Laptop Specs for CS5

[Jon Barrie]

If the card is not on the list near the bottom of the screen, then it is not supported for Hardware accelerated Mercury Engine by Adobe.
https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/tech-specs.html

Not to say other people aren’t using some other cards to get the performance, but if its not on the list Adobe are not liable for any production issues, export, playback or otherwise when using the Hardware Acceleration. I do know there are some issues with using cards that have not passed the extensive testing and made it to the “officially supported” list.

I am getting a system soon (I hope) that will have the nVidia 2000M GPU 2Gig DDR3. Should smack plenty of Realtime Effect Playback. This card is on the supported list.

There may be more supported cards with later “updates” or “upgrades” as the technology and cards keep improving, but if you can afford the real deal, even only just afford it – you have the peace of mind that Adobe will be able to trouble shoot any hiccups that may arise.

– JB 🙂

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
Jon’s YouTube Tutorial Page
follow Jon with twitter

Tweets by suiteskills

[John Welsh]

Also check into an Asus G74SX-A1 (or and A2) in the process of upgrading 1900.00 or so will get you a similar set up.

GTX 560m inside (though it’s not on “the list”)

JW

[Neil Frye]

“GTX 560m inside tho its not on the list”
See this is why I am not sure. Because it’s a laptop I don’t know if it’s worth maxing out the thing on all levels and making sure the GPU card inside it is officially supported…

I haven’t tested out the GTX 560 or 540 cards but I have read from people who tested them out and they say the hard ware acceleration can be turn on with these cards. Like in the XPS 15 if power cord is plugged in it will crank up to do what i need.

Has anyone else tested the XPS 17 or XPS 15 out. The specs on these laptops are almost the same as the precision and thinkpad but the GPU is obviously not supported.

[John Welsh]

If you take graphics card out of the equation for a moment (meaning to expect no added speed from it if it’s never officially supported – and provided you don’t enable manually – and if it works) other key things to think about from your original post are RAM (go for at least 12GB, 16GB if you can swing it).

And also a fast primary hard drive. Until SSDs are less $ and have more capacity, a nice compromise is a Seagate Momentus Hybrid SSD (if it’s available for the laptop you are configuring).

*** Just in case – make sure you stay away from any kind of overclocking (CPU). It’s fine for gamers but not us. Laptops like Alienware and ASUS are built for the gaming crowd. They are great for us too since they have performance components within, but you’ll need stability which overclocking can affect.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[neil frye] “Basically I want to know what they mean when they say not officially supported. Does that mean some time in the future this card will be supported or does it mean that this card will do the job effectively 80% of the time? or What?”

It means Adobe hasn’t tested them and/or paying homage to its partners NVidia and PNY helping them sell more expensive “pro” cards. 🙂

It also means a GeForce card with sufficient specs will perform the same or better as the officially supported card.

A card with marginal or insufficient specs may work 50% of the time. I haven’t done enough testing to say for sure.

Based on what cards Adobe does support, I’d look at a minimum of 192 Cuda cores (GTX 560M or higher), 60GB/s memory bandwidth.

That said, users on this forum reported that the laptops equipped with the GTX 540M (96 Cuda Cores, Dell XPS 15) is working for them in terms of GPU accel in Pr.

The unfortunate fact is, Quadro cards have an expensive component (hardware OpenGL support) that is completely unnecessary for Premiere. So when you buy one, it’s an overkill from the get go. If you can get a similar laptop with a GeForce card that has the same number of Cuda cores, memory bandwidth and sufficient memory – it will offer exactly the same performance as the Quadro card.

Alex (DV411)

[Neil Frye]

Yeah, I have come to realize that for the $2,200-2,500 I would spend on a laptop that had everything in it, a laptop that would rock and roll and kick down all the doors and have the supported GPU card in it, it just didn’t add up.

Because I could build a desktop tower for approx. $1,100 tops, which would have more speed, power, ram, and storage and the proper supported GPU card in it. Then I could take the rest of that money and turn around and buy the XPS 15 for a little under $1400 which has enough in it to do a sufficient work load while on the road or in the hotel rooms.

Alex you made a lot of sense and thanks for helping me understand the GPU story behind adobe a little better. I did wonder why only a handful of cards were only supported..
It makes a lot of sense that the most expensive cards these manufacturers sell would be the only ones adobe supports. Because the little gamer kid would never buy these monster cards. The gamer kids would just crossfire (put two cards in their machine) two cheaper GPU gaming cards together to get the GPU speed they need. This Leaves these monster GPU cards likes the GTX and quatro sitting on the shelves with poor sale volumes and low profit margins. Looks like adobe agreed to be the niche market for these monster cards.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Thanks for the nod Neil. I am still very grateful to Adobe for leaving the door open to easily add GPU acceleration with NVidia cards that aren’t officially supported. This way you can try different cards and choose one that works for your budget and performance requirements.

Avid would have been much more rigid in a similar situation.

Alex (DV411)

[Pushpanatha De silva]

Hi Alan, Hows ur Dell machine (M6400 mobile workstation)working with CS5??How many GB of DDR3 Ram u use and how’s the usage when u run CS5?? Are u happy with ur Dell machine?? I am also thinking of buying Dell mobile workstation soon but need clarify things before I decide..Thanks in advance..

Dell Workstation T7500
Dell HD Monitors
Sony PMW EX1

[Alan Lacey]

Hi Pushpantha

No problems with the Dell, but I’ve little to compare with. I’ve been FCP for a number of years following the demise of my beloved Liquid Silver. Never really took to FCP so changed to Edius five years ago and then bought the Dell as a mobile solution for Edius.

Dell is M6400 quad core with nVidea3700 card 12GB ram, originally loaded with Vista64 and Edius5. About six montha ago I put an extra SSD in for Dual boot to Win7 and CS5.5 prod suite I’ve not used Prem since v6 so am getting up to speed again with it – hence the little to compare.

So far – very good but I guess as it’s now an old machine things have changed. Dell in the UK here have been great with their support but it was a high end machine so I’d have expected that.

Good luck

Alan

FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP

[Pushpanatha De silva]

Thx Alan for ur input to my query…For me too Dell has been given me a great service since 1995. I got excellent service in Australia and very reliable too.

Dell Workstation T7500
Dell HD Monitors
Sony PMW EX1