Painful 1080p editing with 2023 Macbook Pro M3 Pro

[joes8923424]

Hi all,

I've got a new 2023 MBP M3 Pro with 18 GB of memory.  Currently running OS Sonoma 14.2.1

I'm a news cameraman and have to do fast 3/4 minute edits often with large amount of raw footage usually shot on a sony fx6 in 1080p. This isn't a new business to me and have never normally had problems with my previous macs (although this is my first 14 inch) 

I am having real issues even doing basic editing on PP 2024. The timeline lags if it plays at all, sometimes i just get a still frame in both the source and sequence preview windows. It is totally unworkable. When i first load a ton of footage into the project, the audio waveform generation goes on for ages and ages (I've no turned off the the auto generation). 

Have i bought a dud or is this one of premiere pro's frequent mysteries? On paper this laptop is way way more powerful than my old 15 inch machines. I am kind of lost at what to do...  and getting to a situation where i'm going to have to take drastic action to make sure i can effectively deliver work. 

[joes8923424]

I ended up getting today's job by downloading PP 23. - and despite painfully slow render times (and a few restarts) i managed to get the edit finished. It's really bad though... research online suggests the problem can't be the laptop. It has 500gb left of the SSD internal hard disk and 18 cores.

Help!

[Kevin-Monahan]

HI @joes8923424,

I read your message. I understand you're having performance problems with the footage you are working with. That's terrible and not normal. I wonder if you can try a test by transcoding a few clips to ProRes. Is everything normal now? Feel free to upload a sample file and I'll test it here in the office. I hope we can help you with this problem.

Thanks,
Kevin

[joes8923424]

Hey Kevin,

I'm sure transcoding to ProRes will sort the issue out - I will give that a go... but that is not a solution at all for me. I cannot do that... it's not 2004 and i work on very tight turnaorunds in news editing.

I will upload something later here. Thanks for your reply.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey @joes8923424,

If you have a moment, you might try a test in the latest Beta where there are some fixes that might address your problem. I'm going to do that with a project I'm having trouble with myself. Please let me know what happens.

Thanks,
Kevin

[55878965]

We use FX6s and FX9s (sony's .mxf) with M1 macs. After CC23 release, make it habbit to convert all media to prores, either LT or HG, depending on the shoot. It's the only way I have found not to have issues with slow playback. 

Mod note: Edited for content. Kindly make off-topic commentary in the video lounge forum.

[Joseph359346525rsm]

As a professional editor for over 30 years, I have four complete editing systems. Three windows, and one Mac m2 for offsite. I have digested everything I could about using Mac laptops. The m2 has 24 Gb, ten core. My latest windows system is amd 7950x, with rtx7800x. 64gb. The oldest is amd 3900, 7800 gpa, 32. Even it SMOKES the Mac for rendering. I prepared a speed index as follows, 100, 89, 72, 24. This means a comparable job on the windows machines that would take 100 seconds on the fastest would take  112 on the second, 139 sec on the third, and 416 seconds on the Mac. Using the info provided by Apple, if I went with Mac Pro, it would take 200 seconds on the m3 max, properly equipped. In terms of cost, the costs usd are 2800, 2400, 1800, 2100. The m3 Mac would cost over 5000. I would never consider it. The best choice, if I need a portable, and have 5 g, is to edit remotely through Remote Desktop. If not possible, I would proxy all footage and have lunch during editing. The only feasible way I would even consider a Mac laptop  for editing would be if the price halved, and the power doubled. Even in small jobs, the Mac stutters. Am I missing something?

[Zesty_questioner15A8]

I'm experiencing a similar problem, although I can edit ok. Exporting, though, surprised me. Some renders are very, very slow and longer sequences seem to frequently not finish exporting at all.

I have a MacBook Pro Max M3, 36GB. I used to work with a 2019 iMac for the last few years, so figured the new machine would churn out my sequences like nothing. I have sequences using AE Comps and transitions by Universe. I rarely had issues. Now with a sequence in 4K, about 20 minutes, my render just stops. No error, doesn't even complete the sequence, it just doesn't continue rendering at certain points until I cancel the render.

[Guest]

Hello! I recently got a M3 Max and I've the same issue as you. I'm thinking the laptop is still so new, Premiere pro has not updated to optimse it's chip. So we will have to wait for the new update then.

14-core CPU
30-core GPU
36GB Unified Memory
1TB SSD Storage

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @Deleted User,

What are the exact specs of your footage? 

@joes8923424,

Have you considered shooting in a format that is not 10-bit HEVC 4:2:2? If you shot in an 8-bit format, for example? Let me know if that change in workflow might be a solution for you.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Guest]

Hi Kevin! Thanks for answering our questions.

Due to the natural of my work I had to shoot it in 4K 4:2:2 10 bit from Sony FX3 camera. 
Funy things is , I've a M1 Macbook 16GB and a M3 Macbook Pro Max 36GB, somehow the performance are pretty much the same, I would say we need a more optimse version of Premiere pro patches cater for M3 Chipset.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @Deleted User,

It's just a helluva format. Very non-performative. I wonder if any computer can play it back natively with ease. I'll keep asking around for you. Maybe a product team member can pipe up.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Guo Yong3538383364tw]

Hi Kevin,

I've edited on a M1 Mac Studio back before with the same video format that we shot and I'm able to edit without any issue and able to render it out pretty fast. Somehow M3 chipset is kinda slow when we're playing back footage and rendering at the same time. Hoping for a new update of premiere pro optimse for M3 Chipset!

Thanks for answering the questions!

Shawn

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks for the feedback @Guo Yong3538383364tw - I hope you can find a decent workflow for now. Let me know if you need added support.

Cheers,
Kevin

[edwardo2244069]

I just bought my macbook pro m3 pro max and I feel like I don't have something set up right. Premiere is chuggging with 1080p footage. I've got over 500GB of free HD space. Any adivce or trouble shoouting tips?

[joes8923424]

Incredible isn't it? I'm amazed there aren't more people on the internet who haven't noticed this and there isn't more fuss being made. 

There is no real solution - the situation is utterly appalling.  I feel you. 

[Guo Yong3538383364tw]

Yeah, same goes to me after paying 4K USD just to realize how good my M1 Mac studio are... 
I hope in the next few patches of premiere pro, it will run the new M3 chip better

[Brittney5EC2]

OMG I have the same issue!!! I also bought a new 2023 MBP M3 Pro with 18 GB of memory running OS Sonoma 14.5 and it is SLOW and impossible to run Premiere pro. Nonstop freezing/shutting down and its completely disrupting my work flow. Not really thrilled with this purchase 😕 

[diana cf84411544]

I have the same problem, too.  It is intolerable.  The MBP M3 should be super fast, and instread it buffers and buffers during the most simple edits. ( Premiere Pro 24, MFX)  Never had that problem with earlier MBPs.  Are there any soklutions short of transcoding?

[Jessdesign]

shoot is this still an issue?

was definitely having issues with this macbook pro m2 16gb as well, I think I have a lemon though (it's refurbished but only a few weeks old) and from the get go I had issues with PP I didn't with my previous Macbook Pro M2 16gb (same specs, different laptop from a company)

I have a return started for my Macbook Pro M2 and wanted to upgrade to an M3 pro while I was at it but it seems I'll still have a bunch of issues