2017 iMac, new mac mini or macbook pro & blackmagic eGPU?

Harry Pallenberg

Harry Pallenberg

Well-known member
Ok - so my 2013 iMac is getting pretty old. I was really hoping for a new iMac today... Oh well. But I still need a new edit machine... so
I'm wondering what you all think would be the best option for running Premiere Pro CC 2018 version.
Refurbished 2017 iMac, new Mac-Mini with Blackmagic eGPU, or Macbook Pro with with Blackmagic eGPU?
 
You can dig through Barefeats (and other sites) for reasonable benchmarks that'll give you some sense of performance differences between iMacs, Macbooks, MPs, (and soon the new mini). But those benchmarks don't tend to get to how peppy a machine is when you're editing. Still worth a look: http://barefeats.com

And like JB says, you'll often pay a premium for a Macbook Pro, but geez, the portability is handy. And I'd bet you could get a fair amount of work done without an eGPU...so you could probably start without the extra box, and then add it if you need it (and when Adobe deeply supports them). If you were using Resolve, were a colorist or motiongraphics/vfx person, then the eGPU might more quickly be a great buy...but for day-in-day-out editing, I'd want to hear from others who've already taken the plunge and can provide good feedback. Also, if you go Macbook Pro, consider the 15-inch model so you can get 32GB RAM (vs 16GB max in the 13-inch) and a dedicated Radeon Pro GPU (though only 4GB). Sigh Apple... I'm bummed I can't get a MBP with a 8GB GPU and 64GB RAM... but there you are.

Anyway, if you don't get the eGPU (after confirming that you don't need one right away), you'll have more money free for a nicer monitor and bigger/additional SSDs...

A kinda helpful (with some caveats) comparison of a 2017 iMac with the top-level Macbook Pro:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/08/15/compared-2018-i9-macbook-pro-versus-imac-5k-performance

The new mini is interesting, but too early to see real-world performance reports from people in our world.

I got a new Windows workstation last year. So this year (probably... would be happy to get it on this year's taxes) I need a new Mac, and I'm thinking along the lines you are (probably not going to get a new Mac Pro when they're out, not getting an iMac Pro). Portability will probably win out for me.

Hopefully PureDan wil chime in; IIRC he recently got a new iMac...

Let me know what you decide!
 
Last edited:
Jim, Thanks. the links were a good read. Think i'm gonna shoot low and get a refurbished 2017 iMac with the 8GB video card, up the ram on my own and call it a day... too much analysis paralysis... and now trying to do tests of transcode vs proxy my current imac has given me the black screen "Your computer restarted because of a problem...." TWICE in the past hour (always while importing a seq into a new Premiere Project using TRANSCODE footage to ProResLT? I used to be good at MacOS stuff since System 7 (remember how awesome that was on my Centris 650)... but I just cant keep up. Wish I had never updated the OS and Premiere to start with... did I really need audio ducking?

Dont think I can wait for real world mac-mini testing and the laptop is just too $$$.
 
Premiere works best with NVIDIA graphics. So get the Mac mini and an eGPU with a NVIDIA graphics card in it. (not the Black Magic one in other words...)
Downside is it might need some tweaks to get working but should be doable. (people get hackintoshes with NVIDIA cards working all the time).

If this is a pure Premiere work station, getting a Mac at all is no point. If you also use the computer for other stuff then a Mac it is of course.
There has to be new iMacs coming out within a few months so a new iMac isn’t the best investment at this time...
 
2017 iMac is a very solid machine that should handle most of what you throw at it besides a ton of really intense 4K projects or 8K footage. 4K it handles great it's just not great at rendering it compared to other machines (but not awful). I got one a bit ago for a great price on B&H refurbished, tossed 32GB RAM in it for total of 40GB, and 1TB SSD. Did a ton of work on it since then and it's fantastic. The only bottleneck on a RED RAW feature I'm in the middle of has been the I/O I'm using, the machine is great.

2018 Mac Mini is bound to be great in terms of CPU, SSD speeds, etc. but the internal GPU isn't great so eGPU would be needed to help on a lot of things. It really depends on what you're doing. It should playback things well though so in terms of simple editing it should be alright. I don't think you need to wait on benchmarks to know how it'll likely do.

2017 MacBook Pro is what I have. It's 2x faster than my 2015 MacBook Pro in almost every respect. It's a beast and handles pretty much anything but obviously once you render it gets loud and takes about 2x longer to render than the 2017 iMac does. Even with an eGPU attached you have thermal challenges for the CPU compared to iMac. Mac Mini is likely to do alright on the heat front but the laptops aren't great no matter how you look at it from a CPU thermal standpoint.

Good luck! I say the 2017 iMac is a great deal right now if you go digging on Ebay. I found a ton there but got lucky with a B&H listing late at night. I snatched it up.
 
Jim Feeley said:
if you go Macbook Pro, consider the 15-inch model so you can get 32GB RAM (vs 16GB max in the 13-inch) and a dedicated Radeon Pro GPU (though only 4GB). Sigh Apple... I'm bummed I can't get a MBP with a 8GB GPU and 64GB RAM... but there you are.
Click to expand...
From November the MacBook Pros will be available with VEGA 16 and VEGA 20 graphics cards, so that should be a step up.

To be honest, NLEs don't use that much ram. In FCPX I can't say I really noticed any difference at all going from 16 to 32gb. 64gb ram is overkill for most users.
 
Adobe currently recommends 32GB for Premiere Pro, and since I'm often running other applications that do use more RAM (say, AE for RAM previews), and since RAM is cheap, it's nice to have more available. https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

Also, I'd think Adobe is thinking of bringing in more support for AMD GPUs since Adobe still has a lot of Mac users and the Radeon line is pretty cool.

As for future Macs, hard to say what's coming when. I see a lot of the rumors, but at a certain point, I'll need a new machine and don't want to just wait. However, the MacRumors Buyer's Guide has historically been pretty useful at figuring out when new Apple products might be released (though Apple's patterns seem a bit less consistent these days). Still worth a quick look:
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac
 
SO I ended up pulling the trigger on a apple refurb 2017 iMac 3.8 i5 with Radeon 580 video card. Waiting for macsales ram to arrive, but it already seems much better.
I feel like I should do a clean install - ie add apps I really need, rather than migration assistant. I feel like any old goblins (aka corrupt files, odd settings and so on) would just follow me over. Crazy or smart?
 
I've had supprisingly good recent experiences with migration assistant. But if you have the time, go for a clean install. Especially since this will be a serious work machine.

Congrats on your choice. Please let us know how it's working for you after a couple of weeks bashing on it.
 
I always do a clean install when I get a new computer. It’s a bit of work but I see it as the perfect opportunity to clean old garbage...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top