New MacBook Pro for video editing

[Mar-O]

Hey. So I have been waiting for the new macbook pro for a while now as I really need a new laptop. Now that the new 2016 models are finally available for pre orders I need some help deciding which one to go for.

I'm in my first year studying tv-technic with my main focus being on documentary style filming so I will mostly use it for video and photo editing from all kinds of different cameras and projects. Therefor I want to make sure whatever I get now will be able to handle heavier projects down the line as I'm not sure what kind of stuff I will end up working on.

I'm pretty set on going for one of the 15 inch models but I'm not sure what specs I need. Currently I'm thinking the 2.6GHz i7 processor, 256GB SSD and the Radeon Pro 450 2GB graphic card. Mostly wondering about the graphic card, would there be any point in upgrading to the Pro 460 with 4GB memory for video work? On what kind of tasks would one generally notice an upgrade on the graphic card?

Thanks in advanced.

 

[cultrara]

Mostly wondering about the graphic card, would there be any point in upgrading to the Pro 460 with 4GB memory for video work? On what kind of tasks would one generally notice an upgrade on the graphic card?

The graphics card is actually the least important component for editing. It will cut down on rendering/encoding time, but unless you are in a big rush I've never seen that as a problem.

If you're a student, don't worry about having a powerhouse editing machine. A decent laptop will suit you fine for school.

I would recommend building a PC if you want to get into some seriously heavy projects. You get way more performance for your dollar and it allows you to upgrade parts down the line instead of buying a whole new Mac.

 

[Mar-O]

The graphics card is actually the least important component for editing. It will cut down on rendering/encoding time, but unless you are in a big rush I've never seen that as a problem.

If you're a student, don't worry about having a powerhouse editing machine. A decent laptop will suit you fine for school.

I would recommend building a PC if you want to get into some seriously heavy projects. You get way more performance for your dollar and it allows you to upgrade parts down the line instead of buying a whole new Mac.

Thanks, then I'm at least not gonna spend any more money upgrading the graphic card. I'm only looking at getting a Mac now because I want to know I can work on projects from both the editing suits at school which all use iMacs and my own laptop if I want to work from home or need to do some work out on set or something.

 

[IanAvery-Leaf]

honestly I'm really disappointed with the new MBPs. I know everyone uses their computers differently but for me when I edit I pop an SD card into the slot to dump footage onto USB 3 and Thunderbolt 2 drives, and if I'm at home plug into magsafe and an HDMI monitor for more screen real estate. If I were using the new MBP then I would literally need an adapter for all of those except charging, but even then theres no magsafe anymore, which I understand why but still isn't exactly an "upgrade" for charging. The touchbar seems pretty backwards for people who work without looking at their keyboard since they can feel out shortcuts by memory, now you split your attention between the screen and the bar. Seems like it would be perfect on the casual macbook/Air and better left out of the professional ones, but then again apple seems to give less and less fucks about professionals these days (lol @ iPad "pro")

If I were you I'd scoop a refurbished 2015 15" with discrete graphics.
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/F...-25ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

I've been using that exact computer for the past ~18 months and its handled everything I've thrown at it editing wise like a champ. The graphics card in that mac benches about the same as the 450 too, you only see power gains if you opt for the 460 it seems like. The catch is the 450 uses less battery for that same performance of the M370X and thats how they get that great battery life with a dGPU only computer. I have found battery life to be great if you switch to the Iris Pro for normal tasks and to the AMD card for intensive stuff, but I don't really edit too far from a wall plug. In US$ you save $300, or $500 if you compare the equivalent spec with 512gb. And of course you have actual useful ports on the 2015. USB-C is amazing but its a bit too soon to switch over entirely on a pro machine. Im gonna keep enjoying all the ports on my 2015 15" for a while and let these early adopters deal with the headaches of USB-c until its way more widely utilized. I fucking hate dongles

 

[Mar-O]

honestly I'm really disappointed with the new MBPs. I know everyone uses their computers differently but for me when I edit I pop an SD card into the slot to dump footage onto USB 3 and Thunderbolt 2 drives, and if I'm at home plug into magsafe and an HDMI monitor for more screen real estate. If I were using the new MBP then I would literally need an adapter for all of those except charging, but even then theres no magsafe anymore, which I understand why but still isn't exactly an "upgrade" for charging. The touchbar seems pretty backwards for people who work without looking at their keyboard since they can feel out shortcuts by memory, now you split your attention between the screen and the bar. Seems like it would be perfect on the casual macbook/Air and better left out of the professional ones, but then again apple seems to give less and less fucks about professionals these days (lol @ iPad "pro")

If I were you I'd scoop a refurbished 2015 15" with discrete graphics.
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/F...-25ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

I've been using that exact computer for the past ~18 months and its handled everything I've thrown at it editing wise like a champ. The graphics card in that mac benches about the same as the 450 too, you only see power gains if you opt for the 460 it seems like. The catch is the 450 uses less battery for that same performance of the M370X and thats how they get that great battery life with a dGPU only computer. I have found battery life to be great if you switch to the Iris Pro for normal tasks and to the AMD card for intensive stuff, but I don't really edit too far from a wall plug. In US$ you save $300, or $500 if you compare the equivalent spec with 512gb. And of course you have actual useful ports on the 2015. USB-C is amazing but its a bit too soon to switch over entirely on a pro machine. Im gonna keep enjoying all the ports on my 2015 15" for a while and let these early adopters deal with the headaches of USB-c until its way more widely utilized. I fucking hate dongles

Thanks for some great input. I fully agree the need for adapters with the new macbook sucks and I don't really care about the touch bar so I might look into the 2015 model again if I can get it at a good discount now. It dosent seem like they sell refurbished macs in Norway so I think I would have to buy a brand new one and so far the price difference with the new compared to the old dosent seem very big. Very interesting if most power gain on the new one compared to the 2015 will first come if you upgrade to the 460 graphic card if thats not important for video editing. Do you think the new prosessor will make a bigger difference or is it expected to be fairly similar to the old one for video work?

Also what is peoples experience only going with the 256GB hard drive, since I will be working off external hard drives when editing anyways I can't really see much reason to upgrade?

 

[ICary]

I understand needing a laptop for class, I have one its nice taking notes and what not. But building a PC, or getting an iMac if you are set on apple is 100% the better way to go, besides you can't travel with it, which may be a deal breaker. As a Film Major, I built an iMac and love it more than life. When I edit on the iMac versus my macbook pro I am so calm and relaxed because I never have issues with anything or long ass rendering times. My iMac halls ass and never gets the rainbow wheel of death and export/rendering times are literally 100% faster. Plus a desktop is cheaper and you get way better internals. Also its nicer to work on a larger monitor and start to build a workstation if you are going to become a true editor. Just my .02

 

[eheeth]

Spend the same amount, but spend it on a jacked up 2015 Pro instead... Useful ports and better specs for the money, it'll be plenty capable and future proof

 

[IanAvery-Leaf]

Thanks for some great input. I fully agree the need for adapters with the new macbook sucks and I don't really care about the touch bar so I might look into the 2015 model again if I can get it at a good discount now. It dosent seem like they sell refurbished macs in Norway so I think I would have to buy a brand new one and so far the price difference with the new compared to the old dosent seem very big. Very interesting if most power gain on the new one compared to the 2015 will first come if you upgrade to the 460 graphic card if thats not important for video editing. Do you think the new prosessor will make a bigger difference or is it expected to be fairly similar to the old one for video work?

Also what is peoples experience only going with the 256GB hard drive, since I will be working off external hard drives when editing anyways I can't really see much reason to upgrade?

Even if its not through Apple I'm sure you can find a 2015 15" w/ dGPU for a discount at a 3rd party seller in Norway thats trying to empty out their stock for the new one. I'm not sure how much better the processor will be but Intel hasn't really made big advancements performance wise, like the AMD card in these macs its all about efficiency so it'll use a bit less power for the same performance. As far as 256 or bigger goes, I "had" to get 512gb in my 2015 since they don't sell one with a dGPU for any lower but now that I have that I would never want to go back. I edit off externals too but for on the go once I know I have all the footage/files needed for a project I load it onto the internal SSD and it definitely speeds up loading things while editing a little since the rMBP SSDs are stupid fast. The 2016 model has even faster storage so it'd be a shame to not be able to utilize that to the fullest

As a Film Major, I built an iMac

what?

When I edit on the iMac versus my macbook pro I am so calm and relaxed because I never have issues with anything or long ass rendering times. My iMac halls ass and never gets the rainbow wheel of death and export/rendering times are literally 100% faster. Plus a desktop is cheaper and you get way better internals.

Are you comparing a new iMac with a 13" MBP which none have a dGPU? Theres a huuuge range of MBP and quite a lot that shouldn't even be called "Pro" in the first place. My 2015 MBP "halls ass and never gets the rainbow wheel of death and export/rendering times are literally 100% faster", that sentence means nothing until you say exactly what you are comparing to.

if you compare geek bench results between the 2.8ghz 2015 MBP and 5KiMac with the top spec 4ghz chip they are extremely similar except, slight edge going to the iMac in single core and to the MBP in multicore, which is useful for video editing. For graphics neither are too impressive since they're macs and apple refuses to use top end GPUs for power reasons, and even though the iMac is a desktop it uses a laptop GPU. And that laptop GPU is pushing almost twice the pixels of the rMBP in the 5KiMac which definitely impacts performance, the 21.5" 4K iMac doesn't even have a damn GPU haha.

Plus a desktop is cheaper and you get way better internals. Also its nicer to work on a larger monitor and start to build a workstation if you are going to become a true editor. Just my .02

The iMac that competes with the high end 2015 MBP is $3.2k, 3.6k if you opt for 32gb of ram instead of 16 to match the MBP. I can't find the top end MBP price since apple doesn't sell it anymore but I believe it was $3.2-3.4k. So pretty damn similar real world performance, one you can take with you everywhere, and one that has a beautiful 5K display without the true graphics power it needs to drive it efficiently.

Plus I'd argue that plugging in a MBP to a monitor/dock is more of a "workstation" than an iMac, where the only thing that you can change once its been bought is the ram. Laptop + monitor at home gives you all the comfort/screen real estate of a desktop, and when you need to go you can actually take your work with you. And you can use an eGPU over thunderbolt 2/3, which opens up even more possibilities.

A PC desktop would have a ridiculously better costerformance ratio which would actually be "cheaper with better internals" like you said, but then you have a windows computer that sits stationary on a desk which not everyone is thrilled about

also the iMac lineup hasn't been refreshed in 384 days, so fuck paying full price for that

 

[Twinjibber77]

Hate to hijack this but I can't find any threads close to it for some reason:

Just got the new 60D and i'm looking to edit on my OG 2009 MBP. What program should I use to edit? I've been having a bitch of a time with iMovie and curious if there is a better way without spending money or what the best route is if I do have to spend money.

Needing to edit primarily how-to videos for my wife's blog, then some skiing and lifestyles shots. Nothing huge.

Thanks