I'm new to the Mac world. I've always used a pc for everything I do. I'm going to be in the market for something new in early October. I have my eye set on a Mac. I know they have less specs compared to a pc but I know there more dependable and from what I hear work better as a system to perform better. What I would like to know is would a MBP i5 be enough power to edit HD video or would I have to get an iMac for that kind of performance? I really have my eye on the MBP because of it's portability. Thanks for your help in advance.
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MBP i5 performance
- Thread starter verduzco
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Honestly, an i5 would likely be plenty powerful to edit video on. Realistically, I've seen people edit 720p video decently on even Atom based PC's. Editing isn't really the issue with video it's rendering, but the short answer is the i5 is plenty capable of it. I'd probably want to opt for 8gb of ram though.
IMHO an iMac isn't going to give you much over a decently configured MBP in terms of editing/rendering video. If you want something that'd make a sizable difference in editing/rendering then I'd be looking towards a Mac Pro, but that's a ton of cash.
Then again, you could also look into options for distributed rendering depending upon the actual software you are planning on using.
IMHO an iMac isn't going to give you much over a decently configured MBP in terms of editing/rendering video. If you want something that'd make a sizable difference in editing/rendering then I'd be looking towards a Mac Pro, but that's a ton of cash.
Then again, you could also look into options for distributed rendering depending upon the actual software you are planning on using.
Hellhammer
Moderator emeritus
Depends on what kind of editing. If it's something simple with iMovie, it will handle it more than fine but if it's work related with After Effects or Final Cut, then time and speed are money. If portability is needed, then MBP is your only choice
The video that I will be editing is AVCHD. Its not for a my job but more for a hobby. I will be using after effects as well. I plan on using Final cut pro. I used adobe premier on a phenom quad core running at 3.0ghz with 8gb of ram with a 1gb dedicated graphics card. It gets the job done but I heard that premier is more of a power horse and Since Final cut is made for mac it runs a lot smoother . Since I never used final cut or a mac I would like to know if since there made to run hand and hand will it perform better than another laptop with slightly better specs running a program like premier
2 discs? are you talking about hard drives? I read that having a solid state drive for the system would improve the speed of pretty much everything. Is this correct?
akdj
macrumors 65816
Yes, an SSD is significantly faster than the mechanical drives we've grown accustomed to. In fact, these days...it's the NUMBER ONE improvement upgrade you can do to ANY system, IMHO. RAM, CPU...forget about it. An SSD will provide immediate and noticable speed improvements for just about anything you do that relies on accessing data.
That said, regardless of which choice you make, you'll want a second drive for your footage anyway. If your OS and editing software lives on your local (internal) drive...grab a nice FW800 external and use that for your media.
The new i5/i7 MBPs are more than fine for editing with FCP. Very portable as well...I make my mortgage doing video and audio production, and just picked up the 17" i5. I'm actually going to apply the couple hundred saved on the jump to an i7 for an SSD upgrade...maybe 6 months or so down the road, for an internal drive...as the prices come down a wee bit more.
With the iMac, you get more screen real estate...but you lose portability. Either choice is going to be pretty comparable when it comes to speed. There's a lot of crossover on the amount of RAM and CPU choices between the two lines...however, the high end 27" iMac DOES provide for the option to have two drives internally...one being an SSD. That's a cool bonus.
If it's portability you need, don't worry about performance issues with the new line of MBPs. They're fast computers relative to the software on the market...even the Adobe products. I also run Premier/AE/PS and On Location...All Good!
J
That said, regardless of which choice you make, you'll want a second drive for your footage anyway. If your OS and editing software lives on your local (internal) drive...grab a nice FW800 external and use that for your media.
The new i5/i7 MBPs are more than fine for editing with FCP. Very portable as well...I make my mortgage doing video and audio production, and just picked up the 17" i5. I'm actually going to apply the couple hundred saved on the jump to an i7 for an SSD upgrade...maybe 6 months or so down the road, for an internal drive...as the prices come down a wee bit more.
With the iMac, you get more screen real estate...but you lose portability. Either choice is going to be pretty comparable when it comes to speed. There's a lot of crossover on the amount of RAM and CPU choices between the two lines...however, the high end 27" iMac DOES provide for the option to have two drives internally...one being an SSD. That's a cool bonus.
If it's portability you need, don't worry about performance issues with the new line of MBPs. They're fast computers relative to the software on the market...even the Adobe products. I also run Premier/AE/PS and On Location...All Good!
J