Blackmagic Forum

I'm looking into new laptops and struggling to decide between PC or Mac for editing. I don't do super extensive editing but I need something that'll do the trick.
The Macbook Pro 13" M1 Chip is intriguing. Would it be a good deal or do you recommend anything else?

Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13-inch Retina display with True Tone

Hi! I think the short answer is yes. Resolve 17 has support for apple silicon, and the performance advantages are significant from what I understand. Apple even included some footage of Resolve in use during their keynote announcement about the M1 chip.

So going with a new Macbook Pro with an M1 seems like a great move. I'm planning to upgrade later this year too for similar reasons.

Personally I would definitely set up a desk with a large display to connect to it when doing any amount of editing - a 13" is great for portability, but a large display is invaluable for an interface like that of Resolve. I have an ultrawide external display I use on my MacBook, which is great for having room to see all the controls.

Thank you so much for you reply, I really appreciate it.

Hi,

I bought one recently because my 2014 mbp was getting a bit old. I was pleasantly surprised I could edit anamorphic 6k h265 footage from the Panasonic GH5, and add two correction nodes. When I connected a 4K external display, it could not hit 24fps, but turning on any of the Timeline Proxy options remedied that.

I didn't test braw yet, so can't speak for that. But h265 cuts very smoothly.

It's also nice to point out that Fusion worked very well. I sometimes toy around with 3d, en the software renderer is very fast. The OpenGL renderer was not however.

Hope that helps.

Kind regards,
Nick

Careful! It's a nice machine and great for editing and trying out some basic looks on the road, even handling professional footage. But as a single machine I would advise against it. The GPU is weak and as soon as you need demanding effects (temporal NR, optical flow etc.) it'll be slow as molasses. The current models are all entry-level machines, even if impressive in some points.

If you can wait a bit, there are better M1(X?) machines coming later this year.

_artfilm_ wrote:Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage
13-inch Retina display with True Tone

hmm, that's about $1700 I guess. For a bit more you get a gaming laptop with good GPU (8GB VRAM), 6 CPU cores (12 hyperthreading), large 2560x1440 pixel display, 32GB RAM, two internal drives (one fast 500GB, one slower 2TB). But it's a baking tray. With loud fans when rendering. Resolve runs very well with this machine. Two external SSD's can be attached via USB 3.1 gen 2 for the footage.

The macbook however is much more elegant, slim, light, and silent.

And then, it will not run for long off mains. Nevertheless, if you need something now, like now, go for it.
But add 300 for Resolve Studio or it'll be much slower than the M1 for sources in H.264/265.