M5 MacBook Pro FINAL CUT PRO Test — Real-World 4K Video Editing Performance!
When I got the first base M3 MacBook Pro, it had major problems with Final Cut Pro, including being completely unable to export videos. So with the new M5 MacBook Pro (base chip, upgraded to 24 GB of memory), I went through an entire edit to see how it performs. This isn’t sponsored, and no products were provided to me.
The project
- A multicam clip with four tracks: two A-roll angles (one zoomed in), a top-down B-roll angle, and a separate audio track.
- Shot on Sony a7 IV cameras at 24 fps, 4K HEVC 10-bit, about 80 Mb/s each, in log.
- Three color effects on every clip: brightness and saturation, a redness reduction for my skin, and a LUT to convert from log to Rec. 709.
So every frame of every track needs processing to show the finished result.
Editing
With the multicam clip in the timeline, playback starts instantly with no stuttering. I can scrub all over with no lag, cut out the silences, and switch between angles for jump cuts and the top-down shot.
A 10-minute section where I’d done a software update on camera, I sped up to a few seconds with a custom speed. It played fine without rendering, and I rendered it anyway for smooth playback. Another clip sped up 4,919% played through with no dropouts or lag.
Memory use was about 12 GB early on and nearly 16 GB by the end, so even the 16 GB model should be fine for edits and footage like mine.
I edited from an external OWC Express 1M2 (the 80 Gb/s version) with a WD Black SSD inside, since the 512 GB internal SSD doesn’t have room for a roughly 200 GB project. It’s been stupid fast, even on this Mac’s Thunderbolt 4.
A more complex project, with multiple B-roll angles and clips on top of the color-graded 4K multicam, also played completely fluidly.
Exporting
A roughly 15-minute video, exported as 4K HEVC 10-bit, took 5 minutes 36 seconds. Not as fast as my M4 Max MacBook Pro, but it shows how capable this machine is.
Verdict
The base M5 MacBook Pro with 24 GB is more than fast enough for most video editing. It’s an extremely capable machine and I can definitely recommend it for editing YouTube videos or anything else. I don’t really need the Pro or Max chips, even though I’ll probably still buy them because I’m an idiot.
Links
- M5 MacBook Pro
- OWC Express 1M2 80G
- OWC Express 1M2 40G
- WD Black SN850X
- OWC Envoy Ultra
- Cheap 5K vs Apple Studio Display
- The Everyday Mac Display - BENQ MA270U
In this video
- 00:00 Intro & Why I’m Testing Final Cut Pro on the M5
- 00:24 Project Setup: Cameras, Settings & Tracks
- 01:12 Editing Performance & Live Playback
- 02:30 Speeding Up Clips Without Rendering
- 03:35 External SSD Workflow & Performance
- 04:30 High-Speed Timeline Scrubbing
- 05:15 Testing a More Complex Multicam Project
- 05:54 Exporting a 15-Minute HEVC 4K Video
- 06:30 Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?
- 07:15 Outro & Next Video Recommendation
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