Late 2013 rMBP 13" 8GB of RAM and FCPX

[sevoneone]

Is there anyone out there using this machine with Final Cut X that can share their experience and opinion?

I'm looking to replace my mid 2010 15" MBP that has been showing its age for awhile. I swapped in an SSD last year and, for everyday computing, it is still an absolute beast, but for HD video it is a dog. I use my MBP in the field to capture footage and do basic editing on the go. I have an upgraded MacPro desktop that I use for the bulk of the rendering, color grading and other effects work. Most of the projects I do are 4-7 min industrial type videos shot on dSLR @ 1080p24.

What kind of experience should I expect on a 13" rMBP with 8GB of RAM for basic ingest and editing tasks?

 

[cycledance]

Is there anyone out there using this machine with Final Cut X that can share their experience and opinion?

I'm looking to replace my mid 2010 15" MBP that has been showing its age for awhile. I swapped in an SSD last year and, for everyday computing, it is still an absolute beast, but for HD video it is a dog. I use my MBP in the field to capture footage and do basic editing on the go. I have an upgraded MacPro desktop that I use for the bulk of the rendering, color grading and other effects work. Most of the projects I do are 4-7 min industrial type videos shot on dSLR @ 1080p24.

What kind of experience should I expect on a 13" rMBP with 8GB of RAM for basic ingest and editing tasks?

i'd go for a more powerful machine for that. bigger screen, dedicated gpu, 16gb ram. i7.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Is there anyone out there using this machine with Final Cut X that can share their experience and opinion?

I'm looking to replace my mid 2010 15" MBP that has been showing its age for awhile. I swapped in an SSD last year and, for everyday computing, it is still an absolute beast, but for HD video it is a dog. I use my MBP in the field to capture footage and do basic editing on the go. I have an upgraded MacPro desktop that I use for the bulk of the rendering, color grading and other effects work. Most of the projects I do are 4-7 min industrial type videos shot on dSLR @ 1080p24.

What kind of experience should I expect on a 13" rMBP with 8GB of RAM for basic ingest and editing tasks?

Most folks on here would suggest a quad core, however, I edit video in both my personal time as well as professionally (I edit training videos). At work I use a 13" retina MBP 2.6 GHz i5 with 8GB, editing with multiple camera angles, effects, etc. My videos are 1080p30 and most of them are between 10-15 minutes long (in some cases much longer, like 30 mins, but often shorter).

It is an absolute dream to work on. I have yet to experience any slowdowns and the CPU really chews on anything you throw at it. I am not pushing the limits of FCPX, but I'm confident it could handle even more complex projects.

At home I have a mid 2010 13" MBP and I really can't work without Proxy files to get things done, so I feel your pain. I work with 1080p24 footage and make short films of about 10 minutes long (mostly GoPro and iPhone footage). Transcoding is an agonising process (because the Core 2 Duo lacks Quick Sync) and some CPU intensive filters simply make FCPX crash. It's not an ideal machine to edit on by far.

So yeah, in my experience the Haswell 13" machines are very capable of the work you describe.

 

[TechZeke]

i'd go for a more powerful machine for that. bigger screen, dedicated gpu, 16gb ram. i7.

Thanks for not helping the discussion at all. I don't think the OP wants to buy a $2500 macbook pro just for the sake of buying a $2500 macbook pro, otherwise he/she would have done that already. The OP also clearly states that this is for basic editing on the go, the OP has a Mac Pro for heavy stuff. You clearly did not read the post.

 

[sevoneone]

Most folks on here would suggest a quad core, however, I edit video in both my personal time as well as professionally (I edit training videos). At work I use a 13" retina MBP 2.6 GHz i5 with 8GB, editing with multiple camera angles, effects, etc. My videos are 1080p30 and most of them are between 10-15 minutes long (in some cases much longer, like 30 mins, but often shorter).

It is an absolute dream to work on. I have yet to experience any slowdowns and the CPU really chews on anything you throw at it. I am not pushing the limits of FCPX, but I'm confident it could handle even more complex projects.

At home I have a mid 2010 13" MBP and I really can't work without Proxy files to get things done, so I feel your pain. I work with 1080p24 footage and make short films of about 10 minutes long (mostly GoPro and iPhone footage). Transcoding is an agonising process (because the Core 2 Duo lacks Quick Sync) and some CPU intensive filters simply make FCPX crash. It's not an ideal machine to edit on by far.

So yeah, in my experience the Haswell 13" machines are very capable of the work you describe.

This is exactly the kind of insight I'm was looking for. The machine I have my eye on is basically the same specs you are running, I am going to order a refurbished unit and put it to the test over the holidays and, if all goes well, look into selling the 15" after the new year.

Sounds like you and I do similar types of video. The 2010 15" pro I have is an i5, not a C2D, but it is a first gen dual core i5 which were not a huge improvement over the C2D imo, the 2nd gen (sandy bridge) and up chips were where the big advancements came. I won't miss the discrete 330M graphics with only 256MB of VRAM in this thing either. Everything I've looked at shows the Iris 5100 graphics is easily double the performance.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I feel much more confident this will meet my needs while mobile.

 

[Meister]

This is exactly the kind of insight I'm was looking for. The machine I have my eye on is basically the same specs you are running, I am going to order a refurbished unit and put it to the test over the holidays and, if all goes well, look into selling the 15" after the new year.

Sounds like you and I do similar types of video. The 2010 15" pro I have is an i5, not a C2D, but it is a first gen dual core i5 which were not a huge improvement over the C2D imo, the 2nd gen (sandy bridge) and up chips were where the big advancements came. I won't miss the discrete 330M graphics with only 256MB of VRAM in this thing either. Everything I've looked at shows the Iris 5100 graphics is easily double the performance.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I feel much more confident this will meet my needs while mobile.

Listen to cloudsurfer, he is correct.

 

[kathyricks]

I use my late Oct. 2013 rMBP with Iris Pro Graphics and 8GB ram for editing 5-10 minute 4K videos from my Panasonic GH4 using Adobe Premier Elements 12. I have not had any speed or crashing problems. I have not tried FCPX.