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vikpt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 20, 2012
131
0
For those who own the 13 rMBP or have experienced using it for quite a while using Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere, how is the 13 in rMBP with editing HD videos? I know the 15 in cMBP and rMBP will do a better performance, but how is it going for the 13 in rMBP? Thank you
 
For those who own the 13 rMBP or have experienced using it for quite a while using Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere, how is the 13 in rMBP with editing HD videos? I know the 15 in cMBP and rMBP will do a better performance, but how is it going for the 13 in rMBP? Thank you
Editing video without a graphics card really sucks... a lot. You can get by okay with it, but I wouldn't recommend it.
 
Stability wise, the 13inch pro seems okay as long as you don't over tax it in fcx. Its just the rendering times. It will be considerably worse than a 15inch pro, but if you're not doing anything crazy, it'll be fine.
 
Stability wise, the 13inch pro seems okay as long as you don't over tax it in fcx. Its just the rendering times. It will be considerably worse than a 15inch pro, but if you're not doing anything crazy, it'll be fine.

I'll just be cutting footages here and there and layer some sounds. Would that be fine?
 
What do you mean doing more? Like what?

More advanced features require more power to get done in a fair amount of time. Multicam editing, editing 4k video, tons of special effects, all that. For your purposes, you'll be fine. I would say this:

13inch pro: consumer editing

15inch pro: prosumer and semi professional editing

iMac: professional big budget movie editing

Hell, some people and companies edit videos on macbook airs
 
What do you mean doing more? Like what?

I mean by hardcore video editing.
More rendering to do means more CPU and GPU power needed.
If you plan to make a little home video, stick with the 13in. Maybe a Air might work.
But if you are doing it for professional use, making profit, for work, your own high quality satisfaction, go with 15in and up.

13in's are as the price says, a average consumer use.
Nothing high quality, you-get-what-you-pay-for.
Now the 15in, comes with dedicated GPU up to 1GB and quad core Mobile CPU.

iMac 21.5 and 27in are getting real.
27in can have up to 2GB vRAM and a DESKTOP quad core CPU.

Mac Pro, this is more of you get more than what you pay.
High quality server level internals with many GPUs and CPU upgrades.
The stock Xeon processor can pretty much do heavy video edit with other heavy work.
Maybe play some games as you edit the video.

But with 13in, if you start to edit low-mid video, dont expect it to be snappy.
 
I'd say the 13" rMBP is not an ideal machine for video editing. The smaller screen means you have less screen real estate and the lack of a discrete GPU means performance will be less then stellar doing this task
 
The performance of the 13" rMBP is better to me using Apple's pro apps than the preinstalled ones. The only drawback I've found using FCPX is that when you import large files it takes a long time to initially render. The largest I've edited was a 30 minute 1.5GB HD video and it took over an hour to import. You can still edit the video while it renders but the performance is somewhat choppy until it finishes. But once it finishes that initial import and render, there are no performance issues whatsoever. Exporting using Compressor settings is instantaneous. BTW, Motion works exceptionally well for my needs too.

All that being said I still plan to go with the 15" next time I upgrade. The performance of that machine must be mind-blowing, to hear people talk, because I love the performance of my 13" and everyone says its crap.
 
All that being said I still plan to go with the 15" next time I upgrade. The performance of that machine must be mind-blowing, to hear people talk, because I love the performance of my 13" and everyone says its crap.

I have the 15 inch retina and am using final cut x right this second. It literally feels like fcx was built just for my machine when i do anything in it. The performance is incredible
 
I just recently bought a 13" non-retina MBP for video editing primarily and it works just fine for my needs. I edit 1080p 24fps video shot on a T4i and have had no lag issues whatsoever, even with the bare-bones i5, 4GB RAM, & 5,400 RPM HDD. Granted this is very consumer-level and being done with iMovie but nonetheless it's been a very positive experience thus far.
 
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