Thanks for the pointer to Tomshardware for video rendering benchmarks. I want a decent IPS display on the laptop because that's what I'm accustomed to for image editing for a wider viewing angle and all the displays on my main systems are IPS and kept profiles and in calibration with Spyder Elite systems. I might use the laptop IPS display for location/remote editing preview but even then I plan of having larger sized IPS calibrated displays for Preview. I'm not worried about "gaming performance" but I do want performance in terms of fast processing and realtime displays. I'll spend some more time at Tomshardware and also see if other folks have suggestions for Windows-based notebook solutions. Thanks.

...Fast 8 core cpu with quicksync...

@Musicvid I don't think such a CPU exists yet. As far as I know, the max cores with Quicksync is now 6 (i7-8700). More than that and there's no Intel integrated graphics.

@WayneMunn VP15 is not quite right yet. You can read this post to see what's not quite right with which version. Lots of things got fixed since VP13, but there are also lots of issues with the new features. Probably the most serious is the new so4compoundplug codec, but you can simply disable that if you don't need it. Also serious is the general lag and slow-down that people are experiencing, that *might* be related to the new GUI. I'm hopeful that both these issues will soon be fixed in a forthcoming update.

You can do a month's free trial, and that's always recommended. I think you'll get a watermark on rendered footage. You could wait and start that when the next update is out (my wild guess would be within the next month). Also consider that the end date (22nd November) on current upgrade pricing is approaching: http://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/upgrade/ Personally I would be surprised if that deal isn't extended or even bettered with Black Friday following 2 days later. But consider it might go back up to regular pricing within the next couple of weeks.

I'm not really in the laptop market at the moment, so my info is not current, but take a look at Dell Precision and XPS. Top dollar but good quality. My 17" Precision served me well. Off the top of my head I would probably look at Asus as well.

The major question is: what type of footage will you edit? QSV with VP15 would be the right choice for long-GOP H.264 but not for ProRes or XAVC I.

Fixed above. Hyperbole unintended.

A gaming laptop would be most suitable for software encoding. You need the chunkiness & cooling ability to stop the cpu from throttling which is a problem for ultrabooks and rendering. Thinner laptops aren't designed for 100% cpu for extended periods. An Nvidia GTX card will give you faster video processing than intel QSV & with further vegas updates may get faster. GPU utalisation is only about 25% average on GTX1070 for now.

I have this hideous suspicion that Apple might be a better option for laptop editing. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

I have this hideous suspicion that Apple might be a better option for laptop editing. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

You're wrong... 😉

I actually use what many consider an old Dell Precision M4500 with Vegas Pro 13 - I was able to upgrade the CPU from a dual core with 4 total threads to a true quad core with a total of 8 threads - made a big difference. I also added 16GB of RAM and a 480GB SSD once I upgraded the CPU and it's been rock solid.

Macbooks are nice, but they are disposable TBH - no way to upgrade anything - not even RAM as it's soldered in (Designed obsolescence) - and the only app worth editing with in a MAC is Final Cut Pro. Look at what Adobe, AVID, Blackmagic and Edius recommend for laptop hardware specs and go from there (Dell Precision, HP Portable Workstation class or private label like Sager). I'll upgrade to a Dell Precision M4600 or M4700 in the next year as I've been quite happy with the durability of my current laptop which I've had for 6 years now. They aren't as cool looking since they are more utilitarian but get the job done as well, if not better, than a Macbook Pro.

I have this hideous suspicion that Apple might be a better option for laptop editing. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

you're wrong . I just said you want the opposite of an ultrabook like a macbook, something that can keep the cpu at 100% without throttling and you give an example that cools by throttling most certainly in a rendering software rendering situation.

Plenty of people do render on macbooks & capable but obviously slow. The initial poster wants what's best for editing and rendering, & I don't believe that's an ultrabook of any sort. I quickly found a reddit about macbook & rendering

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/6pkrna/2016_15_macbook_pro_cpu_reaches_100_degrees/

Maybe I can be even clearer. . .I do want to stay with Vegas, if the interface hasn't gone all Adobe, so my creaky brain has limited hurdles. My option to going away from Vegas is to stop editing video. So maybe a new Windows-based laptop won't be the most high-performance platform but it is what I'll have to put up with. Mac was out of the question, but it looks like that's OK with Mac shortcomings mentioned above. I am ready to invest 2-3k$ on a stable laptop that has a video processing system that works well with Vegas. 1080P is fine with me although I may try working with 4K before I hang up my spurs down the road.

I can deal with a machine that takes it's time rendering. I cannot abide by a system that hangs or crashes all the time. Yeah, that comment may be at odds with staying with Windows but my main desktop workstation is running Windows 7 Pro and is very stable. Is anyone out there still running on Win7Pro 64-bit?

So, stability over speed in rendering, but I still want the desktop editing experience to be responsive. I'm not looking for some thin, sleek laptop for this, but for a robust, high-performance laptop that can be carried without need for a Sherpa :-) I prefer a 15" display with the ability to add one or two additional larger, stand-alone displays such as HDMI, DVI, etc. If going to a larger 17" laptop buys something because of more room for MoBo, hardware, cooling, etc. then I'll be glad to put that in the mix.

I'm also curious about what folks think about the new owners of Vegas and the development resources. Am I just kidding myself that Vegas might be a vital product for the semi-pro, non-theatrical folks or are we just watching the last gasps? Please, no puns about "rolling the dice" with Vegas :-)

Well, you said beefy and it does not get any beefier than this ( literally, and in $$$. And you do get the best screen along with everything else. It's basically a desktop inside a laptop chassis.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-Technologies-XMG-U727-Clevo-P870KM-GS-Laptop-Review.205392.0.html

Don't buy a gaming machine for video rendering.

Is that a joke? What else would you buy if you wanted speed?

I would only make sure that GPU/drivers work well with Vegas, but the rest is a no brainer.

If you need something more portable check out Clevo's 15" laptops

I'm also curious about what folks think about the new owners of Vegas and the development resources. Am I just kidding myself that Vegas might be a vital product for the semi-pro, non-theatrical folks or are we just watching the last gasps? Please, no puns about "rolling the dice" with Vegas :-)

When I was 16 everyone used Vegas. It was so intuitive & easy to learn, yet powerful. 16yo's of today mostly use premiere pro. It may not be as simple to understand but with courses starting in school, it's like any other subject. instead of being self learnt you're educated via a course & so the first hurdle of learning is mitigated & premiere pro is used in the workplace while vegas is likely more of a self employed or amateur software solution.

Young people mostly never use vegas now, they don't grow up with it.

WayneMunn:

I got the Predator 17” recently, the older ver. with 6700HQ, FHD screen. It was an end of year sale. I'm very pleased with it.

If you need more accurate screen just use the DP or HDMI outputs with these laptops. There are many variations on the Predator model, the review link below is the closest to what I have. Whether it was an oversight on the reviewers part or it was another model variation, but my model comes with an 80 and 110 slot, for OS, not 2 x 80's as in review. The 110's are not that easy to come by.

https://www.computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/acer-predator-17-2017-gtx-1070

The link given by deusx, notebookcheck, is a great resource for reviews of this type.

The most important thing I think when checking out such a purchase is keep an open mind and check out all options, not just go by what one persons opinion is. Its really all about compromise, (unless you have unlimited resources) there are many different items to evaluate, cost, performance, cpu, gpu, screen size, screen resolution, keyboard, noise, heat, weight, bulk, connectivity, etc etc, no one has unlimited resources.

With Magix now supporting HW render via QSV and Nvenc, this won’t impact on temperatures as much if you purchase a laptop that has hardware support for QSV or Nvenc, this may or may not be important to you.

I've tried to "boil down" the comments and advice here but haven't been able to get much closer to what I need to look for. The interesting comment about ". . .hardware support for QSV or Nvenc. . ." looks very useful but exactly how to determine an answer is beyond my experience. I really have had no intelligent input from the people/sales hacks who get a glazed look and say a model is terrific for gaming. Last time I custom made a video edit machine, as I have always done before. I don't remember the terms above and I haven't found them mentioned in specs. Thus my focus on what folks are using in terms of recently acquired laptops that effectively run Vegas 13 Pro 64-bit until I decide to upgrade. I'll keep looking and probably eventually have to buy a laptop based on the best combination of technology and support I can find.

So any recommendation on brands and models? I'm going to check out the Predator mentioned by JN_. Thank You.

This will be my traveling unit and I am not worried if it is somewhat bulky and heavy. I don't need a sexy, slick, thin, Titanium model. . .just a reliable workhorse. Thanks!

Alienware 15 looks like a nice blend of performance and affordability. A good friend does his rendering on an Alienware 13 with Premiere without issue.

I was a Windows 10 beta tester and I built Windows 10 images for three of my machines when it was free to “upgrade”. Today, I have Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on all machines that I own including a new one that I built from parts in January. You might have issues getting Windows 7 drivers for proprietary hardware in laptops. Usually, business oriented machines would be more likely to support Windows 7 as large businesses are slower to change.

i am working with laptop with past 3 years ,and yes its gaming laptop ,and thats why it can handle video editing perfectly ,i have a mid range gaming laptop i7 4th gen 4 cores(i7-4710hq)cpu

it gets my job done

Problem with Alienware is that for the price they use crap screens, sometimes really crappy. Laptop itself looks great now that they have moved on from those cartoony designs from their past, but for those prices I expect the best screen available, not some crap you can find on a $600 Dell Inspiron. To go back to car analogies it's like sticking a Hyunday engine into a Ferrari. It is called VIDEO editing, and everything we do on a PC ends up as visual information on screen. Screen is the most important component here.

Thanks to everyone for sharing all the input. That is VERY helpful. deusx comment about the screen has me a bit concerned, but I am accustomed to IPS displays and that is what is listed as on the Alienware machines. I keep all my edit machine displays calibrated with Spyder 5 since nothing out of the box is calibrated to my ambient lighting in the work area and I'll have an external display also.

Thanks again all!

I'm surprised you don't like the screen. My friend's Alienware 13 OLED screen has to be one of the nicest screens of any sort I have seen, period.

I've been using the Alienware 13 I got for over a month. It has an IPS display. That's different from an OLED isn't it? In any case, the IPS display on my Alien 13 is excellent. Using the SpyderElite5 calibration system I standardize ALL my screens on several different workstations to precisely match. The AlienWare 13 system is loaded with all the software I need for on-the-road production of video and stills that I'm confgident will hold up against anything created on my dedicated still and video hardware back home.

Thanks to all for the advice and insights.

So, what's new with Vegas under the new ownership? Any real progress towards a more reliable product? I like a broad set of features but those are useless if the base product isn't reliable!

The IPS is less expensive than the OLED but both are excellent in my opinion. I just bought a XPS 15 which has a similar IPS screen.

We're all waiting for performance-improving updates. Rendering is quite fast on my Dell with the Nvidia GPU enabled (getting 1:1 render times with moderately complex projects) but the timeline is still a bit slow and there are a variety of bugs, though nothing that keeps me from completing projects. It's a big step up from Vegas 11.

Just because you get a nice screen on a 13" Alienware does not mean you will get a nice one on 15" and 17" versions and I think 15" is the minimum I can go with, in fact from reviews you definitely will not get as nice a screen on those larger laptops. 15" and 17" screens I've seen looked average at best, so even though I really liked the designs I decided to stick with Clevo laptops. Much better screens.