Upgrading laptop

Hey guys
So my workflow is currently to chop/build sets on an iMac and do live sets/gigs with a MacBook pro. Which was fine until my 2013 MBP started chugging during sets.
I may have an opportunity to upgrade soon and was wondering what I could get away with. Like at what point after a 2013 MBP (i7, 1tb ssd, 16gb ram, can’t remember graphics off top) would I see a significant improvement in stability?
Also thinking resolution had a lot to do with this (as I learned in another post) but I’d like to be able to comfortably use at least 720p-1080p live.

Does an eGPU could help a lot while working on a MBP 2012-2013? (following this thread)

2 Likes

Hi Willie
Sorry for the late reply. The most critical parts of your system to run EboSuite smoothly are the GPU, the CPU and the hard disk. I strongly recommend to use an SSD disk (not a Fusion Drive!), especially when you use Hap encoded videos and/or are playing and mixing multiple videos at the same time. I also recommenc strongly to buy a computer with a dedicated graphics card, because processing the visual effects, mixing teh videos and unpakcing Hap encoded videos is done on the graphics card (GPU). Preferably an ATI or NVIDIA video card, since we did most of our testing with these videocards. Here is a list of Macs that are equiped with such hardware: Mac-computers met OpenCL- en OpenGL-videokaarten - Apple Support (NL). H264, ProRes and other video codecs are unpacked on the CPU, so if you use other video compressions a lot, a good CPU is essential. But since Live does all it’s processing on the CPU, you’ll need a good CPU anyway.
I personally use 720p videos live mostly. Video clips look nice with that resolution and it gives the computer a bit more breathing space as opposed to 1080p.
It is difficult to give detailed advice, because a lot depends on how you use EboSuite. Other plug-ins (third party or from Ableton), using a lot of automation, using many eFX, playing many videos at the same time, third party (audio) drivers in your system, the video codec and how fast you are triggering the videos are factors that affect the performance a lot for example.

1 Like

Hi Owae.ga
An eGPU could help. We have no experience with eGPU’s yet, but VDS does. He wrote a bit about his experiences with eGPU’s on the forum here:

Maybe you could send him a message?

1 Like

Okay cool. Sorry about the slow response but this was very helpful! Hoping I can resist the urge to just run out and grab the newest shiniest thing.

1 Like