Is M3 iMac enough for video editing?

[Sensamic]

Currently have a 2019 iMac Intel I5 and looking to buy a Mac Mini or iMac (mainly because I can't find a decent 24 4K monitor).

I do light video editing for social networks, in FHD and 4K. Not many effects, but I want the best experience possible so I can be productive and fast editing short videos.

Also don't want the computer to be slow in a few years. A Mac Studio is overkill, right? Although I have many Chrome tabs open at the same time, while editing videos.

Thanks!

 

[Blair110]

How is your current setup with editing the same type videos? If it's fine, either the mini or the iMac will do perfectly fine. I'd just make sure you increase the RAM on either one now, and both should be good for quite a while. It sounds like a studio would be overkill for your needs but it also all depends on your budget as well.

Provided your usage case doesn't change down the line, I think the M3 would be perfectly fine for you.

 

[jaehaerys48]

You can find videos of people doing video editing with base M2 Minis on Youtube. The consensus is that it is capable, though upgrading to 16gb is advisable. The M3 iMac will have similar or better performance, so yes, you can do some editing.

 

[Feek]

I do light video editing for social networks, in FHD and 4K. Not many effects, but I want the best experience possible so I can be productive and fast editing short videos.

An M1 Mac will do this with ease.

 

[Andrey84]

I agree with the above, the M3 iMac should be great for your tasks CPU- and GPU-wise.

Make sure you max out the memory if you go for the iMac, to ensure longevity.

Remember, it's unified memory, not just RAM. With 24GB you effectively have 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM. From Google: The minimum VRAM requirement for 4K video editing is 8GB.

Second consideration for longevity is the SSD size. If you go for the minimum 256GB, you will likely run out of space within 2-3 years and it will also slow your machine down.

So, I'd go for the best possible iMac with 24GB of unified memory and at least 512GB of storage.

 

[Fishrrman]

M2pro Mini
32gb RAM
1tb SSD

or...

Mac Studio M2 w/SSD upgraded to 1tb.

 

[adb1973]

M3 will do this perfectly. Everything bigger is overkill

 

[dandeco]

You can find videos of people doing video editing with base M2 Minis on Youtube. The consensus is that it is capable, though upgrading to 16gb is advisable. The M3 iMac will have similar or better performance, so yes, you can do some editing.

I use an M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 8-core graphics, and it's amazing when it comes to editing video. Though I've only produced a few 4K projects on it, the M1 does run considerably smoother than on an older Intel Mac. Most of my videos go to 1080p at the highest, especially since most of my videos are for my YouTube channel.
Though I do plan to also get a Pro-level Mac Mini to use as my home desktop (either the M2 Pro with 32 GB of RAM if that's still available, or an M3 Pro with 36 GB of RAM if that's out), so that will lead to a HUGE performance boost.

 

[picpicmac]

M2 Pro with 32 GB of RAM if that's still available

There's a Mac Studio M2 Max base config on the Refurb Store right now for $1699. If you buy a new M2 Pro Mini 32GB that already gets you to $1599, without the 10Gbe or the front facing ports.

 

[JustAnExpat]

>I do light video editing for social networks, in FHD and 4K

I really hate information that's not quantified What's "light video editing"? Is this just splicing videos together and using title cards in iMovie? How many minutes are these videos? Are you using it for fun, or to make money?

 

[Mr.Fox]

Currently have a 2019 iMac Intel I5 and looking to buy a Mac Mini or iMac (mainly because I can't find a decent 24 4K monitor).

I do light video editing for social networks, in FHD and 4K. Not many effects, but I want the best experience possible so I can be productive and fast editing short videos.

Also don't want the computer to be slow in a few years. A Mac Studio is overkill, right? Although I have many Chrome tabs open at the same time, while editing videos.

Thanks!

Not suitable for basic editing where quality is not required. Not enough power, RAM memory and chip strength. Serious post-production - forget it. I have a video with RED V-RAPTOR 8K with only one import opens on mac studio with the wildest brakes. Mac Studio M2 Ultra (24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine)+ 192GB Ram+ 8TB SSD

 

[Sensamic]

>I do light video editing for social networks, in FHD and 4K

I really hate information that's not quantified What's "light video editing"? Is this just splicing videos together and using title cards in iMovie? How many minutes are these videos? Are you using it for fun, or to make money?

I edit videos for social networks. I'm a community manager. My videos are about 3-4 minutes in length. I do use titles, transitions and on certain occasions some effects, but nothing too fancy or serious. I have colleagues that do the heavy video editing. I produce for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

 

[MacManager123]

Any Apple silicon mac (m1, m2) would be perfectly fine for this use case, but I would thing an m3 would be a bit overkill. Something with 16gb of ram and 500gb-2tb of storage (depending on how much you need) would be best.

 

[Astro13]

I edit videos for social networks. I'm a community manager. My videos are about 3-4 minutes in length. I do use titles, transitions and on certain occasions some effects, but nothing too fancy or serious. I have colleagues that do the heavy video editing. I produce for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

I mean, an Apple silicon chip is gonna be nice for other things as well, but if I can do it with a large amount of struggle and pain on a 2008 core 2 duo iMac, an m1 should be more then enough for short social media videos. Heck, you could probably do that on a later Intel iMac if you wanted.

But if you can get the apple silicon, go for it. 16 gb of ram should be enough, but it may be a good investment to go 32 in case you ever want to do heavier video editing.

PS: Please dust it out every 1-2 months, I have seen far too much death by overheating because those things attract so much dust.

 

[Sensamic]

I've been trying today an M1 iMac from my girlfriend.

A 14 minute video with filters, text and some transitions and such took 8 minutes to export in 4K and 5 minutes in FHD. Not bad but I expected better. This was done with CapCut.

 

[Astro13]

8 mins is not too bad, not optimal for efficiency, but not too bad.

 

[MacMore]

The M1 Macs can do what you could do on intel in 2minutes, what you could in 10, so yes. I'm talking about rendering for output at 4:2:2 ProRes. 4:4:4 is a different story. If you. needed that then you would need an i9 or Xeon. But with that comes a higher cost to get there than an off the shelf Mac and even then, the current issue where Intel chips are being thermal throttled and as per many articles they have no idea how to get the clock per watt down.

Horses for courses, until a point where you need it it's more than enough. Who outputs to 4:4:4 for viewing on a screen anyway though?

 

[zedsdead]

Make sure you have at least 16gb of ram and you should be fine for most regular cases.

 

[dandeco]

The M1 Macs can do what you could do on intel in 2minutes, what you could in 10, so yes. I'm talking about rendering for output at 4:2:2 ProRes. 4:4:4 is a different story. If you. needed that then you would need an i9 or Xeon. But with that comes a higher cost to get there than an off the shelf Mac and even then, the current issue where Intel chips are being thermal throttled and as per many articles they have no idea how to get the clock per watt down.

Horses for courses, until a point where you need it it's more than enough. Who outputs to 4:4:4 for viewing on a screen anyway though?

Indeed. I still remember being blown away when I first rendered a video project on my M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM. It only took one third of the time it'd take to render a very similar project in the same software (accounting for length, resolution, and effects) on my 2012 Mac Mini with 2.3 GHz quad-core i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM.

 

[MacMore]

Indeed. I still remember being blown away when I first rendered a video project on my M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM. It only took one third of the time it'd take to render a very similar project in the same software (accounting for length, resolution, and effects) on my 2012 Mac Mini with 2.3 GHz quad-core i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM.

I went from a 2012 MacBook Pro to M1 Max second generation, 14" from 2021. I have the same configuration. The speed difference is night and day, until you need to do some really hard work.

A high end Intel machine will do better, but the cost trade off is about 650watts of power vs 40watt. Then the cost of an i9 or Xeon, plus dedicated graphics, etc...

You end up with a big stinking mess that's not portable, secondly while my current topcase was being repaired I looked at dedicated Windows laptops and you're still looking at less than 4hours on battery, poor build quality a machine that isn't really portable and weighs as much as a house brick, non-glass trackpads, and keyboards that feel like ****.

It reminded me of two things, half the reason why I own a Mac is its build quality, every element is thought out for ergonomics and they just feel right in your hands. Secondly if I had a choice I'd never look at a Windows login screen in my life again.

The tangibles people don't think about often when they're buying a computer is how it feels to use it, by now the Unibody design is pretty much perfect, and the OS is leagues ahead of Windows 11, and made a monumental jump with Ventura that brought it there.

The way they are merging iOS elements such as control centre elements into system preferences is really quite good as are the screensavers they are moving in from TV OS.

 

[Astro13]

ou end up with a big stinking mess that's not portable, secondly while my current topcase was being repaired I looked at dedicated Windows laptops and you're still looking at less than 4hours on battery, poor build quality a machine that isn't really portable and weighs as much as a house brick, non-glass trackpads, and keyboards that feel like ****.

Yup, I have had 2 windows laptops fall apart, my 2009 Dell studio, and an acer gaming laptop that lasted 2 months before the hinge shattered. And no, acer would not do the warranty because it’s apparently my fault they built the thing out of pure ****

 

[adb1973]

I did some testing on my M3 24 GB unified iMac:
5 minutes of 4K
3 layers with multiple effects
Test title

No hiccup's during editing (very smooth actually)
Render took about as long as the video, so approx 5 minutes
I used to be a pro tv producer but only edit occasionally nowadays.
I would say 4K on M3 is perfectly fine compared to my previous 2012 Quad i7 680MX which used to be my pro machine.

 

[JustAnExpat]

I've been trying today an M1 iMac from my girlfriend.

A 14 minute video with filters, text and some transitions and such took 8 minutes to export in 4K and 5 minutes in FHD. Not bad but I expected better. This was done with CapCut.

Given your use case, a base M3 with 16GB of Ram would work fine.

 

[Astro13]

Given your use case, a base M3 with 16GB of Ram would work fine.

Did a test just out of curiosity, Does not help the situation at all, but my 2008 iMac running CapCut took 30 mins to export a 5 minute video… I think an apple silicon chip with 16 or more gb of ram will do you just fine.

 

[martingm]

Did you end up buying the iMac M3? I'm in the same situation, working with a 2018 Intel Mac mini, and I want to upgrade to a MacBook Pro M3 Pro. I also have a PC with an RTX 3070, but I wanted to replace both with a MacBook Pro M3 Pro. I'm not sure if it would be an improvement or not, but the portability would be very nice.