• Adobe After Effects

  can macbook air handle CS6 after effects?

  Posted by Robin Chin on March 16, 2013 at 2:13 am

  I want to buy a macbook air and see if I can run After effects CS6 on it. Saw a video by Dave Helmey running premiere with a Sonnet Chassis with a Red Rocket through thunderbolt connector, although I know nothing about this. Would like to know more about this kind of set up.

  Also wanted to connect a larger external monitor but seems not possible since it needs the thunderbolt connector too, macbook air only has 1 thunderbolt connector. Any other suggestions to connect another monitor and kind of monitor good for effects and editing?

  Specs for Macbook air: 13″
  2.0GHz Intel Dual-Core Core i7,
  8GB 1600MHzDDR3L SDRAM
  512GB Flash Storage.

  Other scenario if I really have to use After Effects (and Premiere but not at the same time):
  Macbook pro 15″
  2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
  16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
  512GB Flash Storage
  Thoughts on this knowing you can’t upgrade after you buy it.

  Thanks for your help and thoughts ahead of time.
  Robin

  Nurbek Sagynbaev replied 13 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Todd Kopriva

  March 16, 2013 at 4:03 am

  It will run on an Air, but you won’t be happy with the performance.

  Dave was just trying to prove a point in that video: that Thunderbolt is a useful technology for overcoming limitations in what storage is installed in a computer. That doesn’t mean that what he was showing was a good overall system for After Effects.

  You’d be much happier with the performance of the second system, because of its greater amount of RAM and faster CPU.

  See this page for information about hardware for Premiere Pro and
  After Effects: https://adobe.ly/pRYOuk

  ———————————————————————————————————
  Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
  After Effects quality engineering
  After Effects team blog
  ———————————————————————————————————
• 

  Nurbek Sagynbaev

  March 16, 2013 at 7:37 am

  Definitely go with the Pro.

  I have an early 2011 non-retina Mb Pro 17″ i7 2.2Ghz connected to Thunderbolt display and it runs After Effects CS6 perfectly. I imagine newer MB Pro models will even be better.

  As for a single Thunderbolt port, it’s not a problem either. You can daisy chain several devices via Thunderbolt and all will work fine. My setup includes a Seagate 3TB Thunderbolt hard drive connected to a monitor. No problems at all!

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