Which MacBook for video editing?

[Square Eyes]

Hello folks,

I'm looking to buy a new macbook as my current one can't handle HD footage (it's old!)

I'm looking at the top of the range 15in model, but I don't know if I need all of those specs. Do I need quad core, or the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card. I may also prefer a 13in model for reduced weight as I'm travelling a lot.

I borrowed a friends macbook pro to do a project and it handled it fine. She can't remember the specs but it's 13in so must be duo core and minus a fancy graphics card.

I'd like to 'future proof' my purchase but I'm pretty skint so don't want to spend money for the sake of it! I'll be using Premiere, After Effects and Flash.

Your help is much appreciated!

 

[mojito]

I use FCP7 on my 2011 MBP and it works just fine. The GPU on that has a lot of well-known issues and it's always been fine for me. It's probably way slower performance-wise than newer MBP's but I'm used to it and I'm okay with it's performance. That said, I see you're running Adobe, so a quick google of "NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M adobe premiere" gave me some hits. It was apparently a problem at first, where you had to add the GPU to the list of supported GPU's, but now it's integrated for you. Besides that, I'm pretty certain it'll run your HD footage and programs like butter. But, if you're doing more research and comparing models of MBP, just do some checking of the GPU and its compatibility w/ Premiere.

 

[Laurencia7]

I would go to the Mac store in your area and tell them what you are looking for, even if you don't buy it there. The best bet for performance is the GPU and RAM. The newer Macbooks have at least 8GB of Ram, but can be upgraded for more. I upgraded my own Ram in my older Macbook and it helps immensely with editing video.

Graphics card would help to with playback, and clarity of video and images. You also want at least 1TB of space in the HD, and an extra external HD to backup the videos in Time Machine.