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Posted on by Updated 12/31/16 with new tests for AVCHD media, and on 1/1/17 for Premiere Pro. Then, again, 4/9/17 with news on Apple’s future desktop plans. I’ve been fascinated by the ongoing discussion about whether the new MacBook Pro laptop is fast enough for serious video editing. So, I’ve spent the last two weeks working with one and thinking about how to best answer this question. Whether you use Avid, Adobe, Apple – or any other Mac-based video editing software – video editing is one of the hardest tasks we can do on a computer because it taxes the entire system. In this report, you’ll find answers to key questions like: How much speed do I need? And what really loads down the computer?
I was surprised many times during my research for this article and I think you will be, too. NOTE: Based on this research and additional conversations with knowledgeable engineers, I’ve written an article outlining my recommendations on how to configure the 2016 MacBook Pro for video editing while still saving money. Whether the MacBook Pro is fast enough can be answered in different ways – so I looked at all of them, plus examined where desktops fit into this whole equation:. (I updated this entry on 4/9/17) In the Philosophy section, I look at the words “best” and “fast enough.” In the Technical section, I provide speed measurements of the system.
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In the Practical Speed Tests section, I measure performance specs when editing SD, HD and 4K material in single track, multicam and with four video streams running at once. Finally, in the How Adobe and Apple Use RAM and Storage section, I present a technical look at how Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Apple Final Cut Pro X use RAM and storage during editing. NOTE: on the Touch Bar and how it’s used inside Final Cut Pro X.
THE BASIC CONTROVERSY The MacBook Pro has been criticized for its emphasis on thinness, its lack of ports, its variable battery life and whether it is “pro” enough. I find some of these criticisms valid, while others are not. From my perspective, Apple’s insistence on thinness in its pro laptops makes no sense. My present computer case, carrying a 2013 MacBook Pro, currently contains the computer, a typing stand, two hard disks, a small RAID, hard-wire ethernet cable, portable amplified speakers, and converter cables for every known connection.
It weighs about 30 pounds and travels with me around the world. While the new MacBook Pro is 14% thinner and 10% lighter than the previous version, this emphasis on thinness is meaningless to me given all the rest of the gear I need for training, presentations or editing. NOTE: However, it has been pointed out that video journalists who need to travel swift and light in difficult areas aren’t able to take extra gear. For them, thin is good. Battery life is also much less important to me.
Anywhere I’m editing, I’m plugged in. Yes, longer battery life is nice if I’m browsing the web or sending email, but not if I’m editing a movie. Performance is much more important and running the computer full-tilt during editing just eats battery life. I have yet to travel anywhere where I don’t have access to power. And, if I was in the middle of the wilderness, I’d bring external batteries “just in case.” NOTE: However, not everyone thinks battery life is unimportant. Just this morning, Consumer Reports wrote: “Apple launched a new series of MacBook Pro laptops this fall, and Consumer Reports’ labs have just finished evaluating them. The laptops did very well in measures of display quality and performance, but in terms of battery life, we found that the models varied dramatically from one trial to another.
“As a result, these laptops are the first MacBooks not to receive recommended ratings from Consumer Reports.” The lack of ports, or, more accurately, dropping old ports in favor of new ones, is a long tradition at Apple. SCSI 25-pin, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, TOSLink, DVD and SD slots are all ports to which I’ve said good-bye. Not to mention countless display connectors.
Apple has never seen a port that it doesn’t like cancelling – generally about two years too soon. After all this time with Apple, I’ve come to expect it, which is why my computer bag weighs 30 pounds. That said, I really like the new USB-C ports. They are reversible, hold cables very tightly, are thin and support power, audio, data and displays on a single port. Yes, it’s a new form factor, but there’s a lot to like with these new ports. Also, it has an even brighter display with built-in support for the DCI P3 color gamut which supports 25% more color saturation than HD media.
At 500 nits it is 67% brighter than the previous generation, making it even better to see in bright light conditions. However, none of these observations directly relate to whether the computer is “pro” or not. That is a much harder question to answer. PHILOSOPHY Creating any computer involves trade-offs; emphasizing certain features more than others. Clearly, with a laptop, portability and battery life are more important than they are with a desktop system; just as screen size and horsepower are more important to a desktop than a laptop. It would be nice to create a computer system with no limits, but that is not the real world. In the real world we need to balance competing demands.
Easily half my emails start with someone asking what’s the “best.” And the answer is always the same: “There is no ‘best.’ The best system is defined based upon what you are doing and how much you want to spend.” Given the speed that technology changes today, the “best” is a moving target. Just look at all the old systems cluttering up your closet and you’ll understand. We need to focus NOT on “what’s the best,” but “what will do the job that I need to get done.” “What can I use to do my job” is a question we can answer. “What’s the best system” simply provokes bar fights. So, is the MacBook Pro fast enough for video editing? Let’s take a closer look using some specific examples.
NOTE: In the following examples, all images are displayed above the text that describes them. TECHNICAL SPECS Here are the the specs of the MacBook Pro system that I’m using for these tests. In terms of the CPU and GPU, this is their high-end system.
Storage is a 1.0 TB SSD. Price as tested: $3,499. To get right to the speed issue, here’s the speed of the internal SSD drive, as measured by the AJA System Disk Test using 1 GB test files. When we use larger file sizes, such as 16 GB, the speeds are even faster. I have NEVER measured storage this fast before! NOTE: SSD speed varies as you change the codec, bit-depth, frame size, and files size. These numbers measure at the high-end.
Here are similar results from the Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test, illustrating supported codecs, frame rates and image sizes. To put this in perspective, in order to equal this speed with a RAID would require a system with more than 20 spinning hard drives or 6 SSDs.
For comparison, this is the internal SSD speed of a 2013 Mac Pro, using an earlier version of the Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test and tests I ran when the MacPro was first released in late 2013. Again to compare, this is the internal SSD speed of a 2013 MacBook Pro. From a storage point of view, the new MacBook Pro is really, REALLY fast! PRACTICAL SPEED TESTS But we need to look at more than just the speed of the storage, though that is a critical part of any editing system. We need to look at more “real-world” editing.
First of all thank you very much for writing. I apologize already for this bad english.
I bought a new computer with great hopes. The features are as follows: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536 MB I am currently using Premiere Pro on this computer. But I can not even edit videos in 1080p / 60fps sizes. The monitor screen is continuously frozen. The video freezes even when passing through one place in the timeline. Frame drop color is permanently yellow.
When I look at the event monitor, the CPU is 100% consistently. What can I do? I am a big disappointment. Same issues here with my 13 inch macbook pro late 2017 – but with fcpx latest update and high sierra. I am (occasionally when traveling) editing 4K video from Panasonic GH5 and ONLY in proxy – but still: it is virtually impossible to edit.
I have 8 GB ram – which i probably my primary mistake. Besides I really hate the touch pad – my palms are in the way, moving curser around when I am writing articles (I am a journalist). It is simply the most overrated mac I have owned till now. I am going to sell it.
Posted on by Updated March 11, 2018, to improve the references to my iMac Pro configuration report. At their WWDC, in June, 2017, Apple announced and released new iMac computers, designed to meet the needs of professionals.
These new systems sport a variety of very exciting features. However, if you are on a budget, how do you determine where to spend your money? This article is designed to help you make more informed choices when you don’t have a lot of money to spend. NOTE: I have not purchased any of these systems. My recommendations are based on past experience, current system specs and talking with informed individuals. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY If money is no object, buy the top of the line iMac. It will work great and you’ll have bragging rights over all the other systems.
But, if money IS an object, then you need to make trade-offs, balancing the performance you need with the money you have. However, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a system today that can meet your editing needs for the next several years. ALSO: Here are two other configuration articles you may find useful:. for video editing. for video editing YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE IMAC PRO?
What a system. This review covers the iMac. To read about the iMac Pro. YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MAC PRO?
![Pro Pro](https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-25-at-8.42.31-PM.jpeg?quality=82&strip=all&w=1600)
Given the latest iMac releases, there are very, very few reasons to purchase a Mac Pro right now; especially given its price. Keep in mind, however, that Apple has already announced they are working on a new, top-of-the-line Mac Pro which will ship sometime after 2017. Given what Apple has announced for the iMac Pro, however, that upcoming Mac Pro will need to be a true screamer to compete. I’m looking forward to seeing what Apple creates – but, as I mentioned earlier, I still need to pay my bills today. And that leads us directly to the latest updates to the iMac. WHAT SIZE SCREEN?
Both Final Cut Pro X and Premiere interfaces work best on larger screens. This is not to say they work poorly on smaller screens, but both of these display a LOT of elements on screen. More screen room is MUCH better. I recommend a 27″ display. Plus, all the new 27″ iMacs now share the same 5K Retina Display. NOTE: One of my iMacs is an older 5K iMac.
I’ve discovered, that while seeing a 5K image is nice, the on-screen text is often very hard to read. So I’ve lowered the screen resolution using System Preferences to make the text larger. I prefer to easily read the text to seeing every pixel in my image. However, if the purpose of the new system is video compression, you don’t need the bigger screen size.
In which case, you can save money and improve performance with a 21″ system. NOTE: Both H.264 and the up-coming H.265 video codecs are hardware-accelerated in all the new hardware. While this won’t help when transcoding into ProRes, hardware-acceleration will significantly speed compressing files for the web. WHAT SPEED CPU? All new iMacs have moved up to Kaby Lake processors from Intel.
Based upon the reviews I’m reading, these new processors are at least 20% faster than the older systems. Also, don’t worry that these processors are i5 as opposed to the older i7. These are from two different families, so the numbers won’t match. While CPU speed is important, it is not critical for video editing; remember, iMacs that were current as recently as last month, were easily able to edit almost all forms of SD, HD, and 4K media. Any of the processors in any of the new iMacs will be fine for video or audio editing.
HOW MUCH STORAGE? I really like that Apple has put Fusion drives into all but two of their iMacs. I own two iMacs with Fusion drives and I remain very impressed with these systems. They are an excellent balance between the speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of spinning media.
Keep in mind that the SSD portion of a Fusion drive is only a part of the total storage. For example, the 1 TB Fusion uses a 32 GB SSD, while the 2 and 3 TB Fusion drives use a 128 GB SSD. The OS watches what you do and moves files onto the SSD based upon what you are using most. Which means that a Fusion drive works fastest with files you access over and over. NOTE: Here is an on storage speeds and media requirements that explains the load your storage system needs to carry. If you want maximum performance AND you plan to store media on an external drive, get the 512 GB SSD.
All the files in macOS will take less than 30 GB, leaving plenty of room for working files and immediate storage. If you want an excellent balance between performance, price and capacity, stay with the 1 TB Fusion drive.
Again, store media externally. If you don’t plan to purchase external storage – and you will, you just don’t know it yet – get the 3 TB Fusion drive. (An extra TB for $100 makes this a better value than the 2 TB Fusion drive.) One of my systems has a 3 TB Fusion drive.
Currently, I’m using 600 GB of it. The rest is sitting around idle. When using external storage, you really don’t need lots of internal storage. If you just want maximum performance from your storage, get the 1 TB SSD. It’s pricey, but it’s speed will make you giggle.
Apple notes: “For the best performance, iMac systems with 32GB or more of memory should be configured with a 2TB or larger Fusion Drive or all-SSD storage.” NOTE: Apple’s marketing materials now define a terabyte as one trillion bytes. This means that when a disk is formatted, its storage capacity will be less than 1 TB because of the differences between how marketing and engineering calculate disk sizes. Configuring the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is now done when you pick the initial iMac, rather than as a build-to-order option within each iMac family.
So, much though I would like to pick the mid-range system and add a high-end GPU into it, we no longer have that option. Which is a shame. Because we don’t need the high-end CPU system for most video editing, but we would significantly benefit from the high-end 580 GPU in any system. Both Final Cut and Premiere are increasingly using the GPU for most editing tasks, because the GPU is much faster than the CPU at rendering bitmapped images. Therefore, the best choice is the high-end GPU. The high-end GPU also includes 8 GB of video memory (VRAM).
![Vue video editor for macbook pro 2017 Vue video editor for macbook pro 2017](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125534145/962279482.jpg)
However, the mid-range system with the Radeon Pro 575 is a perfectly adequate choice. NOTE: The difference between the 575 and 580 is performance.
The 575 has a peak performance of 4.5 Teraflops, while the 580 supports up to 5.5 Tflops. Both will handle video just fine. All of the Radeon chips support OpenCL and Apple’s Metal and up-coming Metal 2 GPU computing API. To learn more about Radeon’s GPU chips. NOTE: Again, if you are principally doing video compression, the GPU speed is less important than the CPU speed. So, compressionists don’t need as high-performance a GPU as an editor.
HOW MUCH RAM? Both Final Cut and Premiere will use as much RAM as you can afford. Based on my tests with the 2016 MacBook Pro, I recommend a minimum of 16 GB of RAM, though, all my systems here have 32 GB. Again, if you have the money, max out the RAM. However, you probably won’t notice a performance difference in most projects running 32 GB of RAM. HOW MUCH SHOULD I SPEND? You are going to be using this computer for four years.
Spend what you can afford, but don’t be stingy in areas that matter: GPU and RAM. All the base systems are fine, But, depending upon your needs, you can tweak the configurations to better match what you want the systems to do. All systems feature wireless mice and keyboards; though, in my office, I prefer my mice and keyboards wired. NOTE: Apple has not yet delivered the Touch Bar on any stand-alone keyboards. If it were my money and I was doing video editing on a budget, here’s what I would get:. 27″ Retina 5K Display. 3.5 GHz i5 processor (Includes the Radeon 575 GPU).
32 GB of RAM (custom upgrade). 1 TB Fusion drive. Keyboard and mouse to suit Total: $2,599 However, I wish that Apple made the Radeon 580 available on the mid-range unit. If it were my money and I was doing video compression, here’s what I would get. Keep in mind that the GPU is slower than those in the 27″ iMac. 21.5″ Retina 4K Display. 3.6 GHz i5 processor (this is a custom upgrade) (Includes the Radeon 560 GPU).
32 GB of RAM (custom upgrade). 1 TB Fusion drive. Keyboard and mouse to suit Total: $2,099 As always, I’m interested in your opinions. This was very helpful. I like that I can always come to your page for valuable and consistent answers and tips for my problems. It’s like visiting an old (and very knowledgeable) friend!
I’ve had my 2017 27″ 5k iMac for a year now and I’ve been pretty satisfied. However, I’m starting to work on bigger and longer projects, sometimes running multiple apps at once (AE, Premiere Pro, Encoder.etc). I’m thinking about upgrading my 32gb RAM to 64gb.
Do you think this upgrade will be of any significance in terms of speed or performance? Is it worth the $500 upgrade?
Thanks for all your valuable insights!