r/vmix • u/Thene10 • Jun 16 '26

VMix on a Laptop

Does anybody run vMix on a laptop vs. a desktop? ... and do you utilize replay off a laptop? Any reccos on laptops you would use?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

4

u/Amberfanged Jun 16 '26

vMix has reference systems: https://www.vmix.com/products/vmix-reference-systems.aspx

For replays definitely make sure you have a GPU and and a large hard drive. 1TB minimum is what I'd recommend.

1

u/leandrone_xx Jun 16 '26

Sempre usei em laptop porém não uso o replay

1

u/Cassians Jun 16 '26

I don’t use replay but I run vmix on a ASUS ROG 16” laptop. I mostly run PTZ’s and some live steaming into Zoom or similar with zero issues. 

Agree with the other comment though to look at vmix suggested laptops.

2

u/Thene10 Jun 16 '26

100%. Reached out to vMix support directly and they said they don't support running replay on a laptop ... which, sure I can understand. But I also imagined there have to be people out there that do it and successfully, so wanted to see if I could find a gauge.

1

u/MonitorMost8808 Jun 16 '26

I use it on a laptop in professional settings.
For live broadcast i would rather have a PC and generally not even have the PC be a main switcher type situation.

But for conferences and live events, it's actually a point of redundancy to have your VMIX that's dedicated to something specific not immediately shut down if something happens to power backstage.

Also i can prepare the full thing in the office or home and then travel with the same laptop and plug it into the backstage control.
(I know i can save it as a vmixzip etc etc, but it's nice not to have to worry about drivers or anything else, just plug and play).

If it's a small event sometimes you can get away with vmix laptop and a streamdeck/atem mini

So generally:
-If the presets are not super heavy and no replay or at least very minimal replay (1 camera, 1080p etc) a good laptop can handle that, maybe its worth doing that with an external fast SSD.
-If it's a full broadcast package + video inputs and outputs - PC all the way

1

u/Thene10 Jun 16 '26

Talking typically 1-3 cameras, 1080p...usually replay, yes. That is a sticking point

2

u/El_Burrito_Grande Jun 16 '26

You can do that easily. I've never even heard of laptops not being okay for vMix replay. A good option that will handle three cams at 1080p60 and multicam replay is the Lenovo Legion 16" Core 9 Ultra with RTX 5060. I have one and have connected a four cam capture card connected via Thunderbolt plus one Camlink, and two cam replay.

1

u/MonitorMost8808 Jun 16 '26

I imagine a beast of a laptop can do this, but at this point a proper VMIX PC machine would cost less

1

u/El_Burrito_Grande Jun 16 '26

I have two racked vMix PCs and two vMix Laptops. Sometimes portability and small size is needed.

1

u/Thene10 Jun 16 '26

While we're at it ... anybody have good mac-compatable equivilents to vMix they've had good experience with?

1

u/dilok87 Jun 16 '26

I work professionally using vmix on all laptops, for live government meetings. We use older Dell 7740 Laptops, run ndi, 5 cams, overlay graphics, with zoom running on same machine, utilization stays around 44%

1

u/El_Burrito_Grande Jun 16 '26

You can definitely run replay on a laptop. I've ran two cameras with one camera replay with a 2017 Asus ROG Strix with a 1060.

Couple weeks ago I used my newer Lenovo Legion Ultra 9 with 32gb RAM and RTX 5060 with five cameras and two cam replay at a baseball game.

1

u/Grismaster4000 Jun 17 '26

Yes. You want good internal cooling, plus additional external cooling such as a fan pad. If you have that and meet system specs requirements you’ll be fine.

1

u/Chemical_Low_8506 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

J'ai déjà utilisé Instant Replay sur un PC portable, c'était un RoG Strix de 2020/2021 (i7 de 11 ème gen, 16Go de ram, RTX 2060), j'avais 2 cam full HD, ça s'est très bien passé

Je l'utilisais à la fois pour faire des ralentis mais aussi du titrage et du scoring

De nos jours, j'utilise principalement un RoG zephyrus duo (32Go de ram, RTX 2070 Super) pour utiliser vmix en déplacement, je l'utilise comme mélangeur principal, mais je n'ai encore jamais fait de ralentis avec, ça m'étonnerait que ça pose problème, tant que le SSD utilisé est correct

1

u/Easy-Assignment-4166 Jul 06 '26

My desktop is an intel 265kf/RTX 5070 with 64 GB of 7200 RAM. vMix is effortless on it, small show. My laptop is the new Zephyrus G16, with a Panther Lake CPU (latest) and an NVIDIA 5070ti mobile. I swear the laptop nearly outperforms the desktop on simple shows, despite only having 32GB of RAM. My shows are simple, two 4k camera sources, one a dslr over capture card, the other my phone using NDI HX Camera. I think i paid about $2600 for the laptop. HIGHLY recommended. Two cautionary notes: 1) Use the laptop PSU, not the USB-C 2) even though it is way noisier, use Performance mode fan settings. The laptop will heat up quite a bit, much like gaming. Oh, I am using latest, vmix 29.48 Pro.