Need a computer that can handle specific task

[JustOpp]

Hey all, I could use some buying advice.

I'm using a 2010 13" Macbook Pro with 4 GB of RAM, and it's held up quite nicely. There is only one routine (for me) task that it can't handle:

Using Giphy Capture (or Quicktime) to make a GIF from a streaming video source. The GIF always comes out choppy due to lag.

I also do some audio and light video editing, but this computer handles those needs just fine, even if it is a bit slow.

Should I again go for a Macbook Pro, or would a Macbook handle my workload? Would I notice a difference with an iMac?

Thanks in advance.

 

[bodonnell202]

Honestly, any of the current Macbooks (Macbook or Pro) should handle what you do with your computer. Go with whatever form factor you are comfortable with and make sure you get at least 8 GB of RAM.

 

[JustOpp]

Honestly, any of the current Macbooks (Macbook or Pro) should handle what you do with your computer. Go with whatever form factor you are comfortable with and make sure you get at least 8 GB of RAM.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know much about hardware, is the increased RAM the key to handling the streaming video to GIF conversion?

 

[bodonnell202]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know much about hardware, is the increased RAM the key to handling the streaming video to GIF conversion?

I suspect a combination of more RAM and a newer faster GPU would take care of the issue.

 

[phrehdd]

Have you checked any forums dedicated to that application? It seems that everyone who doesn't use that program (here) is shooting in the dark. What you might want to find out is -

Does the app take advantage of GPU (as perhaps Open CL vs/or Open GL)? We are talking ATI vs Nvidia in most cases.
Does the app take advantage of multi-core CPU?
What is the optimal amount of RAM to have available as opposed to "minimum" to run the app.

Items overall that surely would make a difference is 8 gigs of RAM over 4 gigs as often more than one app may be open. Also, SSD drive vs traditional hard drive.

 

[jerwin]

On my 5K imac, Giphy consumes about 8 percent CPU and 100 MB of memory. Essentially trivial.

It may be that your machine is already tight on ram, and GIPHY is the straw that breaks the camels back, causing it to use swap.

When I used my Core2 Duo imac, 8GB let me do two things at once. Video encoding still took forever, but I could still browse the web while it did so. With 4GB, the GUI stuttered.

 

[JustOpp]

Thanks Phrehdd for the intelligent question, and thanks Jerwin for the intelligent answer to the intelligent question.

 

[ProjectManager101]

Get more ram, if possible at least 8 and you will fly. With the ram you have you are running the applications partially while the rest of the application still in the hard drive (in a manner of speaking) and everything is slow and clumsy because hard drives are super slow compared with ram memory. Get more ram and the apps will be fully loaded in a faster medium.

 

[ITguy2016]

I would recommend you check to see if you're exhausting all of your memory before upgrading it. Open Activity Monitor (It's in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder), run the program as you normally would, and observe the amount of memory in use (click on the "System Memory" tab). This should give you a good idea if you're consuming all of your memory. The same for CPU utilization. If you see the CPU spike when you run Giphy Capture that may indicate you need more CPU power...of which a new system will be in order.