Hello Everyone,

I always get good advice here, so I thought I would try this.

I want to run DaVinci Resolve for heavy duty video editing and my current laptops just won't handle it. It requires a minimum of an i7 at least 2.5Ghz, multi-core and a minimum of 2GB of VRAM (as well as 16GB system RAM).

I have the opportunity to purchase a 2016 laptop with an i7-7500U with an Nvidia 940MX with 2GB of VRAM. I did some research and this processor only has 2 cores/4 threads, so it is at the minimum specs for this software.

It was surprising to me that a 7th generation i7 would only have 2 cores, but that is what is has. It seems to have reasonable benchmarks.

Does anyone have an opinion about this processor and graphics card for the intended purpose? I just would rather not spend the money (even though it appears to be a good price) if I'm going to have trouble in the future because of a lack of resources.

Any replies appreciated.

Bob

Compare intel i7, that is a Kaby Lake-U
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List..._i7_processors

My experience is that a quad core, 4 thread processor will run circles around a dual core processor, when using something that uses raw processor horsepower like ffmpeg to encode videos. A quad core will use a good deal more power, but it will get done faster. I have not experimented with the 7500U. Looks like it is made to be lower power. 2 cores at 2.7Ghz.

I can tell you that the more cores that a machines processor has, the more frames per second encoding you will get. You can thread all that you want, there are still only 2 cores.

There are other factors of course, such as bus speed, RAM speed, storage device speed.

If I had to guess, I bet that won't perform as well encoding video as a Hazwell i7 4790(4 core at 3.7Ghz), or even an Ivy Bridge i5 3450(4 cores at 3.1Ghz).

Then, laptops won't cool as good as a desktop. For encoding videos, where the machine may run wide open for an hour, I like a desktop case, that can be opened, and a fan directed at the inside, to help cool it. I can use an Ivy Bridge machine, with ffmpeg running the processor at about 100%, with a fan blowing into the internals, and keep the cores at or below 130F(54C) this time of year.

Cooler temps make hardware last longer. Pegging a processor at 100% for an hour or so is kind of hard on it I think. And you are going to tell me that that lower power usage processor will create less heat. I can't argue with you there. Bet you won't get the performance out if it though.

The idea of laptop was to have a light mobile computer to take on the road. I don't think even "gaming" laptops are designed for heavy sustained load. In addition, as you noticed, mobile versions of processors have less cores and threads. You could build a much stronger desktop computer on same budget.

Thanks for the replies.

@tekk You are correct. When I try to render even a very short edited video with the machine I have it's temperature goes over 90 degree. One of them is 4 core but terrible graphics. They get overworked beyond their capability. The video editing I will be doing is drone photography in 4K and RAW stills. The equipment I have just won't handle it.

@Emerson. I agree. I'd rather have a desktop, but just don't have the room. I prefer a laptop, but I know I will probably never get the performance I want.

Since I posted and did more research, I've gone completely off the idea of 2 core processor. So, I've decided I just can't get what I need for much less than a £1,000. I did find this one:

MSI GF63 Thin 10SCSR-655UK - 15.6 Inch Full HD 144 Hz Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i7-10750H, NVIDIA GTX 1650Ti, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB NVMe SSD, Windows 10

The only thing that keeps me from going ahead is that the specs say that the maximum installable RAM is 8GB. That might be OK with this graphics card, but I don't know.

What would you recommend for what I want to do?

Thanks

Bob

Look, once upon time when Q6600 was a powerhouse I had a headless box with Q6600 in a locker. It was the most powerful computer I had. When I wanted to do some video work I sent wol packet to it, it booted by itself and was configured to autologin as me and start Avidemux. Since it was headless, it was configured to open the Avidemux window not locally, but on my main computer. So when I saw Avidemux window on my screen I knew the Q6600 is up and ready. Since this Q6600 box mounted the work directory in my main computer over NFS I was able to use this remote computer to work on anything I put in that directory locally. To sum it up, the Avidemux window was on my screen and it processed files in my ~/work directory, just the computing power for these jobs was remote.

See, anything is possible in Linux.

Now, tell me you have no space for a middle sized computer case in your establishment ... ?

Mmmm...I see your point. I'll do some more research into desktops. They are a little less money. I know I can't future proof anything I get (whatever it is it will probably be out of date within 6 months). I know I need at least 32GB RAM, i7 or Ryzen 7 with at least 4 cores, and an Nvidia card with at least 4GB of VRAM. According to Black Magic Design, that would let me use all of the features of DaVinci Resolve for the next couple of years at least.

Thanks, for your help. I'm not as confident as I used to be in building one, so I'll look for prebuilt.

Bob

BobNutfield,

If you have not already seen this useful link about running DaVinci Resolve, including user feedback:

https://www.richardlackey.com/davinc...-requirements/

Stay away from ALL laptops, if you want my advice.

Upgradability = 0. The max cpu power is 55W = twin core, probably thyermally limiting 100% of the time if it's GPU heavy.