Macbook Pro Retina for RED editing on CS6?

[Brian Lehrer]

Hey everyone,

Can anyone offer a bit of advice? I am stressing and could definitely use some peace of mind, or a firm no.

I like everyone else was looking for a better update to the Mac Pro, but alas...while the current Mac Pro is a beast of sorts, its expensive and lacks Thunderbolt, etc.
I am, however, pretty impressed with the new Retina Macbook Pro, and I have been needing to update my 17" 2009 CoreDuo MBP for awhile now with something better.
So I'm about to pull the trigger on that, BUT:

Thing is, I have a RED music video project to edit (and do some color grading work on, as well as minor AfterFX work), and I need to know whether or not I can manage an edit in RAW with such a machine using Adobe Premiere CS6. Will likely be editing on a 2K or 1080p timeline as I will be delivering for web. We shot on Epic @ 5K, as well as 2K for slow motion. Happy to monitor at 1/2 or 1/4 resolution for playback, as long as final video quality is not affected.

I will be editing off a Thunderbolt RAID, and color - if it doesn't end up being done by a pro colorist on DaVinci - will be done by myself via a Thunderbolt I/O device such as a T-Tap or UltraStudio3D to a broadcast monitor and either through SpeedGrade, Apple Color, or on the timeline with Red Giant Colorista2 and Looks (I have all of these programs).

I am looking at the fully maxed out Retina Macbook Pro 15" (2.7Ghz i7 with Turbo Boost, 16GB RAM, 768 GB SSD, 1GB NVIDIA GPU).

I know I could get a PC desktop and have plenty of power on tap, but I do value my mobility and MacOS (and all the app licenses tied to MacOS) for the time being, and as I very rarely edit projects shot on RED myself, I would rather hold on buying a big heavy and expensive powerhouse PC desktop for a bit longer if I can get away with it. And I don't feel comfortable investing in a MacPro tower without Thunderbolt - if that ever comes out even...

So while I have heard of some people handling basic RED edits without much issue on Premiere on laptops (including a friend of mine), I wanted to seek a more definitive answer as to whether or not this project is feasible, or a fool's errand on such a machine.
Hoping I don't need a Red Rocket in a Thunderbolt enclosure either, as I might as well buy a 12-core desktop for the price.

Please let me know if I can answer any further questions. Thank you so much, I know these types of queries can be annoying, but I really need a helping hand.

Best,

Brian Lehrer

[Jaakko Rinne]

For editing it should suffice. I don't see there being any problems running 1/4 res with that setup in CS6. Beyond that, if anyone can chime in on how the GT 650M will fare with CUDA processing, I too would like to know.

[Brian Lehrer]

FYI the edit will be using prodigious amounts of speed ramping and Twixtor, as well as scaling - so while that's all in premiere effects, I don't know if that will make things more difficult...

[Alexander Thomson]

Consider the speed of the storage. That'll be the major bottleneck if it's anything less than ESATA. I'm really excited to try this setup out! Looks like a great machine.

[Brian Lehrer]

Storage will be a RAID 0 or RAID 1 G-RAID on Thunderbolt. Not quite as fast as a Pegasus system but should still be quite speedy...so stoage speed should be good. I'm mostly concerned about the processor and GPU being up to snuff. I hope they are!
Any other opinions?
Thanks everyone for offering help

[DJ Meyer]

It will work at 1/8 to 1/4 res but the fans will be running pretty much the whole time. It would be better with a mobile rocket as well. But if you want to edit mobile its your best shot.

[Kwan Khan]

T-Tap won't be available anytime soon

[Jeff Kilgroe]

T-Tap won't be available anytime soon

What makes you say that? Last update I heard said it was still on track for the second half of this month. That said, the T-Tap won't be of any use with Resolve. For proper monitoring out of Resolve, you will need a supported device like the UlstraStudio.

I'm really interested in the new MBP with Retina. I'm going to wait for the initial reviews and play with one myself before I order though... Everything looks great on it, but I wish I could get it with 32GB RAM. Dual TB and USB3 ports along with the screen seem to make it a no-brainer though. I'll probably kick myself for waiting. :)

As of right now we'll have to modify the GPU list to make the system work with CS6. Looks like Adobe wants to support it officially though -- I saw one of the Adobe guys here, as well as on their Twitter feed, request that people submit a support request for supporting the 650M GPU in CS6. That's probably one way Adobe gauges interest in which features or updates to prioritize. Either way, 650M is reasonably good for CUDA, for a low-power mobile device, that is.. It should do well and fit together capability-wise with the rest of the system... I've been editing a lot with Macbook Pro systems off and on with Adobe Premiere, since R3D native support arrived 3.5 years ago in CS4. As others have pointed out, one of the biggest factors is how fast your storage space is. The number one bottleneck on most mobile systems is storage. After that, it's CPU power, which has significantly increased over the past few years anyway. Just be reasonable about your settings and you'll be fine.

You may want to consider a Thunderbolt expander box with a Rocket card if you will be doing any significant amount of transcoding for workflows that use that approach. For CS6, it's not necessary. 99% of the time I do transcodes, it's for clients. There's always clients who feel they need it or need a workflow that works that way.

[Kwan Khan]

What makes you say that?

I'm on the list and availability supposed to be June 15 2012.
Contacted AJA and found... "T-Tap are ready still waiting for Thunderbolt certification (and they have no idea how long it will take).

[Sven Seynaeve]

Cause I need an urgent solution, I just discovered that you can get the non retina in 2-3 days. With a 27", this could be a nice setup.

I see no other difference other than the display and the flash memory.

maby someone could give his thougths on flas vs SSD., is it that much faster then ssd?