Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

13" MACBOOK PRO QUESTION - URGENT...

Jonathan Pears

Jonathan Pears

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
590
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Santa Monica, CA
Website
www.backtoawake.com
Need to make a purchase today for this.

We need a macbook for SSD dumps/transfers, redcineX use to view clips, maybe some minor edits in Premiere CS6.

Would the 13" 2.9GHZ MacBook Pro (non-retina), with 8GB ram and the Intel HD 4000 work for this stuff?

We run new maxed out 27" imacs at the studio, so i have no reference for the 13" macbooks

Thanks in advance!
 
Define work...

I have a maxed out MBP Retina 15' with a 512GB. When working locally (via the HD-SSD) I can view material with RCX at 1/8-1/4 at almost real time, obviously it depends on the REDCODE I shot with.

So I'm assuming the 13' will have close enough performance.
 
Work in terms of viewing the files, even if its at 1/8th 1/4th, just to view them.

The 15" has a dedicated graphics card in it, the 13" doesn't. How much of a difference does this make? Anyone with any experience?
 
Disclaimer: I haven't worked with the integrated graphics cards, but on my 15" Retina, I can do 1/8th res, provided there isn't much else going on. With Redcine X adding GPU debayer support, that has gone up to 1/4th. I would recommend spending the few hundred bucks extra and getting a 15" with dedicated graphics. When the GPU accelerated Redcine goes into a production build, you will be glad you did.
 
In the current release build of RCXp, the GPU makes no difference; debayering is CPU (and RAM?) dependent. Even a regular ol' HDD should be able to keep up with the transfer rates required (less than 100mb/s). Should be able to do 4k at 1/4 and 5k at 1/8th.

CS6 is a little different as it could use a GPU for scaling and such, so I'm not sure how much it'll affect that performance. But I'd imagine it'd worth just as well at 1/4 or 1/8th.
 
If all you're going to do is file/data transfers and surf the web, then the 13" macbook pro or macbook air is fine.

If you're going to do viewing, or playback, or editing in Adobe or Resolve or Redcine X then you'll want the dedicated discreet graphics card on the macbook pro 15". The GPU support in the new Redcine X also increases the speed of playback and transcoding on the macbook pro 15".
 
Hey Jonathan

We have the highest spec 15 inch MacBook Pro Retina and it's very very good for most things, offloading via ShotPut Pro to multiple drives. Editing in Fcpx, we use a Lacie 1TB SSD FOR Quick edits, we also have a MacBook Air and its a great little machine for running offload and checking clips via RCX but I'm not sure I'd try to edit with it. The MacBook Pro can even be used for a quick first light and output via RCX.

I'd go with highest spec machine you can afford, I've seldom regretted buying better.

Good Luck

Adrian
 
Money isnt the issue at all, its just that we dont need another editing machine, just something to offload and maybe edit here and there.

I am thinking that the base 15" macbook will do this for me well enough without any issues? That is the base non-retina version....
 
If you're going to get the non retina 15", make sure you get the matte screen (non glossy), you'll also only have one thunderbolt port vs the two thunderbolt ports on the retina. One nice thing about the non retina, is you can now put in two 1 TB SSD drives, if you also use the optical bay.
 
From a production DIT/marketing viewpoint the non-retina isn't very good for showing clients your shots on the set(is only 1440 by 900). The retina 15 inch screen rocks for really showing off clips (2880-by-1800). I have the high end retina which I use for all sorts of things and love it(your going to want the graphics card for the DIT, you really need to look at the footage for errors at full resolution). If money isn't critical you get so much more on the 15 inch retina, it really is a seriously flexible machine.
 
Thor, Patrick, thanks for the input....

Here is what i did::

So i a typing this from the non-retina 13" macbook, 2.9ghz, 8gb ram, 750 HD, and the intel graphics. I went this route for several reasons and here are some results from them. Its small and fast, and runs redcinex, premiere and more very well.

- Will playback in real time footage at 1/4 in redcine, and plays 8seconds at a time at 1/2 before having to stop for 3seconds
- Will playback in premiere at the same rates as above and has no problem dealing with a red filled timeline
- RENDER TIME: 30 seconds of 3K@10:1, 23.976, rendered out to premiere preset Vimeo 720p 23.976 - this took 6minutes to render out.
- No, six minutes is not perfect, but for what we need, its great!

Further solutions with the MacBook 13" non-retina

Now this is just for me, but seriously, i would never show a client shots or finished pieces on a small laptop, minimum would be a 27" iMac or if it has to be on a small screen i'll use a 9" red monitor or something through the camera.
One of the main reasons for spending $1499 on the macbook, is that we will just take $600 and buy 2 flight cases for our newer imacs and take them to the larger shoots. So for the same price as a capable 15" retina, i can take a 13" and 2 27" imacs. Yes thats not including baggage fee's and yes we need mains electric for the imacs..... but the macbooks only have 7hrs of battery anyways, so you're going to have to be near power at some point.

But in conclusion from all my rabble, the 13" non-retina machine is a great little thing to have for RedcineX playback, minor short edits, and if needs be you can run some davinci stuff on it or speedgrade. Its not as fast as the retina machines, nor will it render as fast as a machine with a dedicated graphics card, but for a small travel friendly option that doesn't have to cost a lot, just consider it.

Also, your local apple store should let you take down a redstation and try it out for yourself and see what it looks like. Very happy with the decision, and we now have some flight cases on the way so we can take along our newest maxed out i7 imac's along.

Thanks to all who helped us out!
 
Thanks for the followup post Jonathan. Very nice to see the conclusion and rationale on this type of decision. This thread shows that there is not a single solution to this type of problem/need. It also shows the power of the Red User community.
 
the HD 4000 integrated GPU is now supported in redcine with os x 10.9, for some reason. so i guess you'll get a little boost there
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top