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Best MacBook Pro for video editing

T

tibblet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 20, 2015
3
0
I'm a video editor and I'm well overdue an upgrade on my late 2006 Macbook Pro. I'm currently rocking:

MacBook Pro Late 2006 - 15-inch Core 2 Duo
  • Processor 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • Memory 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Graphics ATI Radeon X1600 256 MB
  • Storage 500 GB SATA Disk

It's lasted me this long thanks to maxing out RAM, replacing the hard drive and battery. Unfortunately I can't update the OS X past 10.7.5, the screen is starting to flicker, the DVD drive is broken, it sometimes overheats and shuts down by itself and trackpad button sticks etc. So as you can imagine, I'm eager to upgrade my computer.

What's the best model to choose for video editing? I work with FCP 7, Premiere and Avid. I don't have the most money in the world (hence it taking me over 8 years to save enough to consider a replacement) and would like to spend around $2000CAD. Would I be able to get any money selling mine?

Does anyone edit frequently on a 13" and have no trouble with the smaller screen?
 
To me this is a simple question.

Many people (including myself) agree with the fact that 15" will be beneficial especially when editing.

Second I doubt you will get much money if any at all.

And finally, the Pro with the dedicated GPU will give you the greatest performance.
 
Compared to what you have, any of the rMBP would be a large upgrade. If you're getting by fine with that level of performance, just go for what makes sense budget-wise. Also consider external hard drives over larger ssds.

13" can scale to 1440x900, which is your current resolution. It would probably get the job done.
 
tibblet said:
I'm a video editor and I'm well overdue an upgrade on my late 2006 Macbook Pro. I'm currently rocking:

MacBook Pro Late 2006 - 15-inch Core 2 Duo
  • Processor 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • Memory 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Graphics ATI Radeon X1600 256 MB
  • Storage 500 GB SATA Disk

It's lasted me this long thanks to maxing out RAM, replacing the hard drive and battery. Unfortunately I can't update the OS X past 10.7.5, the screen is starting to flicker, the DVD drive is broken, it sometimes overheats and shuts down by itself and trackpad button sticks etc. So as you can imagine, I'm eager to upgrade my computer.

What's the best model to choose for video editing? I work with FCP 7, Premiere and Avid. I don't have the most money in the world (hence it taking me over 8 years to save enough to consider a replacement) and would like to spend around $2000CAD. Would I be able to get any money selling mine?

Does anyone edit frequently on a 13" and have no trouble with the smaller screen?
Click to expand...

The 15" would be better for you in the long run. Also, since Apple went back to using AMD cards in the high end 15" rMBP, FCP X will have great performance benefits (along with the Adobe CC suite), because these two use OpenCL quite heavily (something which NVIDIA cards suck at).
 
Because you doing video editing, save up until you can afford the 15" mbpr with the higher processer option. Better to get what you want upfront, as it will last you for the next 5 years
 
Is the DGPU really necessary or is the Iris Pro good enough in the base 15"?
 
You should be able to pick up a good condition used Ivy Bridge 15" rMBP for around $1500 that will come equipped with a dGPU (650m), quad core i7, and 16GB RAM. Considering how long you were able to make your current machine last, that should serve you well for quite some time. I use FCPX, Avid, After Effects, & PS CC quite often on mine and it handles them all very well.
 
So, if your doing video editing you probably want the 15 inch screen, just for the size. Sadly apple doesn't make the 17inch anymore or I would say that one, but 15 seems like a good size.

To answer the question that is the title of the thread it would be the 15inch rMBP with the r9 m370x. Depending on what kind of editing you are doing it will perform the best.

If that it out of your budget. I would still try to say the 15inch. Don't get me wrong, I think the 13 inch will do pretty well, but those 2 extra inches will matter quite a bit doing video editing. Plus two more cores with the i7 in the 15 inch almost doubles the speed.

I think the 13 inch will probably be fine, but the 15 inch would be so much better, and will last you longer before an upgrade is needed.
 
tibblet said:
Does anyone edit frequently on a 13" and have no trouble with the smaller screen?
Click to expand...

I do video editing in FCPX on a non-Retina 13" Pro.

While I do enjoy the opportunities I get with bigger screen size, it's COMPLETELY manageable.

I can only imagine what it looks like in Retina (mine's on its way!)
 
does your work require to travel a lot? are you editing video "on the go" often? If not I would go with an imac at the least, especially when you edit with more of the High End Cinema cameras like the Alexa and Reds.

i think any MBP 2010 and up can do the job, if you are just video editing but it also depends what type of files you are working with.
 
15" rMBP late 2013
2.3 Ghz i7
16 Go Ram
NVidia 650M
512 SSD

Im using FCPX everyday for short projects, usually under 15 mins, with Titles, effects, color correction etc and it's really nice to work with.
I have the most complex FCPX pojects on my nMP but still I would consider my rMBP a good solution for editing as long as there isnt too much titles and effects to render real time.
I got mine from the refurb for about 2150€ last year.
I can recommend this computer for any video and photo work on the go.

PS : Forgot to say Im not doin any 4K editing on the laptop, only 1080p.
 
Last edited:
I'm not travelling often so a smaller MacBook Pro isn't going to benefit me much. I do move it around my apartment often though as I use it for video game capture and have to wire it up to consoles by TV.

I don't have space for a desk, otherwise an iMac would be perfect.

Would the 13" handle a 4K render well?
 
tibblet said:
I'm not travelling often so a smaller MacBook Pro isn't going to benefit me much. I do move it around my apartment often though as I use it for video game capture and have to wire it up to consoles by TV.

I don't have space for a desk, otherwise an iMac would be perfect.

Would the 13" handle a 4K render well?
Click to expand...

Any computer sold by Apple today'll handle a 4K render. The question is : how long are you willing to wait for it?

Any current MBP, be it a 13 or a 15 will utterly smoke your current machine. With that out of the way, the 15'll be about twice as fast on renders since it is a quad core vs the 13's dual core.

It really depends on how time sensitive your projects are.
 
tibblet said:
I'm not travelling often so a smaller MacBook Pro isn't going to benefit me much. I do move it around my apartment often though as I use it for video game capture and have to wire it up to consoles by TV.

I don't have space for a desk, otherwise an iMac would be perfect.

Would the 13" handle a 4K render well?
Click to expand...

No, since:

1. It's a dual core.
2. It doesn't have a discrete GPU to speed up rendering.
 
I do decent amount of editing and you will really enjoy a quad core I7. If you can afford the new mbp then go for the model with discrete gpu. Premier CC also takes advantage of the GPU for rendering power. Stay away from 2011 and 12 models with the amd based gpu's. Also, an SSD is a must.
 
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