for future proofing. The lowest spec 15" MacBook Pro is £1600 and tbh the components are worth half of that.
alwaysanalogue-
Excellent advice, as you say RAM alone isn't enough, even scrolling through RAW files in LR is laggy and that's with a pretty clean install and programs running off the SSD.
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I'm no apple fanboy, but you're not really giving the full picture.
For example, go to the Dell site and configure a Precision 7510 to a similar spec to the top level MPB (£1999) and you get a price of £1850 - that's with some weird 30% special offer.
The benefit of the MBP is that they are still portable, they run reliably well and fast ( I'm currently working on a 4.7GB Illustration in PS on a 2013 MBP - no lag at all, even when scrolling through RAW files)
You can build a Windows based laptop to perform well, and possibly better performing with CAD/3D but it'll be a lot less portable and it will still be expensive.
Nice windows machines are Lenovo ThinkPads - very well made and thought out machines with good customisations available. XEON chips, massive GPUs etc. But it'll cost about £3-4k for the top end machine.
mi7rennie
TRA
Looking for a recommendation of a 15" or 17" laptop for doing photo editing on LR and Photoshop. Currently running a Dell M6400 Covet with 32GB ram and big SSD for all the programs to run off but the performance viewing and editing photos is super laggy. I think it's the graphics card and processor letting the side down and these are not upgradeable (I don't think!)