Late 2011 MBP and Adobe CC

[JumpingJuniper]

Hi All,

I'm a long-time reader of these forums but decided to register and post for the first time today because I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to despite spending some time in the search function. I hope someone will have a reasonable answer for me.

I have a late 2011 15" MBP that was tip-top line when I bought it. I tricked it out via apple to the extent they allow:
2.4GHz Intel Core i7
8GB Memory
Graphics card is Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
750GB HDD (~500GB full) + Super Drive
OS X El Capitan

I was a hard-core hobbyist videographer and photographer when I bought it, but in the past 4 years have gotten married and had kids, so the hobbies took an extreme backseat and the computer has been mostly used for word processing and streaming video during that time.

Now that I have a little more time to work on projects again, I wonder if this is a machine I can still use or if it is really time to upgrade. I am back into video reasonably heavily and dabbling in photography. I'm a little worried about re-downloading the Adobe Creative cloud apps again (will probably have heavy use of Premiere, Audition, Lightroom, and perhaps Photoshop) on this machine. I don't want to crash the system if it can't handle it.

I have been fully entrenched in the Apple ecosystem for 20 years and would rather not go back to a PC, but my budget for a possible new computer would be tight-- i.e. I don't have the $2200 I had lying around (kids are expensive!) that I had as a fancy-free single lady.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[iPhonagain]

Hi All,

I'm a long-time reader of these forums but decided to register and post for the first time today because I have a question that I can't seem to find the answer to despite spending some time in the search function. I hope someone will have a reasonable answer for me.

I have a late 2011 15" MBP that was tip-top line when I bought it. I tricked it out via apple to the extent they allow:
2.4GHz Intel Core i7
8GB Memory
Graphics card is Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
750GB HDD (~500GB full) + Super Drive
OS X El Capitan

I was a hard-core hobbyist videographer and photographer when I bought it, but in the past 4 years have gotten married and had kids, so the hobbies took an extreme backseat and the computer has been mostly used for word processing and streaming video during that time.

Now that I have a little more time to work on projects again, I wonder if this is a machine I can still use or if it is really time to upgrade. I am back into video reasonably heavily and dabbling in photography. I'm a little worried about re-downloading the Adobe Creative cloud apps again (will probably have heavy use of Premiere, Audition, Lightroom, and perhaps Photoshop) on this machine. I don't want to crash the system if it can't handle it.

I have been fully entrenched in the Apple ecosystem for 20 years and would rather not go back to a PC, but my budget for a possible new computer would be tight-- i.e. I don't have the $2200 I had lying around (kids are expensive!) that I had as a fancy-free single lady.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Best upgrades you do is upgrade the RAM and install an SSD drive, you'll be amazed how much faster it is after you do!

 

[dwig]

I don't think you'd be a happy camper very long, given the limitations of the MBP 2011. Your 8gb RAM is the max supported. You could improve performance with a swap to a large internal SSD though. The machine's limitation to USB2 or the now obsolete FW800 limits performance of external storage to a walking pace regardless of the drive's type and inherent speed.

Currently, all of the CC apps should run OK on your older OS with the exception of the new Rush which requires at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra (I think, if not 10.14; it won't install on 10.12 Sierra). The issues would arise with modern higher resolution video (Full HD, 4k, ...) and with very large Ps files (>500mb). You'd have to move your current video project onto the internal for editing and rendering and then shuffle it off to an external for storage while you work on the next project.

 

[JumpingJuniper]

I don't think you'd be a happy camper very long, given the limitations of the MBP 2011. Your 8gb RAM is the max supported. You could improve performance with a swap to a large internal SSD though. The machine's limitation to USB2 or the now obsolete FW800 limits performance of external storage to a walking pace regardless of the drive's type and inherent speed.

Currently, all of the CC apps should run OK on your older OS with the exception of the new Rush which requires at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra (I think, if not 10.14; it won't install on 10.12 Sierra). The issues would arise with modern higher resolution video (Full HD, 4k, ...) and with very large Ps files (>500mb). You'd have to move your current video project onto the internal for editing and rendering and then shuffle it off to an external for storage while you work on the next project.

Thanks. This is helpful. I am hopeful that tomorrow's event will give us more mac info, but with the current lineup, do you think I could get away with a MBA or should I really be sticking to the pro line for my purposes?

 

[JumpingJuniper]

Hi All,

Back again after the event. I am seriously considering a MBA -NOT the new one, to replace my 2011 MBP. I wonder if this will be sufficient. Most of my hobbying will be video editing-- Adobe Premiere. I will be storing finished products externally or in the cloud. It doesn't seem like the new MBA has enough to set it apart from the old one performance-wise (plus the old one still has the ports I like.) My other option for a big boost is an MBP at twice the price... but twice the performance?

Any thoughts from the gallery? We are looking at 1080P video for now, I don't have a 4K camera yet. The thing that has me wondering if I should suck it up for the MBP is the quad-core. But that also will blow my budget and I'll need a dongle...

Thanks.

 

[4491228]

Hi All,

Back again after the event. I am seriously considering a MBA -NOT the new one, to replace my 2011 MBP. I wonder if this will be sufficient. Most of my hobbying will be video editing-- Adobe Premiere. I will be storing finished products externally or in the cloud. It doesn't seem like the new MBA has enough to set it apart from the old one performance-wise (plus the old one still has the ports I like.) My other option for a big boost is an MBP at twice the price... but twice the performance?

Any thoughts from the gallery? We are looking at 1080P video for now, I don't have a 4K camera yet. The thing that has me wondering if I should suck it up for the MBP is the quad-core. But that also will blow my budget and I'll need a dongle...

Thanks.

Whatever you do, please do not get an old MBA, you could get a better specced PC laptop for less than half the price of any older MBA, diehard Apple fan or not.

If you truly want video processing performance your options are limited to a used or new MBP as even the 2018 MBA has a CPU less capable than the new iPad Pro, with the 15 inch with GPU being the ideal option. I think an on-board graphics solution as in the 13 inch MBP would be sufficient.

EDIT: Actually, your 2011 MBP would probably be as fast with an older Air and would keep up with the new Air. For less than $100 you can upgrade to an SSD and it will have similar snappiness to a new MBA.

 

[JumpingJuniper]

Whatever you do, please do not get an old MBA, you could get a better specced PC laptop for less than half the price of any older MBA, diehard Apple fan or not.

If you truly want video processing performance your options are limited to a used or new MBP as even the 2018 MBA has a CPU less capable than the new iPad Pro, with the 15 inch with GPU being the ideal option. I think an on-board graphics solution as in the 13 inch MBP would be sufficient.

EDIT: Actually, your 2011 MBP would probably be as fast with an older Air and would keep up with the new Air. For less than $100 you can upgrade to an SSD and it will have similar snappiness to a new MBA.

I ended up buying a refurbished 2018 MBP quad-core. It just made the most sense. I figured 7 years and it has done its time.

 

[prisstratton]

You can upgrade the RAM to 16 GB and put in a SSD and still have a VERY capable system. You might at some point run into GPU issues, or NOT. My 2011 17" (see my sig.) still runs great.