Macbook Pro M5 Pro/Max for video

[ddvmor]

Hello everyone.

I'm considering replacing a creaky old Windows desktop PC with a Macbook Pro.

My use case: 2D animation, video editing and digital art - I currently use Adobe Creative Cloud but am looking to move away from that for reasons.

I'm thinking Macbook rather than Studio because I want portability. I spend quite a bit of time on trains and in hotels or on location and would also like to be able to sometimes edit in the comfort of my lounge or garden.

Would a Macbook Pro with an M5 Pro or Max chip and a tonne of RAM be a good solution for this? How do you think it'll handle my use case? How long will it last? Is my head just being turned by shiny new toys (obvs)?

Grateful for thoughts. Also, as a tangential point - what are the best alternatives for Adobe on Mac?

Edit: Oh, yeah. I have an AVP too, so am keen to use that with it.

 

[Tdude96]

I think it depends on how much video you intend to do and what resolution video you're working with. If the video is more of a side than a critical time-sensitive part of your workflow, then a Pro is likely to be perfectly sufficient, unless you require high amounts of RAM.

The M4 Pro goes up to 48 GB of memory. We obviously don't know what the M5 Pro will have, that's something you'll want to look at when they come out, depending on how much memory you need.

As far as alternatives for Adobe Creative Suite on Mac, Affinity (now owned by Canva) could be a potential replacement for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I've tried a lot of the graphics applications out there, and disliked them all, however last year I gave Affinity a try again and was generally impressed with it. It's not entirely 1:1 with the Adobe applications, but it's serviceable.

In my opinion there's no excellent replacement for Premiere and After Effects. Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve are the ones you're most likely to see recommended for video editing. Avid is available for Mac as well (although a lot of features aren't well-supported on Mac). You'll find people who swear by each of them.