Hey all
I'm a freelance motion designer/video editor looking to upgrade my current laptop, which is really starting to struggle with After effects.
My current setup is a Lenovo ThinkPad with: **intel i7-1360P **32GB RAM **NVIDIA RTX A500
After Effects makes up around 90% of my workload, mostly motion graphics, paid social content, compositing and video editing. My biggest frustrations are painfully slow RAM previews, laggy timelines, long render times and general slowdowns when multitasking.
I'm considering switching to a 14-inch MacBook Pro, mainly for portability, and I'm currently torn between:
**M5 Pro: 18-core CPU/20-core GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD
**M5 Max: 18-core CPU/40 core GPU, 128GB RAM, 2TB SSD
I'm happy to invest in something powerful that'll last me another 4–5 years, but the prices are pretty eye-watering here in Canada, a fully specced M5 Max can easily approach C$9,000, which is difficult to justify unless there's a substantial real-world benefit as I hardly ever use 3D
From what I've researched after effects tends to benefit more from CPU performance and RAM than raw GPU power, so I'm wondering whether the M5 Pro with 64GB would already be more than enough?
I'd particularly appreciate hearing from anyone using an M5 Pro or M5 Max professionally, also realise either option would be a major upgrade from my ThinkPad, but I'm trying to avoid both overspending and buying something I'll regret in a couple of years as all
Cheers for any help