[Macbook] help choosing the right solution

[oleprohon]

Hi ! I have been following LTT for a couple of years now but first time on the forums. I'm currently looking for solutions for a new macbook pro and I feel like I need help evaluating the situation. I run a small web development company with a friend for 7 years now and more recently we are doing 360 photos/videos/apps. We both just graduated and have the opportunity to travel Europe for 6 months from March to September and we will likely be filming in various formats. Here's our actual gear/situation:

 

Late 2012 rMBP 13" (one each): they still work perfectly except for the recent video editing part

Canon 70D mainly for photography

GoPro 6 + Karma Drone and Gimbal (H265/HEVC not supported by our current laptops !)

Insta360 Pro for 8k 360 videos

Panono for 16K 360 photos

Adobe CC subscription

~About 5k CAD budget to upgrade laptop(s)

 

We bought and tried a low specs (still decent) 2017 MBP 15" and we experienced a massive performance upgrade as expected, but we were far from smooth 8k 360 video playback on a 3000 USD laptop so we returned it for now.

 

Here's what we would be willing to deal with:

Switch from Premiere to FCP for better performance

Carry an external GPU (if that's any good for Premiere or FCP)

Have only 1 video editing system and the other one for programming/photoshop (our current MBPs are still perfect for this)

Struggle with our current laptops for a couple of weeks and buy a Coffee Lake MBP in Europe for better performance.

Not have the best render times, we will mostly do this at night and it's laptops, not servers !

 

Here's what we would not be willing to do:

Switch to Windows, sorry that's a no go.

Buy a maxed out 15" MBP now since we feel like Coffee Lake MBPs are coming soon and would surely be a better investment. The problem is we are leaving in 8 weeks, they will probably not be out.

Use our potato laptops for 6 months since we can't scrub timelines with any of our gear

 

What I would prefer is to have 2 i7s 13" MBP and an eGPU that we could use on any laptop when need it so we get a lighter setup when we will be filming and not editing, while having the better battery life of the no-GPU 13" MBP when we are only programming/doing general stuff. I'm just not certain a dual core will not bottleneck the whole system !

 

Any ideas ?

[Airdragonz]

I have a late 2016 MacBook pro 15 inch and battery life is pretty impressive. What I recommend given your budget is an older gen late 2016 MacBook pro given that the tasks you do rely more on powerful graphics. The difference between kaby lake and skylake isn't much either. With a 2016 model (13 or 15 inches, up to you), I'd then get an external egpu enclosure. The two I recommend that's compatible with macOS is the esonnet breakaway box or the Mantiz Venus (personally prefer the Mantiz cause it also charges the laptop when connected). I recommend pairing this with an AMD radeon 580 8gb. Any AMD 570 or 580 will probably work actually, but go AMD over Nvidia for native driver support. 

The combined cost of all this should keep you just under your budget of $5k CAD  for 2 laptops and gpu setups. 

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums! 

[oleprohon]

Excellent thank you very much ! Are you aware if FCP plays nice with an eGPU and if it's worth taking a maxed out i7 given the laptop I choose ?

[Airdragonz]

8 minutes ago, oleprohon said:

Excellent thank you very much ! Are you aware if FCP plays nice with an eGPU and if it's worth taking a maxed out i7 given the laptop I choose ?

From what I heard, FCP released an update that fixes the egpu crash. I can't confirm this myself yet. Sorry bout that. 

EDIT: just did a quick search and it seems like 10.4 doesn't like external graphics. 10.3.4 is the best supported version as of now. 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Airdragonz

[DrMacintosh]

I would look for a 2016 15" MacBook Pro with a Radeon Pro 400 series GPU. Preferably the more powerful one. 

 

Seeing if you can find any with lower storage capacities and try switching to external USB C/Thunderbolt 3 storage solutions. Going for 16GB of RAM would be nice considering your projects. 

 

Switching to FinalCut is a must, Premiere is garbage in comparison. And no, do not buy eGPUs, macOS does not have full support yet but Apple is working on it. Even in Windows the GPU is not what matters, its the CPU. 

 

I would buy this:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1293727-REG/apple_mlh42ll_a_15_4_macbook_pro_with.html 

[Airdragonz]

I have a Radeon Pro 450 and rendering in FCP completely lags out my mbp

[oleprohon]

Yeah I'm not sure a RadeonPro 4XX would cut it since the RP 555 I tested would not meet my needs. And I just read that internal acceleration was not yet supported a month ago in high sierra  I think it means I need an external monitor plugged in the eGPU for my timeline scrubbing to be better ? Or maybe I'm wrong anyone could confirm ? If so it does not really help me much since I'll be on the road. Maybe my expectations are just to high for laptops at the moment ? 

[DrMacintosh]

They are really your only option. If the Pro 555 is not enough the Pro 560 is not much better. 

[oleprohon]

This thread seams to differ with you DrMacintosh: https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/what-about-fcpx-performance-with-vega-card/#post-25582

[DrMacintosh]

Yeah good luck finding 

A.) a Vega GPU 

B.) an enclosure to put it in

The total for those two things could easily be $900

 

And then after that you have to be stationary to use it and be near a wall outlet. 

[oleprohon]

Yeah I don't really like the size, but the power outlet is not a problem. And I don't mind going for a more supported/available/cheaper GPU as the RX580 and I still have 8 weeks to find one... but I would need a new MBP since mine doesn't have TB3 so new MBP + eGPU will likely be similar or more expansive than a maxed out MBP15"... so do I wanna trade performance/usability for a box in my backpack... not sure either... hackintosh ? lol just desperate...