[Adam Johnson]

WARNING – POST RETURNING FROM THE DEAD.

While OP has probably purchased a laptop by now, I figured I might just add my current experience to this thread in case anyone happens across it.

It’s 11 at night and I’ve been exporting a fifteen minute video for over an hour now on my base model 13″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

What’s important here are the details, however. This short commercial vid contains a nearly 15-minute keyed, graded LOG clip with conversion LUT a background generator, intro and outro graphics packages, a lower-thirds, company logo and probably 8 or 10 titles along with some audio processing. The CPU is only around 25% total usage. The GPU is absolutely pegged.

Conversely, I love shooting short docs and since those basically get a grade and some audio work, maybe a short and light stabilization, they tend to export much faster – sometimes sooner than the clip would even take to play. During these times, CPU usage is significantly higher and GPU usage is relatively non-existent.

Here’s the “gotcha” – when stabilizing footage, GPU usage is rockin’. When transcoding mp4 to something like Prores 422, the cpu is rockin’. Rendering is kind of a mixed bag afaik. It seems like sometimes it prefers cpu usage and other times, it prefers gpu usage.

To summarize – if you think you’re going to be exporting clips with bucketloads of effects, titles, keying, etc, go for the most hardcore GPU you can afford. If you can wait during those times or if you tend to do very little keying, graphics, etc., go for the CPU – it’ll save you time on import.