Is my Macbook powerful enough to run Premier Pro with no stutter-jitters when editing?

[Krakenlims]

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Startup Disc: Macintosh HD

Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

I'm not shootng 4K.

Should I upgrade anything for better performance? Perhaps the graphcs card or?

Thanks

[Conrad_C]

Since you are not editing 4K, it's possible to edit relatively smoothly, but it can never be guaranteed, because whether it previews smoothly depends on what is in the timeline (formats, resolutions) and how complex it is. The best chance you have is if you are mostly editing one or two tracks with cuts only and maybe some titles, but with few (or better yet, no) transitions or effects, with all media on fast storage, using editing formats that don't require a lot of decoding/decompression (since that taxes the CPU). When you add transitions, effects, and tracks, the load on the CPU goes up a lot unless you used effects that can be accelerated by your graphics hardware.

Upgrading your current Mac is not an option. There are no CPU or internal graphics upgrades available for any Mac laptop, and 16GB is already the maximum amount of RAM for your model.

If you want to edit smoothly, keep your productions simple. Using as few tracks as possible, and as few effects and transitions as possible. If you need  a lot of those in your production, you will need a more recent or more powerful computer.

[Krakenlims]

Thanks for the reply,,, "with all media on fast storage" - can you explain this?

[SamLanes]

This refers to the speed of the Hard Disk Drives one which the footage is stored. It is recommended that this is external (standalone) disk drives, preferably SSD. On your model of Mac, you have an option of Thunderbolt 2, or USB3 connections, so if possible you should use some external SSD drives that can connect via one of those connections (I believe Thunderbolt 2 is preferable as it is faster).

[Conrad_C]

Thunderbolt 2 is faster than USB 3, but Thunderbolt 2 is already on the way out because of Thunderbolt 3, so drives with a Thunderbolt 2 port won't be common or as affordable. If using SSDs with video, the best USB drives to go for right now are USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gb/sec).

[Krakenlims]

"using editing formats that don't require a lot of decoding/decompression" - and what are editing formats?

[SamLanes]

Editing formats refer to the type of file that the footage is, such as H.264, DNxHD, etc. Although Premiere Pro supports most formats these days, some formats are better than other in terms of the amount of computer resource they require to 'interpret' and playback the footage.

H.264, for example, requires a lot of computer resource, as it is heavily compressed to make the files smaller. This means that Premiere must draw more CPU power to play it back smoothly.  Something like MXF, although the file sizes can be larger, is less compressed, so it is a better format for editing with, as less CPU power is required to 'unravel' the compression.

It can be tricky to understand, but once you do, it can make planning your productions much smoother.