Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

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 :)

Working a lot on the road - Laptop that is better han my Mac Pro 2012? Resolve/Premie

E

Eirik Nicolai Heim

Well-known member
Joined
May 29, 2013
Messages
130
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hi,

I already have a thread about upgrading my Mac Pro 2012 5,1 or go windows.

I am now considering to go for a powerful windows laptop and only use that for all my work. Are there laptops out there that will be better than:
Mac Pro 5,1
2 x 6 core 2,4 Ghz
40 GB memory
Nvidia GTX 680 4 GB of memory

I am a lot on the road and stays for periodes different places. I find my self often in the situation; if I only had my Mac Pro..
Originally I was considering to upgrade the Mac Pro or sell it and buy a windows box. Now I am wondering if it is better to buy one super high end laptop and sell both my Mac Pro and 2013 MacBook Pro retina top specded.

Any thoughts? I know you will get much more power in desktop computers, but are there any laptops that will be enough for me? I am a cinematographer and colorist mainly. Work in Premiere/Davinci. Have a Red Epic W and shoot most often with that.
 
Hello Eirik,

I have an EpicW and I am using the new MacBookPro 2016 (2.9 Ghz Quad, 2 TB, 4GB graphics card).

I am very happy with the performance in REDCINE-X. I typically playback footage at 1/16 quality just because it's easier.

I have had some issues with Adobe Premiere crashing, not sure what the issue is yet (others are having similar problems)

I am editing in Final Cut Pro using 4K ProRes422 files.

I personally can't imagine having any other laptop right now. The built in USBC is amazing with the new Red Station.

I would recommend getting this Mac, but google a bit about this graphics card glitch.
 
Hi Mandela,

I would love to continue with MacOS, but I just do not think that the new MacBook Pro is powerful enough and I do not edit at all in Final Cut Pro X. I am looking for something to run Davinci and Premiere. I have a MacBook Pro Retina from 2013 and even that machine can run my Epic W footage at 1/16. I can not understand that my 2013 MacBook Pro has the same amount of memory as the new MacBook Pros. Yeah, I know that the new has faster memory and faster CPU and all that, but still. It is 3 years in between. And my machine has Nvidia card, not AMD. Davinci and Premiere likes Nvidia and Cuda.

If I just somehow new that Apple will come with a new and much more powerful MacBook Pro in sometime in 2017 I would wait for it.
 
i am very very happy with my clevo 870DM2. (now, you can buy 870DM3 with non mobile 1080 GTX single or SLI). That is my 4th generation with Clevo, and i don't regret at all the mac.

4 kg
980 GTX desktop edition
64 G RAM
6700K proc
9 T SSD
5 USB 3
3 screen output
2 dysplay ports
What would you nedd more ?
 
Sounds like a beast for sure!

I see that you can even get laptops now with 1080 SLI, and even a better CPU than with your specs Oliver.

If I go with the highest spec i7 CPU and 1080 SLI and 64 GB of ram on my laptop. Would not that be enough for kind of everything I do?

I do color in up to 4k timelines in Davinci and some lightweight After Effects. I do not to 3D or VFX.
And I edit up to 4k timelines in Premiere.

Will Davinci Resolve or Premiere benefit much with more cores like with a xeon processor?
 
Eirik Nicolai Heim said:
Will Davinci Resolve or Premiere benefit much with more cores like with a xeon processor?
Click to expand...

It depends. When you render your film, you need more core to be able to continue to use the laptop. with the clevo, i render at 100 % of the proc and can't do anything else (just use a web browser). But for scrubbing in the timeine, the ssd, GPU of the clevo are better than my 24 core edit PC. I can't tell you the difference in real life between a 980 GTX and a 1080 GTX
 
Ok, Leaning a bit against one laptop to rule em all.

Rich, I am not super concerned about the weight. I totally understand that I can not expect this kind of Laptop in a MacBook Pro design. I am used to carry a back pack with a lot of stuff, and some weight and size is OK. Using my F-stop Sartori and Shinn for my camera + laptop almost all my time on the road.

But I guess that new 21 inch Asus or was it Acer that has been shown at CES is too much!

I find it hard to find the perfect match. I see that MSI has a monster that looks promising with a bad ass i7 CPU, 1080 SLI and 64 GB of fast memory, but then just 1920 x 1080 resolution?
The Lenovo P70 which seems to have it all, but then quadro 5000 card?
Another tempting alternativ is the Razor Blade Pro, but it has "only" the regular 1080 and 32 GB of memory.

Are there a machine like the MSI with 1080 SLI, fastest i7 CPU, 64 GB of memory and a 4k Display?
 
Last edited:
Alberto: Looks like a nice machine in it would be a nice replacement for my MacBook Pro when it comes to better specs, but not really sure if it is a one machine to do all that I need. But if I went for both a new better desktop and a laptop this could be an alternative, but then I would also be looking at the Razor Blade Pro. This dell has not the 1080 GPU or 1090 SLI, neither 64 GB of memory.
 
I would say if you could wait, to wait cor september/November. We are in a time of transition right now, and I would say getting a laptop without TB 3 and usbc right now, even with all the graphics power and ram is a bad move.
 
This is not a better alternative when it comes to MSI?
https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GT83VR-7RF-Titan-SLI.html#hero-specification

Is it not better to go with 1080, 1080 SLI or TITAN cards than quadro for what I am doing? I am not into 3d or research.
And the beast I am looking into also can run 64 GB of memory.

I am wondering if the MSI laptop I am linking to or that ASUS beast that has the cooling dock and has the same specs are the two best alternatives?
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ROG-GX800VH/

It the MSI has good enough cooling, that should be the most mobile alternative?
 
Thanks for the heads up oedipus. Only thing I am wondering about is the GPU alternatives. I think I want 1080 SLI to be "most future proof"?
 
Only put it out there because the specs work - can't vouch for the machine's durability though I was drawn to it because it was the first lightish (2.9kg) 15" machine with a 1080. The MXM designation indicates that the gpu can be replaced (though obviously only as long as MXM is a profitable standard) so it may be that, though SLI is unlikely, more powerful gpus (subject to power draw and thermal issues) such as a 1080ti MAY be possible.
 
Woaw, did not see that weight specs. I will have to look at it again. And of course interesting that maybe you could go for a 1080ti card.
 
Been thinking of upgrading my setup too and was pretty bummed out with the MBP 2016 release. When it comes to quality and support can't beat a Macbook as this video review shows:
https://youtu.be/AKpGVhtjPX0

However when it comes to Premiere Pro think anything with an NVIDIA card is going to be far better as this follow up demonstrates:
https://youtu.be/SNfF6L57zIo
 
Maybe somebody can help: How good is the Microsoft Surface Book 2 15" for editing R3D?
Using Premiere Pro, After Effects and Resolve.

Specs look good, altho not sure about that low-power CPU:
- Intel Core i7-8650U (1.9 - 4.2 GHz, 15W)
- nVidia GTX 1060 6 GB GDDR5
- 16 GB RAM
- 15" 3:2 Touchscreen 3240x2160 (detachable for tablet mode)
- up to 1 TB SSD

I usually work my 8K Helium R3D files in PP in a 1080p timeline, playback at 1/2 resolution works fine on my midrange Acer laptop for now. But the Surface Book 2 is tempting!
 
JeanChristophe Dupasquier said:
Maybe somebody can help: How good is the Microsoft Surface Book 2 15" for editing R3D?
Using Premiere Pro, After Effects and Resolve.

Specs look good, altho not sure about that low-power CPU:
- Intel Core i7-8650U (1.9 - 4.2 GHz, 15W)
- nVidia GTX 1060 6 GB GDDR5
- 16 GB RAM
- 15" 3:2 Touchscreen 3240x2160 (detachable for tablet mode)
- up to 1 TB SSD

I usually work my 8K Helium R3D files in PP in a 1080p timeline, playback at 1/2 resolution works fine on my midrange Acer laptop for now. But the Surface Book 2 is tempting!
Click to expand...

Haven’t used mine for editing .R3D, but I did use it to playback files in RedCine-X at one point and I was actually surprised with how well it did for the most part. It loaded files fairly fast but at points would freeze up for a second, and occasionally the program would have to be restarted.

I’ll test it with Premiere and AE though to see how it performs.

Something like a 60 second timeline with 6K 5:1 23.98 FPS footage (at 4K and 1080p)
I’ll probably do a render test too in AME.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top