Premiere Pro Exports: Mac Mini M1 vs Intel w/ eGPU

[HoosJustinG]

Trying to decide on a secondary machine for video editing that I can get a staff member to come work on and save me time.

My current workstation is built around my i9 MBP and has a black magic eGPU, so that already exists.

For a secondary machine, am I better off with an intel Mac mini and using the eGPU or an m1 which obviously doesn’t support it? Editing down ~45 min 1080p videos in .mov and exporting to H265.

 

[NorCalLights]

If there are apple stores in your area, the easiest thing to do would be to buy both, benchmark both, and return the slower one. There are a lot of variables here. For a professional workflow, it's always best to do your own testing with your own files.

 

[HoosJustinG]

If there are apple stores in your area, the easiest thing to do would be to buy both, benchmark both, and return the slower one. There are a lot of variables here. For a professional workflow, it's always best to do your own testing with your own files.

Yeah this is ultimately what I did. Or rather I just bought the M1 since I have a pretty good idea how an Intel would do (i5 being slower than my i9).

I'm both pleased and upset. M1 without eGPU - and running Intel optimized Premiere Pro version since ARM version isn't out yet - exports about 10% faster than my i9 (w/ 8GB 5500M GPU on board) + eGPU. And while my MBP needs a fan pointed at it to keep it from overheating when I export 6/7/8 videos in a row, the Mac mini (roughly 1/5 the price) runs cool as a cucumber.