Best Laptop for PD14 Platform

chuckpuckett

Member Location: Alabama Joined: Jan 30, 2011 09:41 Messages: 95 Offline

Solved by

Dec 16, 2015 19:12

(Just posted this I thought, but it never showed up on forum, so trying again)

My HP Pavilion just transmuted into a useless lump of silicon & plastic. Bad for me, but possibly a new opportunity for PD14, which I could NEVER get to run on the laptop. So, before I invest in a new machine, I would welcome suggestions as to what machine and configuration I need to properly run PD14. What hardware and how much of it? I thought my Pavilion was adequately endowed, but it froze up every time I ever tried to edit with PD.

Conversely, what are brands and processors I should avoid? The Cyberlink website only specifies "128 MB VGA VRAM or higher (1 GB or higher VRAM and OpenCL capable are recommended" for graphics, but maybe more is needed?

Replacement laptop needs to be acquired fairly quickly, so all suggestions are eagerly sought. Chuck Puckett
"I don't want to steal the show. I only want to borrow it for a while"
http://www.puckettpublishing.com
http://www.chuckpuckettsongaweek.com

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Dec 16, 2015 21:11

welcome.

Quote: (Just posted this I thought, but it never showed up on forum, so trying again)

My HP Pavilion just transmuted into a useless lump of silicon & plastic. Bad for me, but possibly a new opportunity for PD14, which I could NEVER get to run on the laptop. So, before I invest in a new machine, I would welcome suggestions as to what machine and configuration I need to properly run PD14. What hardware and how much of it? I thought my Pavilion was adequately endowed, but it froze up every time I ever tried to edit with PD.

Conversely, what are brands and processors I should avoid? The Cyberlink website only specifies "128 MB VGA VRAM or higher (1 GB or higher VRAM and OpenCL capable are recommended" for graphics, but maybe more is needed?

Replacement laptop needs to be acquired fairly quickly, so all suggestions are eagerly sought.

i always envy a man who knows Mrs. Clause.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/46060.page

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Desktop-versus-Notebook.154998.0.html

http://www.amazon.com/GT72-Dominator-17-3-inch-Windows-Computer/dp/B00YEYH8WG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_147_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51P87ImPYLL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0JQVZXHTMDSGH2Q1WQJZ

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-G752-17-3-IPS-Skylake-Core-i7-6700HQ-GTX-980M-970M-965M-Gaming-Laptop-/181923135407?var=&hash=item2a5b76bfaf:m:mJU-r_H51Y2qLwaHxvmQ9bg

well, these are my choices. $1,499.00 - $1,699.00 range.

if you prefer 15.6" then you'll save some bucks.

video cards that can hardware encode and decode with PD14 are GTX950 & GTX960 made for desktop!

rest of them with M(made for laptop) don't. they don't do both.

so GTX 960M & GTX 950M(don't buy these) are nogo at this station.

with GTX 965M, GTX 970M & GTX 980M, i'll choose GTX 970M for middle ground.

you can check out their speed at - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

i'll also go for the 32GB RAM. if i don't need all of it then later on yank 16GB for second Laptop...

just as SoNic67 says, when the laptop is this powerful you must deal with the cooling fan noises!

and the bottleneck.

so far i am the bottleneck to borrow the saying from Eugen157. also check out the models that

you're going to purchase at - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Reviews.55.0.html

here's someone got the Skylake CPU(yes, they do H.265 and windows) with GTX 960(desktop) test.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/46535.page#241962

happy Holidays.

PepsiMan

'garbage in garbage out'

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Dec 17. 2015 22:45

'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1

Julien Pierre

Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline

Dec 18, 2015 01:44

Does it really have to be a laptop ? A desktop is much better option, in general. MSI X99A Raider
Intel i7-5820k @ 4.4 GHz
32GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 960 4GB
480 GB Patriot Ignite SSD (boot)
2 x 480 GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (striped)
6 x 1 TB Samsung 860 SSD (striped)

2 x LG 32UD59-B 32" 4K
Asus PB238 23" HD (portrait)

DocDaddy

Member Joined: Jan 06, 2012 13:59 Messages: 58 Offline

Dec 23, 2015 11:27

I'm also looking for a new laptop to use PD 14 with. It does need to be a laptop, as I do a lot of editing on the road. My Alienware M17x has done a good job in the past with PD, for the most part, but it is so heavy and has a battery life of only about an hour and a half (at best.)

So for me the trick is how to get a lighter laptop, with longer battery life, that still does a good job with PD 14. A good SSD added to a large HDD (I use the SSD for the project I'm working on, the large HDD to store clips and projects that I will later work on, moving them to the SSD when using them) is a given, as is 32 G memory. I think most current i5 or i7 processors would be fine?

So the key is what mobile graphics card is needed for PD14?

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Dec 23, 2015 13:43

welcome to the forum

Quote: ...
So the key is what mobile graphics card is needed for PD14?

' with GTX 965M, GTX 970M & GTX 980M, i'll choose GTX 970M for middle ground... '

these are equip with second gen Maxwell GM204 and only do H.265 decoding

will encode with nVidia's nVenc which PD does not support...

according to notebookcheck.net GTX 965M does HA encode & decode H.265 but

there isn't a report from the PD users who do have the laptop equip with GTX 965M & PD14.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-965M.134120.0.html

Skylake cpus does H.265 HA encode & decode.

Quote: ...

but it is so heavy and has a battery life of only about an hour and a half (at best.)

that is the real draw back you'll face head-on again.

my next laptop with PD14 will be i7 Skylake 6820HK & nVidia GTX 970M, as of now.

who knows what nVidia will bring in new year...

happy editing. Happy Holidays.

PepsiMan

'garbage in garbage out'

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Dec 23. 2015 13:45

'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1

Julien Pierre

Contributor Joined: Apr 14, 2011 01:34 Messages: 476 Offline

Dec 23, 2015 17:35

Quote: welcome to the forum

Quote: ...
So the key is what mobile graphics card is needed for PD14?

' with GTX 965M, GTX 970M & GTX 980M, i'll choose GTX 970M for middle ground... '

these are equip with second gen Maxwell GM204 and only do H.265 decoding

will encode with nVidia's nVenc which PD does not support...
|/quote]

PD13 and PD14 most certainly do support nVenc for encoding . Earlier versions can only use the CUDA encoder. MSI X99A Raider
Intel i7-5820k @ 4.4 GHz
32GB DDR4 RAM
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 960 4GB
480 GB Patriot Ignite SSD (boot)
2 x 480 GB Sandisk Ultra II SSD (striped)
6 x 1 TB Samsung 860 SSD (striped)

2 x LG 32UD59-B 32" 4K
Asus PB238 23" HD (portrait)

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Dec 23, 2015 18:33

Quote:

PD13 and PD14 most certainly do support nVenc for encoding . Earlier versions can only use the CUDA encoder.

well, there you have it, from Julien.

Happy Holidays.

PepsiMan

'garbage in garbage out'

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Dec 23. 2015 18:36

'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1

AlS

Senior Member Location: South Africa Joined: Sep 23, 2014 18:07 Messages: 290 Offline

Dec 24, 2015 07:51

PepsiMan.

With the new 6 and 8 core I7's coming from Intel in 2016 you can change "GIGO" to "GIGOTS"
ie - "Garbage In Garbage Out at Terrific Speed"
Al

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 24. 2015 08:50

Power Director 13&14 Ultimate, Photo Director 6, Audio Dir, Pwr2Go 10
Win 10 64, Intel MB DH87MC, Intel i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16Gb DDR3 1600, 128Gb SSD, 2x1Tb WDBlue 7200rpmSATA6, Intel 4600 GPU, Gigabyte G1 GTX960 4GB, LG BluRay Writer

AlS

Senior Member Location: South Africa Joined: Sep 23, 2014 18:07 Messages: 290 Offline

Dec 24, 2015 08:45

chuckpuckett

All good advice above. Sounds like a simple question but it's tough to spec even a desktop for video editing - most will say hardware recommendation is "as much as you can afford".
Bear in mind that even the most potent laptop cannot give you the functions of a large screen - or better yet dual large screen desktop with a multi terabyte raid0 7200 rpm high capacity HDD and a SDD for software, 16GB + memory etc. Core i7 six and eight core CPUs coming in 2016.

Despite all the buzz laptop makers generate about how fantastic their products are, the truth remains that a desktop computer will perform better at video editing and most resource hungry tasks than its portable counterpart at any given price point. A 15.6" laptop screen is too small for editing. I just don't like any laptop screen or keyboard so I wouldn't attempt editing on even the most expensive laptop.

If portability is a must and the compromise is acceptable then realistically you don't want to waste money so I would consider the following:
Are you using 4k or will you be soon? 4K is a challenge for desktop hardware.
How important is H.265 vs H.264?
How much HDD storage do you need - a high capacity USB3 external HDD may help.

When I am on the move I take a mid-range Lenovo i3 15" laptop with a 3TB USB3 external HDD. I use the laptop to preview my camera footage daily and dump it to the external HDD for later editing and clear the cameras sd cards.

Here is some more info from independent sources.

https://www.wiknix.com/best-laptop-for-video-editing-2015/

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/167156-the-best-laptops-for-video-editing

https://www.rocketstock.com/blog/how-to-pick-the-perfect-laptop-for-video-editing/

Good luck,
Al

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 24. 2015 08:47

Power Director 13&14 Ultimate, Photo Director 6, Audio Dir, Pwr2Go 10
Win 10 64, Intel MB DH87MC, Intel i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16Gb DDR3 1600, 128Gb SSD, 2x1Tb WDBlue 7200rpmSATA6, Intel 4600 GPU, Gigabyte G1 GTX960 4GB, LG BluRay Writer

PepsiMan

Senior Contributor Location: Clarksville, TN Joined: Dec 29, 2010 01:20 Messages: 1054 Offline

Dec 24, 2015 21:01

Quote: PepsiMan.

With the new 6 and 8 core I7's coming from Intel in 2016 you can change "GIGO" to "GIGOTS"
ie - "Garbage In Garbage Out at Terrific Speed"
Al

Merry Christmas.

PepsiMan

'garbage in garbage out at terrific speed' 'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1