Time to upgrade

[Simgar988]

Hi, I make YouTube movies (shameless plug here)

and it is time to upgrade my 2013 MBP. my current workflow is 2/3 waiting for media to import and rendering and 1/3 actual editing.

I have always gone with a laptop but am not sure if I should go with a desktop. My mbp is still usable but frustrating. Maybe I should keep it for editing while traveling and have a dedicated iMac at home with the real power?

Or should I just go for a fully spec'd 13" or a powerful 15".... my concern is the ports and that they will update the mbp and add a sd slot or something.

P.S. I try to shoot in 4K all the time

Thanks

 

[Heruhur]

Well, since no budget mentioned. Here's some options.

- keep the macbook and buy an iMac.
- new macbook 13" with an eGPU (sonnet eGFX breakaway box (or similar) with an rx580 or a Vega gpu)
- new macbook 15"
- new macbook 15" with an eGPU (same as above)

(note: with the eGPU your gonna need an external monitor.)

I wouldn't go 13" without the eGPU (which you'll use at home), you will end up waiting again.
I'm using a 13" tbMBP 2016 without an eGPU and it's not fast.
I end up waiting a fair amount of time on the edits to render before I can check the result.
(10-30 seconds clip: editing a bit, adding color correction, crossover: background render takes about 3-6min. to complete before it's playable and that is using 4K proxy)

so the egpu should cost you about 600-700 dollars/euros for a case with an rx580
If you go solo-15" I would advise the one with the radeon pro 560 and 4Gb video-memory.

A budget would help to narrow it down.

 

[Simgar988]

Well, since no budget mentioned. Here's some options.

- keep the macbook and buy an iMac.
- new macbook 13" with an eGPU (sonnet eGFX breakaway box (or similar) with an rx580 or a Vega gpu)
- new macbook 15"
- new macbook 15" with an eGPU (same as above)

(note: with the eGPU your gonna need an external monitor.)

I wouldn't go 13" without the eGPU (which you'll use at home), you will end up waiting again.
I'm using a 13" tbMBP 2016 without an eGPU and it's not fast.
I end up waiting a fair amount of time on the edits to render before I can check the result.
(10-30 seconds clip: editing a bit, adding color correction, crossover: background render takes about 3-6min. to complete before it's playable and that is using 4K proxy)

so the egpu should cost you about 600-700 dollars/euros for a case with an rx580
If you go solo-15" I would advise the one with the radeon pro 560 and 4Gb video-memory.

A budget would help to narrow it down.

My budget is like 3k

 

[Heruhur]

Well in order of being the best for fcpx:
- 27" iMac i7-cpu 16gb ram rx580 gpu and 512Gb SSD ($2900)
- 15" MBP (the one with 2Gb Radeon Pro) + External GPU (RX580) ($2400 + ~$600)
- 15" MBP (the one with 4Gb Radeon Pro) ($2800)

first is best performance
second good performance and portability
third best portability

 

[Msivyparrot]

Buying a new laptop at this point is not going to do much to solve the problems you describe, buying an egpu breakout box, you may as well save and buy an iMac Pro, the egpu needs a 2nd monitor, so in effect you have a desktop in 3 parts...and all the cabling issues...

The problem you have is Apple simply not paying attention to the road, they have veered off the road and made bad decisions in regards FCPX, one of those problems is ineffective codecs at the proxy file level..there is only 1 native file, and it is hopeless at certain tasks, using any form of alpha channel based media, graphics, titles, you are so out of luck and need to render.

What I would do is please for the love of proxy, file a feedback page to Apple, please..Let them know your issues, I know the feedback page is lame, but it is all we have right now..And no I don't think Apple reads them, but maybe I am wrong, so far I am convinced they are ignored, but still I feedback..

The best solution I have found for working around a problem is to use the Filipe Baez method.. This will work with very low rez files, so no resource issues...until better laptops come around, with more ports, and faster more effective RAM/GPU we have to be creative in problem solving..

 

[joema2]

Well in order of being the best for fcpx:
- 27" iMac i7-cpu 16gb ram rx580 gpu and 512Gb SSD ($2900)...

This is by far his best choice, since he shoots only H264 4k. The 2017 i7 iMac is the only machine fast enough to edit 4k H264 without proxies (excepting the iMac Pro which is out of his price range).

The 2017 i7 iMac is *vastly* faster on H264 than his 2013 MBP -- I know because my documentary team has a 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 MBP, plus a 2013, 2015 and 2017 i7 iMac.

Even the 2017 i7 iMac will require proxies for editing multicam 4k H264, but it can generate these relatively fast -- about 2x faster than a 2015 i7 iMac and probably 3x or 4x faster than a 2013 MBP.

He states 2/3 of his time waiting for import. Depending on the codec and import procedure this can be greatly improved. The fastest way is copy all camera media to hard drive, then import with "leave files in place" and only create proxies if needed.

The only complication is when using certain tree-based media such as AVCHD or Sony XAVC-S, etc. In those cases "leave files in place" is not an option unless the media files are copied outside the original folder tree. That should never be done for AVCHD, but for XAVC-S it works OK, at least for me. For AVCHD it's better to re-wrap the files before import using EditReady, which then allows import with "leave files in place": https://www.divergentmedia.com/editready

However that's not necessary, if time and disk space is no concern AVCHD can be imported to the library and FCPX will automatically rewrap the content. It just makes the library a lot bigger.

 

[Heruhur]

This is by far his best choice, since he shoots only H264 4k. The 2017 i7 iMac is the only machine fast enough to edit 4k H264 without proxies (excepting the iMac Pro which is out of his price range).

The 2017 i7 iMac is *vastly* faster on H264 than his 2013 MBP -- I know because my documentary team has a 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 MBP, plus a 2013, 2015 and 2017 i7 iMac.

I completely agree with you, I simply gave the TS some options.
Now it's up to him to decide what performance vs. portability he needs.

Buying a new laptop at this point is not going to do much to solve the problems you describe, buying an egpu breakout box, you may as well save and buy an iMac Pro, the egpu needs a 2nd monitor, so in effect you have a desktop in 3 parts...and all the cabling issues...

Yes this is a big disadvantage of an eGPU. If he has no external monitor then this is not an option.

@joema2 and @Msivyparrot:
Yes the iMac is the fastest, but keep in mind if he has to do a lot of editing on location, a MBP could save him the most time.
So it's totally dependent on the usage case. If he edit's primarily at home, it's a no brainer . . . the 27" iMac.
If it's say 50/50, then the balance starts shifting.

 

[sevoneone]

If it were me, I'd get the iMac as a main workstation and keep your existing MacBook Pro for capture and basic cutting on the go. I like being able to capture/review footage in the field, but prefer to do heavy tasks at a desktop.

If you need your entire workflow to be mobile, the 15" MacBook pro with the Radeon Pro 560 is likely your best bet.

Something to keep in mind, if your need is not urgent, is that Apple should be releasing updated Macs with 8th Gen Intel CPUs sooner than later. The 13" MBR will go from dual to quad core and the iMac and 15" will get 6-cores.

 

[SuperBrown]

With that budget get an iMac 27 inch i7, unless you REALLY need a laptop. I also have a 2013 MBP (15") and have been thinking about upgrading, but Apple's current laptop lineup is discouraging for video editing, at least to me. I cut in Avid and Premiere so I've started thinking about Windows if I want to continue going the laptop route. Otherwise I'd get a high end iMac.