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T
tavisn31405496
Participant
June 8, 2017
Question

What do I need in my Macbook?

  • June 8, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1154 views

I'm going to invest in a Macbook Pro soon. I have chosen this over PC just because of how my job goes (we all use Macs its just easier to keep it all in the same vein). Just as some context, I work with the Adobe suite so Premiere, AE, Illustrator, Lightroom and Indesign mostly. I won't be working with 4K a lot unless it is simply cutting and assembling and color in Premiere (so no heavy manipulation and effects) and I don't intend to get a 4K camera myself for awhile (I might however want to work with Black Magic cameras). I plan to do a lot of work in After Effects (motion graphics and instructional videos, etc), and I do work on a magazine and other design things.

So my concern is, will the new Macbook Pro's hold up? I don't expect them to be super fast on renders and exports, but simply can I work on the timeline without having to stop and without any stutters and lag as my current HP laptop does? Secondly, everyone will say a discrete GPU is better than Intel graphics, but in your opinion can I afford to cut that cost? How much does Adobe actually use GPU acceleration especially considering that I've read online that the integrated Intel graphics are now probably better than the discrete graphics card in my old 2013 laptop (which was a NVIDIA GeForce 740M). Will a quad core i7 the new Intel integrated graphics and 16gb of RAM be enough? And my biggest question: Would the added graphics card (Radeon 550?) show ANY SIGNIFICANT difference in speed for these applications? If its only a marginal difference practically, I'd prefer to pass as money is tight!

Thanks for any advice!

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1 reply

RoninEdits
RoninEdits
Inspiring
June 8, 2017

which cpu do you have in your 2013 laptop? if its a four core with hyper-threading at decent speeds like 2.8ghz, a new machine may not be worth the upgrade. intel has hit a brick wall with performance gains for the last several years, so only more cores or higher clock speeds will show big improvements. besides premiere, most of the programs you list tend to top out around 4 cpu cores, so its higher clock speeds that are needed. until adobe can modernize its software to use more cpu cores, we will be stuck in limbo between poor/old software design and intel cpu's with almost zero performance gains over each new generation.

for discrete graphics it depends on what is being done. those programs you list are mostly cpu bound, so the video card will have limited benefit and use. in premiere there are some fx that are gpu accelerated, like lumetri color, and its those effects where a decent video card can make a difference. i think the basic radeon 550 might be around 2x more powerful than the intel graphics. nvidia and amd graphics have made good advancements in power efficiency, so they can get more powerful cards in laptops. meanwhile intel has made some good gains with their integrated graphics, but is perhaps even further behind now with what amd and nvidia can get into laptops.

T
tavisn31405496Author
Participant
June 9, 2017

Thanks for the reply. That's actually very helpful in determining if I need the GPU or not. Just for reference this is the CPU in my current 2013 computer:Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) Product Specifications . It does have 4 cores, base 2.4 GHz, but its 4th gen (Haswell?) which I remember being super excited about at the time! It used to do very well but as time goes on, processes get slower. It's not the rendering time I'm worried about (I can use that as an excuse for more hours sunk into a project), but its the actual time it takes to get anything done. For example, moving a slider in Premiere might cause a 3-4 second lag time in response and it just feels awful. And forget more complicated processes!

RoninEdits
RoninEdits
Inspiring
June 9, 2017

that cpu you have is still somewhat recent, so its down to clock speeds when comparing it against new computers. new laptops do have slightly higher base and turbo speeds, but its not going to be a big improvement. i don't know if mac's are the same, but when a windows computer slows down, its usually windows or installed software causing the slow down. formatting and reinstalling windows gets rid of the slow down. also, if your laptop only has a hdd, upgrading to a ssd might make a noticeable difference.

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