Minimum and recommended
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Windows 10, 64-bit (version 1809 or later) | Windows 11 |
| macOS | macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel | Apple silicon (M1 or later) on the current macOS |
| Processor | Any 64-bit x64 processor, or Apple silicon | 6 or more cores. Culling runs on the CPU, so more cores finish sooner. |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM, or more for libraries past about 10,000 photos |
| Graphics | No GPU needed. Culling, editing and export all run on the CPU; a graphics card is not required and is not used for culling. | |
| Disk | 1.5 GB for the app, 20 to 40 MB of previews per 1,000 photos, and room for your exports (about 6 MB per full-size JPEG from a 24 MP camera) | An SSD, with the photos you are culling on it or on a fast external SSD |
| Internet | Needed to activate your key and, once, to download up to 60 MB of face and pose models the first time they are used. After that imagic works offline for up to 14 days between licence checks. Your photos are never uploaded. | |
Intel Macs get a lighter build (111 MB instead of 431 MB) without PyTorch and ONNX Runtime, because PyTorch no longer ships for Intel macOS. Import, AI culling, editing, RAW processing and export all work; the extras that need those libraries (AI subject masking, the optional perceptual quality score, photo captions, and pose grouping in the Action subject mode) are Windows and Apple silicon only.
Memory note: in a 9,790-photo library the app used about 4.8 GB after the 1.3 thumbnail fix, which is why 16 GB is the recommendation for big catalogues and 8 GB is enough for a shoot at a time.
Measured culling speed
Seconds per 100 RAW files from 24 to 27 MP cameras, on the test PC below. Lower is faster. A 2,000-frame wedding is 20 of these.
So on this machine a 2,000-photo shoot imports in about 2.4 minutes and is analysed and sorted into keep, review and trash in about 12.8 minutes. Exporting is the slow part: every exported photo is a full RAW render, about 6.0 seconds each, and you normally export only the keepers.
| Test set | Photos | Import | AI analysis | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 to 27 MP RAW, public samples | 100 | 7.1 s | 38.5 s | 601.6 s |
| 10 MP Sony ARW, one real shoot | 40 | 4.9 s | 13.7 s | 212.9 s |
Seconds per 100 photos, median of 3 runs per set. The PC was in everyday use while it ran (a browser, music and an Android emulator in the background), so runs varied: AI analysis of the 24 MP set ranged from 23.5 to 39.7 seconds per 100. Peak memory: about 2.2 GB while exporting the 27 MP files, under 300 MB for the analysis worker.
The test PC
| Processor | Intel Core i5-13600KF (14 cores, 20 threads) |
| Memory | 32 GB DDR4 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (not used by the cull) |
| Disk | Samsung 990 EVO Plus NVMe SSD |
| System | Windows 11 Pro (build 26200) |
How it was measured
- Pipeline: imagic 1.4.4 (with the per-eye closed-eye check that ships in the next update), using its own headless pipeline, the same one its CLI and MCP server run, timing each stage from start to finish in a fresh, empty library. Default settings: Subject set to People, the optional perceptual score and captions off, as shipped.
- Import reads each file, extracts its preview and metadata and adds it to the library.
- AI analysis scores every photo (sharpness, exposure, noise, composition, faces and eyes), groups bursts and near-duplicates, and makes the keep, review or trash call.
- Export renders every photo in the set (not only the keepers, so the per-photo cost is measured on all of them) to a full-size JPEG through imagic's built-in RAW engine with default settings.
- 24 to 27 MP RAW, public samples: 100 files made from five public-domain (CC0) sample RAWs from raw.pixls.us, one each from a Sony A7 III (ARW, 24 MP), Nikon D750 (NEF, 24 MP), Canon EOS 6D Mark II (CR2, 27 MP), Fujifilm X-T3 (RAF, 26 MP) and Canon EOS Rebel SL3 (CR3, 24 MP), each copied 20 times. Anyone can download the same five files and repeat this. imagic rightly groups the copies as duplicates and keeps one of each, but it still scores every file.
- 10 MP Sony ARW, one real shoot: 40 uncompressed Sony A7 III RAWs shot in APS-C crop mode (10 MP, 21 MB each) on one travel day: people, streets and landscapes, so the face and eye checks have real work to do.
- Not included: the one-off model download on first use, and the time you spend reviewing.
Your numbers will differ with your processor, your camera's resolution and your disk. Export time grows with resolution: on this PC a 10 MP file took 2.1 seconds and a 24 to 27 MP file 6.0 seconds, so expect more for 45 to 60 MP. We have not yet timed a Mac; Apple silicon figures will be added here, dated, once measured on real hardware.
Time it on your own shoot
The free trial covers 500 exports with everything in imagic Max, and importing and culling never count against it. No card.