Laptops as replacements for workstation

[Samir Patel]

Have laptops evolved to suitable replacement for workstations for after effects, editing, transcoding etc?

I haven't purchased a laptop since over 5 years ago and my current computer really is slow and not really worth upgrading (slim line case, etc.). Considering new advancements such as GPU enabled REDCINE etc and that now I am seeing laptops by Asus with integrated Nvidia GTX with 2-4GB Video RAM and like 24GB regular RAM I was wondering if a laptop like that would be efficient in turning around personal projects and occasional corporate work or if they would overheat etc and I still should stick to a workstation?

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Have laptops evolved to suitable replacement for workstations for after effects, editing, transcoding etc?

Yes. But, if you want a purpose built, dedicated machine to do HEAVY lifting - nothing beats a top of the line Windows workstation. But for creative - and "a little bit of everything" - current laptops out perform workstations purchased only a few years ago. For personal projects and occasional corporate - high-end laptop all the way IMO.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

A bomber laptop with an expansion chassis can keep up with all but the very top workstations so its a valid option these days, especially with fast I/O like TB2.

Cheers - #19

 

[Justin Quinn]

Have laptops evolved to suitable replacement for workstations for after effects, editing, transcoding etc?

It's really kind of amazing how powerful laptops are these days...

I'm working on a feature from a laptop, using DaVinci Resolve, until my new Mac Pro arrives. I've done over a hundred commercials off my laptop too. Of course, once you start to add a lot of layers/effects/ nodes, it begins to slow down considerably, but not so much that it's impossible to work.

And if you have a Red Rocket in an expansion chassis then you can really shred through footage, add to that a fast RAID and just forget about it!

Of course, workstations still outperform the laptops by a considerable margin. However, if you're just working form home, there is so much you can do and do quickly.

I'm on a new fully spec'd Retina Macbook Pro, by the way.

I bet in less than five years, most workstations will be the size of laptops for the simple reason that camera tech / media grows at a much slower pace than computer hardware.

 

[Nick Fury]

Anyone know the likely availability of Tb2 capable/easily upgradeable laptops, in say the next month or two?

Thank you very much

Fury

 

[Samir Patel]

Thanks Mark and Justin. Looks like I will keep my eyes on these laptops. That looks like the way to go for me. I can just keep my current desktop for random web browsing and to keep my past email storage in order and keep the laptop free of apps that bog it down. I guess my last question is it looks like resolve requires the pro version of windows 8 but these laptops are only regular windows 8. I assume an upgrade should be possible correct? Unfortunately looks like the asus laptops are not configurable prior to purchase.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

HP was showing a very capable laptop at Createasphere in November, forget the model number but it was a corker. It's more of a portable workstation than a take it everywhere laptop, but could be the right compromise if you need muscle. Fast I/O and a dedicated GPU.

Cheers - #19

 

[Eric Bowen]

The Mobile CPU's cannot give the same performance as the Desktop Haswell CPU's not alone the current workstation/server. However the mobile CPU's can still handle a decent workflow in AE. Just make sure you get the 4800MQ or higher and 32GB of ram. If mobility is not an absolute requirement then a desktop system will always have 20%+ more processing power besides the difference in GPU processing.

 

[Saumene Mehrdady]

It really depends on what you are doing. For personal stuff and short-form projects (commercials, web videos, shorts, music vids, etc), you can certainly do everything off a new-ish macbook pro and an external raid. You can probably even do a feature on one too I guess.

 

[Henri De Vreese]

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m3800-workstation/fs
If you are doing personal stuff and don't need the superfast rendering a workstation offers a workstationgrade laptop is perfect.
We just recieved a Dell XPS15 and ordered a Dell Precision M3800, both fully loaded. The XPS15 is just crazy good, it beats a 8000$ 4-year old workstation with ease for rendering and video-editing and feels very snappy.
The Precision might even be better, but you pay a little more price/perferformance.
I woul configure with Windows8 Pro. It offers a few handy features the normal one hasn't.

PS: Do add the 91Wh battery instead of 61 Wh. This makes the difference between 8 hours working and 12 hours.

 

[David Kuhn]

I purchased a fast laptop (loaded 8770w) and workstation (Z820) at the same time a bit over a year ago. The Z820 cost quite a bit more ($10k vs. $6500) but the laptop was basically as loaded as was possible at the time from any top tier vendor (Extreme series processor, 32GB ram, dual SSD, Dreamcolor, Quaddro 4000). The 8770 is very usable for editing when docked, and it's very handy when on the road... but the Z820 is much faster at virtually everything. With the new RCX version it's able to playback 5k footage at 4k resolution without studdering to buffer. The 8770 can manage half res scaled to a 1920x1200 display but that's about it. An Informal rendering test on these two machines has the Z820 rendering about 10x faster than the 8770w. (A 58 second Z820 AVID export from RCX takes 10 minutes and 9 seconds on the 8770). I'm sure the Cuda support makes a big difference in rendering... but even before the current rcx release the Z820 was substantially faster than the laptop - so IMO the decision is around the tradeoff between performance and flexibility/mobility.