15" MacBook Pro 2011 video editing help?

[Zeraus7]

Hey guys, I am looking at getting a 15" 2011 MacBook Pro for some video editing and photo editing, I will be playing videos off my gopro 3+ black edition (upgrading to a hero 4 black soon) and wanted to know if the specs would be enough to play them with ease. I wanted to get a 2011 model because they seem very powerful for the price (I have a budget of about $1000). I have found one that I like which has been used and these are the details and specs that have supplied:

Ex-Lease Apple macbook Pro 15 LATE 2011

Intel Core i7 2.2Ghz

8GB DDR3 RAM / 128GB SSD HDD

MAC OSX MAVERICK 10.9

I am assuming it is a quad core i7..

What do you guys think about this and would it be able to playback and edit GoPro videos at 720p 240fps and 4K 30fps?

Thanks 🙂

 

[maflynn]

I'd not buy a 2011 model - they have GPU issues that will cause that component to fail - its not a question if it will fail but when.

 

[sir.riel]

you'll be fine. for the 4K footage you may have to scale the resolution down during editing.

 

[Zeraus7]

you'll be fine. for the 4K footage you may have to scale the resolution down during editing.

What do you mean by scaling down the resolution? I'm quite new to computers and have only used an iPad Air so this stuff is new to me.

Thanks

 

[sir.riel]

What do you mean by scaling down the resolution? I'm quite new to computers and have only used an iPad Air so this stuff is new to me.

Thanks

when you edit there's an option under the video preview window (Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc). it's the resolution for the video playback, so if you have it at "FULL" with 4K footage it may run slow. I have a mid 2012 15" and with 4K footage from a RED camera..playback is really slow, so i'd have to scale it down to 1/8. I just tested to see how my laptop would perform but in a proper editing workflow i normally convert RAW files to Apple ProRes 422LT, for offline editing.

sorry just read your post again. I assume you will do video editing for personal? What editing program will you use? Either way you will be fine, especially if you are not editing for professional purposes.

 

[Zeraus7]

when you edit there's an option under the video preview window (Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc). it's the resolution for the video playback, so if you have it at "FULL" with 4K footage it may run slow. I have a mid 2012 15" and with 4K footage from a RED camera..playback is really slow, so i'd have to scale it down to 1/8. I just tested to see how my laptop would perform but in a proper editing workflow i normally convert RAW files to Apple ProRes 422LT, for offline editing.

sorry just read your post again. I assume you will do video editing for personal? What editing program will you use? Either way you will be fine, especially if you are not editing for professional purposes.

Yeah I will not be editing professionally... Yet haha. I'm not sure what program I would use.. What do use or recommend? I heard FCPX is good? Thanks for your help.

 

[TheMadOldCoger]

After Reading what you have said again, I would say the Mac would be fine for personal editing. I my self am currently using a late 2011 model, It's not the best any more but it gets the job done sometimes a little slow but nothing to bad.

 

[Zeraus7]

After Reading what you have said again, I would say the Mac would be fine for personal editing. I my self am currently using a late 2011 model, It's not the best any more but it gets the job done sometimes a little slow but nothing to bad.

What are the specs of yours? I would probably only keep this laptop for a year or two after I buy it and then upgrade to a retina one if I want.

 

[zyr123]

Nope nope nope avoid it like the plague. Get a used 2014 base 15.

 

[robertsawicki]

I made the mistake of buying an older machine. I would just save and get a refurbished MBP or a new one.

 

[lavrishevo]

2011 and early 2012 with the AMD gpu have a design flaw especially if you use your graphics card a lot. Take it from a fellow owner. Stay with 2013 on up. I'm on my 3rd motherboard because of this issue.

For your needs final cut or even iMovie will probably do. I prefer Premier CC personably. Definitely get an SSD hard drive with whatever you get and at least 8 gab of ram. 16 go will help when multitasking.

 

[Zeraus7]

I made the mistake of buying an older machine. I would just save and get a refurbished MBP or a new one.

Thanks everyone for saving me a grand! I don't really have enough for a refurbished MacBook Pro.. Do you guys know a way I can get a good MacBook Pro cheapest..?

Thanks

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks everyone for saving me a grand! I don't really have enough for a refurbished MacBook Pro.. Do you guys know a way I can get a good MacBook Pro cheapest..?

Thanks

The cheap ones are cheap (early-2011, mid-2012 and early-2013) because all of these ones have GPU issues. Even though they are covered under a repair program, the program expires in February 2016 and once that happens, if it fails, you're SOL.

 

[Zeraus7]

The cheap ones are cheap (early-2011, mid-2012 and early-2013) because all of these ones have GPU issues. Even though they are covered under a repair program, the program expires in February 2016 and once that happens, if it fails, you're SOL.

Ok, so it is pretty much a matter of get what you pay for.. I think I will just have to save a bit more and get a good condition used one.. Thanks for all you help guys!

 

[Zeraus7]

The cheap ones are cheap (early-2011, mid-2012 and early-2013) because all of these ones have GPU issues. Even though they are covered under a repair program, the program expires in February 2016 and once that happens, if it fails, you're SOL.

Also, is this the same problem with the iMacs made in this time period?

 

[sir.riel]

The cheap ones are cheap (early-2011, mid-2012 and early-2013) because all of these ones have GPU issues. Even though they are covered under a repair program, the program expires in February 2016 and once that happens, if it fails, you're SOL.

I disagree. I've been using my mid 2012 15" for a few years now, a couple guys in my office are on mid 2012 13" i5s and we all do heavy video editing and some post production VFX. We never had a problem.

I use Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and Logic Pro X quite often, and the laptop i use is always being used for work and personal and is still running strong.

 

[yjchua95]

I disagree. I've been using my mid 2012 15" for a few years now, a couple guys in my office are on mid 2012 13" i5s and we all do heavy video editing and some post production VFX. We never had a problem.

I use Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects and Logic Pro X quite often, and the laptop i use is always being used for work and personal and is still running strong.

The mid-2012 15" cMBP is unaffected, but the mid-2012 and early-2013 15" rMBPs are affected and are covered under the replacement program.

----------

Also, is this the same problem with the iMacs made in this time period?

For the mid-2011 27" iMacs, yes (Radeon 6970M).

 

[Zeraus7]

The mid-2012 15" cMBP is unaffected, but the mid-2012 and early-2013 15" rMBPs are affected and are covered under the replacement program.

So is the 2011 Regular 15" MBP affected or not? Just the retina models?



For the mid-2011 27" iMacs, yes (Radeon 6970M).

So is the 2011 Regular 15" MBP affected or not? Just the retina models?

Thanks

 

[maflynn]

So is the 2011 Regular 15" MBP affected or not? Just the retina models?

Thanks

Retina came out in 2012, so the GPU issues predate the roll out of Retina. In fact the 2008, 2009 and 2011 MBPs all had GPU issues. Like I said earlier I'd not buy it, because its not a question of if it will fail but when.

 

[Zeraus7]

Retina came out in 2012, so the GPU issues predate the roll out of Retina. In fact the 2008, 2009 and 2011 MBPs all had GPU issues. Like I said earlier I'd not buy it, because its not a question of if it will fail but when.

Ok, I only wanted to have it for a about a year or two years at max.. So it's not a machine I would have for a long time..

 

[yjchua95]

So is the 2011 Regular 15" MBP affected or not? Just the retina models?

Thanks

2011 15" cMBPs, 2012 15" rMBPs and early-2013 15" rMBPs were hit.

 

[Zeraus7]

2011 15" cMBPs, 2012 15" rMBPs and early-2013 15" rMBPs were hit.

Ok, so can anyone recommend a good Mac (can be desktop or laptop) that is around $1000. I don't mind if it is used or new just anything that is a Mac and is powerful?

Thanks

 

[yjchua95]

Ok, so can anyone recommend a good Mac (can be desktop or laptop) that is around $1000. I don't mind if it is used or new just anything that is a Mac and is powerful?

Thanks

They don't exist. Powerful = quad core.

And there's none of these that are below $1000, even if they're refurbs.

You could probably get by with a 13" rMBP (or a Mac Mini with a Fusion Drive) though, it's good enough for light to light-medium 1080p editing in my experience.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FGEQ2LL/A/Refurbished-Mac-Mini-28GHz-Dual-core-Intel-Core-i5

This one, for instance. Also, if you're dissatisfied with it, you can return it to Apple within 14 days and get a full refund.

 

[Zeraus7]

They don't exist. Powerful = quad core.

And there's none of these that are below $1000, even if they're refurbs.

You could probably get by with a 13" rMBP (or a Mac Mini with a Fusion Drive) though, it's good enough for light to light-medium 1080p editing in my experience.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FGEQ2LL/A/Refurbished-Mac-Mini-28GHz-Dual-core-Intel-Core-i5

This one, for instance. Also, if you're dissatisfied with it, you can return it to Apple within 14 days and get a full refund.

Thanks for the link, I had a look and the site you showed me is the American site and I live in Australia, and the refurb store for Asutralia is pretty bad.. I will double check the Aus refurb store.

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks for the link, I had a look and the site you showed me is the American site and I live in Australia, and the refurb store for Asutralia is pretty bad.. I will double check the Aus refurb store.

Oh, I didn't realize that you were a fellow Aussie 😀

Even the cheapest refurb 15" is already $2000.

$1000 won't get you anywhere down here, to be honest, not even a decent dual-core system with Fusion Drive and enough RAM (8GB).