Macbook Pro 2014 - GPU Help I

Choices, choices ... there's some really cool things about FCPx that people have shared with me, that I wish PrPro had. But as noted, Apple is a nasty spoiled kindergartener by attitude, and does NOT share with others ... so something they've created to work on their OS ain't going elsewhere.

So, they have this new and getting cool editing program ... and they aren't building the powerful rigs anymore to really work the editing suite. I just do not get this. But then, there's things that seem the same within the Adobe apps, it's just humans being human I suppose.

The colorists I know that are at the top of this stuff, are having machines built to run both Win & Linux boots. Monster capable machines. But hey, one's got a main setup so the actual computer for his working suite is 70 feet down the hall ... and he's got a full client-friendly suite, the multiple screens and full Resolve panel for his station, the couch & big screen for the clients, set to work many-k media with tons of stuff done in Resolve in real-time. The hardware he's got is mind-boggling.

Just hope, whichever path you choose, it works well and you enjoy the editing!

Neil

i think colour finale does have a lut utility built into it, but my point was perhaps the colour finale plugin is using more resources (gpu and/or cpu) than just a lut utility alone. that video in the link i posted above shows a built in color space converter in fcpx, for several formats including slog2. if you are using color finale to also make adjustments then you could also try making those adjustments with the built in fcpx tools to see if they use less resources for smoother playback...

if you are only using colour finale to apply a lut, using a lut utility might use less resources to help playback performance. i think colorgradingcentral also have a lut utility that you could try. i think there are several lut loaders available, there is one from coremelt that has a free version. if you are just using a lut for technical conversion to rec709 you might be able to use the built in feature in fcpx, shown in this article/video. https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial-applying-luts-to-log-footage/

if you are just using one or two luts and one or two minor overall adjustments, you aren't really doing heavy grading. if you already have some test footage from your camera, you can load it up in fcpx and make what you would expect to be a typical timeline, with luts and a few color adjustments, and see how your laptop handles playback and export times. fcpx also has a background render option, it may help with playback once it builds those renders. the background render and proxy system in fcpx both can help with performance.

Hardware needs aren't getting less, shall we say ... and even if FCPX can be worked with that laptop now ... who knows what the next version will need?

I've looked at FCPX, and I know some have moved over to it and love it. And some have done that for a while, then found they liked the better inter-connectivity of the Adobe apps, and came back.

Some get by editing in Resolve ok ... it's got a minimalist editor module and of course fantastic grading app, and sometimes runs basically on lesser hardware. But to do much colorist work with it starts chewing through your hardware a bit.

I've ended up staying with Adobe, using the Tangent Ripple & Elements panels (which go a long way to making Lumetri quick & intuitive) within Lumetri for smaller stuff, and using Patrick Zadrobilek's awesome little app to mod a PrPro 2017 project file to work as-if in Direct Link mode in SpeedGrade 2015.1, then after saving the work in Sg, mod it back to the 2017 header. It only has to change one little character to do that ... and works great but doesn't work with AfterEffects comps, which need to be rendered from AE into a full DI codec and put on the sequence to take it to Sg via the Ntown PrPro BBC app that Patrick sells for a few bucks.

That's a ton faster than conforming into Resolve for when I need more grading capability (especially say shotmatching & multiple secondaries) than Lumetri can handle ... well.

Neil

A desktop is far more easily updated than most laptops.

Also  ... the CEO of Apple has a now famous quote of a year ago ... he had no idea why anyone would buy a desktop these days. Seriously.  Apple is all about devices now. They've barely touched the MacBook in a couple years, mainly adding touch.

They haven't upgraded the motherboard of the big Mac tower in near 5 years other than changing a little part here and there. Computer hardware tech has gone a long way in that time.

The most Mac centric crowd in post-production is the Colorists. Robbie Carman is a noted colorist and teacher of colorists through the MixingLight.com website and especially the PPW at NAB every year, PPW being post production world. He's as radically Macophile as you can get ... all of his devices have been the latest Mac cool stuff. Robbie now preaches converting from Mac to PC, whether Win, Linux, or his preference dual Win/Linux.

Because it's been three full major development and rollout cycles from Cupertino without even a mention of the Mac towers. The attitude of Mac assistance for those with towers needing help has slipped noticeably. Because for working in his major warhorse software Resolve he can't get near the performance in the "newest" Mac with that 5 year old mobo that he can with a really hopped up PC ... for 2/3rds the price or less.

He's not a happy camper in that he loved being a Macophile, but ... he's got to make a living and he's got to run Resolve and PrPro and other apps  and rag them out.

Neil

a 4 core tower will still be around $1.2k with slightly faster cpu than the laptop 4 core. something more powerful with a 6 or 8 core can cost anywhere from $2-5k, depending what hardware is used and if its a custom order pc build or workstation.

a 6 core pc might have specs like

6 core @ 3.4-3.6 ghz, 32gb ram, gtx 1060 6gb or 1070 if heavy 4k grading, and 500gb-1tb pcie ssd. if you need lots of space for media raid-0 sata ssd will be more cost effective for over 1tb capacity media drive. workstations are going to have more expensive parts, like xeon E5-1650 v4 and quadro p4000.