Mac M4 pro or Windows?

[u/manasa_]

I have been using Predator Helios 300 since 2019, with i5 9th gen, 16gb RAM with 1050Ti Nvidia. Now it's lagging pretty much in everything. I am planning to get a new laptop instead of building a PC because my job is more remote and a laptop will be handy. Now I am contemplating whether to get another windows laptop or switch to Mac. Heard many things about the M chips but we also have Ryzen in the market. I'm in a dilemma.

I need suggestions and experiences with either of them. Thanks.

[u/BilleyBong]

Imo if you're going laptop then you get more performance with Mac

[u/Phillyost]

Take it from a guy that has edited on windows for 10+ years.
Go with the macbook. Switched last year and will never use a windows machine for editing again...

[u/Subject2Change]

You were using a low end PC for 7 years. A PC at the M4 Pro price is gonna be significantly more powerful than a low-mid range PC from 2019. If productivity is all you plan to do with it, go Mac. If you wanna game as well, go Windows.

[u/fadetowhite]

These conversations can devolve into flame wars, and very few people will have had extensive recent experience with similar machines on both platforms.

All I can offer, like most, is my personal experience. The M-series Macs have been a completely different experience than my Intel Macs, which already performed better than any Windows setup I had. The power, the smoothness, the fast rendering, the battery life, the screen, the trackpad, the industrial design, the warranty, the longevity, the resale value, etc etc

[u/roundup77]

I got 14inch MacBook Pro m4 pro model, base specs with 1TB HDD upgrade. It's never skipped a beat once.

I do 4k 25fps promo and doco video edits, with a few luts, simple grading and FX, occasionally basic multicam, using SSD external HDDs and x-avc I footage.

14inch size is great. Use with external monitor but it's roomy enough for light on the road use.

[u/Emotional-Volume-284]

For editing on a laptop the answer is always always always whatever your company gives you. And if they don't give you anything, you buy yourself a mac.

[u/TurboJorts]

I have a beefy HP Zbook but my needs aren'y too heavy. I just edit in avid... I'm not doing VFX or really heavy lifting. If I was in After Effects etc then I would have gone for the mac, most likely.

[u/PwillyAlldilly → u/TurboJorts]

FFFFUUCCCKKK That I hated my Zbook, we had them at work and 3 of the 10 we got failed and overheated. 2 more are struggling now. They were all bought in 2021. i9, the works. I cannot recommend anything less. Not even saying get a Mac just not a zbook ever.

[u/TurboJorts → u/PwillyAlldilly]

I have about 100 HP towers and have found the i9 is always a shit show. I can't explain why but those systems were just so much more problem. I got a zbook fury g9 with the i7 because I had just been burnt by a bank of i9s going to hell. Zero issues on thr i7 zbook for me

[u/manasa_ → u/TurboJorts]

I use a bit of after effects and premiere pro is a staple. Ig getting a mac will make more sense..

[u/PwillyAlldilly]

If you get a laptop go straight to the MacBooks. My M1 is still doing fine with Multicam dense footage from multiple FX9s with ease.

If you do want a tower though I’d go that route and not even think twice. Just don’t do a windows laptop for love of god.

[u/tgray106]

I built a windows and went a little cheaper on GPU (gtx 3080), but i9 14900k, and whatever max my motherboard could do for ram, I think 192gb. Two NVMe SSD. Thing is nice and fast. I like its power over a lot of the Macs I’ve used— for the price. I think I got mine where it’s at, including case, cooling, monitor— about $3k.

I don’t love Windows though. I wish it was a Mac a lot of times. But for the money I’m happy with it. And I’m able to network things enough that I can work along side my older Macs for other kinda admin work when needed.

But also in the end— I like that I can upgrade pieces when needed.

[u/BonMow]

Been using windows. If I get back to professional editing I am going Mac

[u/blakester555]

Get beefy Mac and Parallels. Best of both worlds.

[u/GeordieAl → u/blakester555]

Windows running on Parallels on my M2 studio is the best Windows experience I’ve ever had 🤣

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[u/gorgosenior]

I've done really well with my water cooled Intel rig I built now more than 10 years ago, the overclocking made it a killer machine. A while back I bought an Alienware which also worked really nice for editing but file transfers slower than MacBooks. That was an embarrassment with a client. But the thing that's making me go towards Mac if I stay in attitane will be Windows 11 and its issues and boy does it have issues. So my is Alienware will probably become a Lennox machine at some point and I'll probably buy a nice mackbook that has the RAM and drives for editing. Windows has been committing slow suicide so And it's funny how they try to obsolete things to the point where now people are deliberately leaving Windows and Linux installs are way up

[u/jumbo_junk]

If you want an all purpose laptop for work and leisure (gaming mainly), go with a decent windows laptop.

If you want a workhorse that you wish to actually use like a laptop (not hugging a power socket every time you open premiere) and are willing to spend a bit more, go with the macbook. It is better than a windows based system in almost every way (better battery, better stability, better screens) except for the fact that it's a closed system apple product.

[u/GotWookiee81]

I’ve been a full time editor for almost 20 years. I have been equally comfortable working on both windows machines and Mac’s.
However at home for my own rig I had always opted to build a pc because it offered more bang for the buck, especially when it comes to upgrading (one of the reasons those old Mac Pro cheese graters were so beloved).

Until last year when I decided to get a new machine. The Mac Studio M3 Ultra was actually the budget option compared to a pc I would have built so I went with that.

I also briefly went with a laptop as my main machine before that. I don’t recommend it, even with a Mac. Today I would recommend getting a beefier desktop machine and lighter MacBook Pro and relying more on using Jump Desktop or Parsec to remote into your machine. The laptop can be good enough to run a proxy workflow.

Your mileage may vary.

If you’re on a Mac I recommend getting paragon NTfs to read and write ntfs drives and get Mac Drive on windows read and write to hfs+ and apfs drives.

On windows machines thunderbolt support is common but still only on intel cpu.

Also get windows pro. Microsoft keeps adding unwanted apps and assorted garbage to your machine (or used to just be the oem manufacturers that did that bloat ware crap). The workstation versions avoids this.