PC or MAC for 4K Video Editing?

That still seems to be a relevant question for many content creators, seasoned professionals and enthusiasts alike as obviously there isn’t a simple and straightforward answer, especially when one needs to take into consideration all the controversial aspects that have to be explored before reaching any solid conclusion on the topic.

Some people are firm believers that Apple products are leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to the overall cost of long-term ownership based on a way better hardware optimisation and more efficient performance in comparison to PCs. Others are vigorous supporters of the fully customisable, modular design of Windows-based workstations and the much cheaper cost that you need to pay to get into that particular ecosystem.

To put things into perspective, Dmitry Novoselov of HardwareCanucks will showcase how multiple natively supported video editing applications utilized on both platforms stack up against each other when it comes to 4K video editing and render times.

For the purposes of these tests, Dmitry edits and color grades multiple 4K clips in FCPX first and then brings the same 3 minute-long 4K sequence into Premiere Pro CC on his powerful PC workstation and Windows-based M5 notebook.

It’s worth noting that the FCPX utilises the auto rendering feature that certainly has influenced the final results in this test, but it still shows the power of a well-optimised and balanced system such as the Macbook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2015).

These results also reveal that Adobe Premiere Pro CC software performs better on a PC in comparison to Mac, but it’s not as fast as the FCPX performance on Mac. In fact, the FCPX renders 3x faster than both PC workstations, nevertheless that the latter have more powerful hardware components in comparison to the Retina Macbook Pro.

Regarding other system-intensive tasks such as stabilization and camera tracking the Macbook Pro and FCPX are again the clear winners. Moreover, when performing the same task in Premiere Pro CC on both the M5 Pro notebook and the Retina Macbook Pro, the latter beats the former by completing the same task more than two seconds faster.

The same goes for the camera tracking performed in After Effects CC used on both platforms, but this time with slightly better results on the PC workstation, whereas the Macbook Pro Retina and M5 Pro notebook managed to get similar results in that regard. As Dmitry points out, even though video editing and color grading aren’t limited only to render times by any means, these are a serious consideration, especially for those content creators working on tight deadlines when every second counts.

Regardless of the Windows supremacy in terms of hardware parameters, the Retina Macbook Pro provided better overall performance results which only shows that there is still much that can be done on the PC software optimization side, especially when it comes to 4K video editing and performing other creative system-intensive tasks.

[source: HardwareCanucks]

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15.4″ MacBook Pro Laptop Computer with Retina Display & Force Touch Trackpad (Mid 2015)

15.6″ EUROCOM M5 Pro Gaming Notebook 

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11 Comments

  1. Ernest Tu October 10, 2016
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