New Laptop or Workstation for 4k footage

[mrtheloe]

Hi Guys,

 

 

I'm new, so I'm not really sure if this post is in the right category.

Since I have a new camera, the a7r3, my old MacBook Pro from 2012 can no longer handle premiere pro and photoshop. My focus is photography, but I want to do more movies.

I'm really not sure what to buy now.

I want to be mobile ... but also cut my 4k footgae. I was thinking about a laptop with an external graphics card. Which laptop can you recommend (Mac or Windows)? Or should I buy a workstation?

 

I hope you can help me!

[Reaper1217]

As much as the idea is hated on this forum, I think you should go for the 2018 MacBook Pro when it comes out. Especially if you can consider switching to Final Cut X. If you must use Premiere go for the Gigabyte Aero 15x. 

[TheGlenlivet]

6 minutes ago, mrtheloe said:

Hi Guys,

 

 

I'm new, so I'm not really sure if this post is in the right category.

Since I have a new camera, the a7r3, my old MacBook Pro from 2012 can no longer handle premiere pro and photoshop. My focus is photography, but I want to do more movies.

I'm really not sure what to buy now.

I want to be mobile ... but also cut my 4k footgae. I was thinking about a laptop with an external graphics card. Which laptop can you recommend (Mac or Windows)? Or should I buy a workstation?

 

I hope you can help me!

If you have the cash, there are now 6 core laptops out there that will handle editing and rendering big jobs, as long as you have a power outlet available...

How much do you want to spend?  The workstation will be cheaper.

[FStopDesigns]

Honestly I don't think you'd need an external GPU. The performance increase Premiere gets from it just doesnt justify the cost if you ask me.

Other then that. I'd have to agree with getting a Macbook IF you don't wanna game on it.
If you wanna have a gaming laptop I can't suggest any good ones unfortunately since I haven't kept up with them.

If you wanna go the Workstation route then we have a whole bunch of options again. depending on what you need exactly

[mrtheloe]

10 minutes ago, Reaper1217 said:

As much as the idea is hated on this forum, I think you should go for the 2018 MacBook Pro when it comes out. Especially if you can consider switching to Final Cut X. If you must use Premiere go for the Gigabyte Aero 15x. 

Thanks! I prefer Premiere, so I'll take a look at the Aero (: Thanks
 

Lately, I'm really disappointed with Apple. I only hear about errors and performance problems. On the other hand, the Dell XPS series or the Surfacebook are highly praised

10 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

If you have the cash, there are now 6 core laptops out there that will handle editing and rendering big jobs, as long as you have a power outlet available...

How much do you want to spend?  The workstation will be cheaper.

I think for the laptop 2000 to a maximum of 3500th My experience shows me that if I spend a little more money, I have less stress and the laptop lives longer. For the workstation I thought about 1000 to 1500. The less the better (:

6 minutes ago, FStopDesigns said:

Honestly I don't think you'd need an external GPU. The performance increase Premiere gets from it just doesnt justify the cost if you ask me.

Other then that. I'd have to agree with getting a Macbook IF you don't wanna game on it.
If you wanna have a gaming laptop I can't suggest any good ones unfortunately since I haven't kept up with them.

If you wanna go the Workstation route then we have a whole bunch of options again. depending on what you need exactly

The main application area will be for Photoshop and Premiere. Gaming would be an extra, but not a criterion.
 

[TheGlenlivet]

2 minutes ago, mrtheloe said:

Gigabyte Aero 15x

Sounds like this, or another model with like specs, could work for you.

[xQubeZx]

Imo I’d get a Macbook Pro if you can afford it or a Dell XPS 13 or 15. I have personally yet to find a laptop that compares to these two in build quality, monitor color accuracy and small size. Hardware wise they are both capable, however the MacBook you have to expect to pay quite a bit more for the performance sadly. 

 

I’m not super into the laptop market so I may be wrong or miss something but last I checked most other laptops where ugly plasticy gaming oriented things that weights a ton with mostly kinda poor monitors (out of a color perspective). 

 

But if I were to upgrade my laptop I’d take the hit and get a XPS or MacBook Pro expecting to pay in the $2000 range. 

[FStopDesigns]

If you're interested in a XPS 13 I can give you some of my experiences so far:

CPU: i5 6200 U 2.3 Ghz

RAM: 8GB

no dedicated GPU

 

I mainly got it for university as a light laptop for working there and browsing the web and the occasional editing of pictures or videos on it. It is doing an tremendous job at that. It's light, the battery lasts really long so most of thedays I wouldn't bother taking the charger with me.

Then I ended up having a freelance editing job which required me to stay mobile. I took it with me and even though it was at that time the lowest spec it still worked wonderfully. Multiple FHD Videostreams in one project weren't an issue. I could still work at the speed I wanted to without stuttering. Some days It got slow but I#m putting that down to the ambient temps being close to 40 degrees celsius. The only thing I'm wishing for by now would be that I took the XPS 15 and not the 13 just due to screen size.

[Bustapalapeno]

On 5/17/2018 at 2:29 AM, FStopDesigns said:

If you're interested in a XPS 13 I can give you some of my experiences so far:

CPU: i5 6200 U 2.3 Ghz

RAM: 8GB

no dedicated GPU

 

I mainly got it for university as a light laptop for working there and browsing the web and the occasional editing of pictures or videos on it. It is doing an tremendous job at that. It's light, the battery lasts really long so most of thedays I wouldn't bother taking the charger with me.

Then I ended up having a freelance editing job which required me to stay mobile. I took it with me and even though it was at that time the lowest spec it still worked wonderfully. Multiple FHD Videostreams in one project weren't an issue. I could still work at the speed I wanted to without stuttering. Some days It got slow but I#m putting that down to the ambient temps being close to 40 degrees celsius. The only thing I'm wishing for by now would be that I took the XPS 15 and not the 13 just due to screen size.

I would NOT get an XPS 13 for 4K video editing. I have an XPS 13 with a 7th gen i7, and even using proxies in premiere I have issues with playback, and the temperatures the computer reaches are not comfortable. Even now, with quad-core 13 in. models available, I would go with something bigger. The 13 inch screen is really not enough to do serious editing on. Trying to place markers on waveforms? Not happening. Not without constantly resizing your windows.

 

If you are going with Premiere, sorry to say but GPU performance typically is not the bottleneck. I hardly ever see GPU load above maybe 40% at any stage in video editing. Adobe just has not prioritized optimizing for GPU rendering. (talking about my desktop PC here, i7 3700 and GTX 970). 

 

For the above reasons, I would go with basically any of the new, 6-core gaming laptops out on the market. The ones I am aware of are the Asus Zypherus M, MSI GS65, and the previously mentioned Aero 15X. From what I understand, the screen calibration on the Aero 15X is the best of these, so that is a good place to start. I would check out Dave2D's videos as well as Linuses on these products.

 

If your budget is more restrictive, any 8th gen, quad core, intel based laptop with a dGPU (i.e. not the integrated Intel graphics) will suit your needs, and personally, I would invest less in cores, and more in monitors. Editing on the go is great, but it is so much easier to sit down with an MX Master, some macros, and two 27 inch monitors hooked up to whatever machine you decide to use. My I've mentioned the two computers in my setup above, but I like using my desktop mostly because the screens are bigger. I can see all my waveforms and edit keyframes way easier on a big screen. I can keep my audio panels, edit history, and scopes permanently on the 2nd monitor. These things will genuinely speed up your editing, and more importantly make it feel less frustrating.

 

Hope this was helpful!

[YellowJersey]

Ultimately, it depends on your workflow. If you need to edit files in the field, then you don't have much of a choice but to go with a laptop. However, if you're sure you don't need that, then you could build a much more powerful workstation for the same price or the same specs and save a bit money. I've been fairly mobile for the last 15 years and have always gone with laptops because even if I wasn't travelling, I still never stayed in one place for very long, relatively speaking, and moving a desktop and monitor was just a pain. However, I'm more settled now and, if I were in the market for a new computer for photo editing, I'd probably get a desktop, especially for 4k video editing.