Should I Upgrade My Laptop For Video Editing?

[williamg7773202]

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to figure out what kind of performance upgrade a new laptop might give me for video editing.

Currently, I'm using my Macbook Pro 15inch 2011 edition which has the following specs:

Processor 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1333 Mhz DDR3

Startup Disk: Mac SSHD

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB
Intel HD Graphics 30000 512 MB
(Not sure why it says 2 graphics cards)

I'm considering a new Macbook Pro 13inch which has the following specs:

So, the question, what kind of performance improvement should I expect? I'm editing short videos shot in 1080, if that's helpful....

TIA!

[Moderator note: moved to best forum.]

[RjL190365]

You would actually be wasting money on that 13-inch MacBook Pro for the following reasons:

1) You're actually downgrading the CPU from a 4-core/8-thread mobile CPU to a 2-core/4-thread CPU with less L3 cache than your current CPU. Unfortunately, no dual-core CPU, not even a desktop one, is as powerful as even a relatively lousy quad-core CPU that's three or even four generations older than the given dual-core CPU.

2) Since current versions of Premiere Pro run much better with 16GB than with 8GB of RAM, once again you're actually downgrading (or rather cheaping out) on your proposed new laptop.

And I didn't discuss the GPU at all since your current one is now too old to be supported in the latest versions of Premiere Pro, and the integrated graphics of your proposed newer laptop won't be much better than software-only rendering.

So to recap: You're actually cheaping out on that newer laptop.

[williamg7773202]

Thanks RjL!

So basically, it's the 15 inch macbook pro or don't bother spending the money.