Which is best for faster Flash compiling? Macbook or Macbook Pro?

[spizzi]

Greetings all,

I am a PC user looking to convert over to Mac for the first time ever. I would like the convenience of a laptop so please do not recommend any Mac desktops.

The most graphic intensive work I will be conducting will be website design, utilizing Adobe CS4 (specifically Flash programming). I would like to also jump into possible video editing as well but this is not for sure. With this in mind, which Macbook do you recommend? The Macbook or Macbook Pro?

Does anyone have objective Flash compiling time examples for both the 2.4GHz Macbook and the 2.53GHz Macbook Pro (512mb graphics)?

I saw benchmark tests between the 2.4 Macbook and the 2.4 Macbook Pro for application testing and they appeared to be nearly identical in performance. However, the applications they used weren't similar to the real world applications I would be using (i.e. Flash).

Anybody with real world metrics? Thanks in advance!

~spizzi

 

[Aea]

About the same, Flash is entirely CPU bound. But if you're doing design I would spring for the MBP, the larger screen will be worth it.

 

[dornoforpyros]

yeah I don't think you'd seen a huge difference in speed on either, but as Aea said the screen size will matter. I find it doesn't matter what screen size I'm on with flash, I'm constantly saying "damn, I wish I had just a bit more" All the pallets and inspectors in flash take up lots of space, so a full website in the middle just eats up all your realestate.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I would like to also jump into possible video editing as well but this is not for sure. With this in mind, which Macbook do you recommend? The Macbook or Macbook Pro?

Well... The MacBook does not have a firewire port, so the video camera that you use must have USB, or you can not connect it to the macbook.

If your video camera uses Firewire to transfer, you have a few choices:

Choice number 1 is the Macbook Pro, a $2000 machine that has a video card you'll probably never use, a backlit keyboard (hella cool) and a 15" screen.

Choice number 2 is a Macbook white. This is the old macbook, with a firewire port. It's also the cheapest laptop that apple makes. It doesn't have a backlit keyboard, it only has a 13" screen, and the graphics are lousy at best (but adequate for flash and video editing)

Of course if your video camera has USB, just get a Macbook and be happy. As far as CPU power, all the processors these days are more power then the average person will ever need... for now at least.

 

[spizzi]

The video cameras I am interested in have firewire 4-pin

Does the pin size/amount dictate which Firewire port I will need (e.g. Firewire 400 versus 800)?

I am new to video editing so my question is, what is the point of paying more for the discrete graphics card if the graphics card does not have a material effect on the editing software? Or am I wrong here?

Is the graphics card more important for gaming than editing?

 

[motoxpress]

Does the pin size/amount dictate which Firewire port I will need (e.g. Firewire 400 versus 800)?

I am new to video editing so my question is, what is the point of paying more for the discrete graphics card if the graphics card does not have a material effect on the editing software? Or am I wrong here?

Is the graphics card more important for gaming than editing?

The graphics card will have an effect on video editing as several aspects of PPro are now accelerated by the GPU. Photoshop is as well.

Firewire is still the best solution for capturing video as USB introduces cpu overhead which *can* result in dropped frames. FW 400 is 400Mbs and FW 800 is 800Mbs. The speed difference on a notebook only really comes into play with transferring files. Video capture will not effect it as you can't capture anything on a laptop that would push beyond FW400.

If you plan to do video work, get a MBP. Apple has made that very clear now.

-mx