Can I edit 4K videos with one of those ?

[Hideo16]

Hi everyone,

I've been searching through this forum for a few days now and I realize that this kind of thread pops up very often, so... sorry !

Nevertheless, since I have never used Premiere Pro and am new to video editing, I'd like to ask people who actually know all that stuff if one of those 2 laptops would be able to edit UHD footage (25p @ 100mbps) from my Panasonic G7 :

1. MSI WS60 6QJ with UHD display

Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5

16 Gb DDR4-2133Mhz (max. 32 Gb)

Quadro M2000M 4 Gb

SSD 128 Go NVMe HDD 1 Tb 7200 rpm

2. Asus Zenbook Pro UX502VD with UHD display

i7-7700HQ

16 Gb DDR4-2400Mhz (max. 32 Gb)

GTX 1050 4 Gb

SSD 512 Go M.2

Is one of them better than the other for 4K-editing purposes ?

I've been all over the web trying to figure out which GPU is up to the task, but half of the internet says "Quadro is best" while the other half say "GTX 1050 is enough but 1080 is best", so where is the truth in this (if there is any) ?

I realize a desktop PC would do a much better job for the same price tag, but unfortunately I travel a lot, so I need something portable. I am aware that I will have to be plugged in whenever I need to use Premiere Pro, but that won't be a problem.

As a matter of fact, I currently have an Acer laptop with a i5-6200U, 8 gb of ram and integrated graphics. I have tried to edit 5 to 10 minutes of FHD footage at 60fps with Lightworks... Let's just say it has been difficult.

Thanks for your help !

[Bill_Gehrke · Accepted solution]

hideo16  wrote

Hi everyone,

I've been searching through this forum for a few days now and I realize that this kind of thread pops up very often, so... sorry !

Nevertheless, since I have never used Premiere Pro and am new to video editing, I'd like to ask people who actually know all that stuff if one of those 2 laptops would be able to edit UHD footage (25p @ 100mbps) from my Panasonic G7 :

1. MSI WS60 6QJ with UHD display

Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5

16 Gb DDR4-2133Mhz (max. 32 Gb)

Quadro M2000M 4 Gb

SSD 128 Go NVMe HDD 1 Tb 7200 rpm

2. Asus Zenbook Pro UX502VD with UHD display

i7-7700HQ

16 Gb DDR4-2400Mhz (max. 32 Gb)

GTX 1050 4 Gb

SSD 512 Go M.2

Is one of them better than the other for 4K-editing purposes ?

!.  I've been all over the web trying to figure out which GPU is up to the task, but half of the internet says "Quadro is best" while the other half say "GTX 1050 is enough but 1080 is best", so where is the truth in this (if there is any) ?

2.  I realize a desktop PC would do a much better job for the same price tag, but unfortunately I travel a lot, so I need something portable. I am aware that I will have to be plugged in whenever I need to use Premiere Pro, but that won't be a problem.

As a matter of fact, I currently have an Acer laptop with a i5-6200U, 8 gb of ram and integrated graphics. I have tried to edit 5 to 10 minutes of FHD footage at 60fps with Lightworks... Let's just say it has been difficult.

Thanks for your help !

1.  There only is one reason to use a Quadro, if you have a very expensive 10-bit monitor you might want one.

2.  I have a laptop that is 3+ years and find I can do some 4K editing with ease, of course it is well upgraded.  But it does depend on what 4K media you are trying to edit and specifically what features and effects of Premiere Pro are used  I added 16 GB to the 8 GB original and removed the hard disk drive and replaced it with a SATA III SSD and because this computer had another disk port available I added a second SATA SSD.   The laptop came with a CUDA GPU that was reasonably good for that time, a GTX 765M.  The CPU is a quad-core i7-4700HQ which supports hyperthreading.

[Hideo16]

Thanks for the clarifications Bill ! I feel more enlightened already.

It is nice to hear that kind of feedback, because sometimes I just get carried away browsing the web and there's just too much information to digest for a newbie like me.

I actually don't know every Premiere Pro functionalities, but I think I wouldn't need much more than image stabilization, brightness, contrast and levels.

As far as GPU is concerned, should I aim for something higher than a 1050 ?

[Bill_Gehrke]

Warp Stabilization is hard on any computer, plan on lots of time to do the Analysis phase.

I do not have any benchmark data on the GTX 1050. but take a look at my Premiere Pro BenchMark (PPBM) GPU testing for a lot of other GPU's.  Also notice I have found that just by raising the Memory Clock on these GPU's you can very easily and safely improve the performance.

If you were to go with either and only have a 15-inch screen I have seen a number of comments that a UHD screen is overkill and actually makes reading some text is difficult.

Since your candidates do not support more than one internal drive consider adding to your configuration a device like the Samsung T5 USB3 Portable SSD.

.

[Hideo16]

That benchmark was very interesting to read, thank Bill.

Just like you, I have also read that UHD display has no true benefits on a 15" screen and that some UHD screens even have scaling issues.

But isn't 4K display mandatory when it comes to editing and watching 4K footage ?

On some other forums, people often say that a film shot in 4K and downscaled to 1080 WILL look better than shot in 1080 and viewed in 1080.

All in all, does that mean it's sufficient (and less pricey) to just edit and watch 4K on a FHD/QHD screen ?

What is the real advantage of UHD on a laptop, if there is any ?

[Bill_Gehrke]

Well I do not have a 4K screen anywhere, and have been editing 4K from my FDR-AX100 and have downloaded many other 4K, 6K and even 8K media versions to test for forum users on the "play-ability" in Premiere many on this very (HD) laptop.