Vegas Pro on Laptop + External

JH26 wrote on 1/6/2026, 4:45 AM

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for advice and feedback regarding a mobile workflow for video editing with Vegas Pro.

 

🔧 Hardware setup

Laptop

Ryzen 5 6600H

16 GB DDR5 RAM

iGPU Radeon 660M

Battery: 55 Wh

USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports (10 Gbps)

 

Desktop PC

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900X

GPU: RX 6700

32 GB DDR4 RAM

Internal NVMe SSD ~4000 MB/s

 

Software

Vegas Pro 22 / 23

 

Footage

Mostly 4K 10-bit and 8-bit (Panasonic GH5)

 

🎯 Intended workflow

The goal would be:

To create short videos like TikTok as well as longer 4K YouTube videos

To at least perform derush + cuts on the laptop, sometimes on battery

With footage stored on an external USB-C SSD

Then continue editing on the desktop, always using the same external SSD, without copying the files to the internal drive

 

❓ Questions

For TikTok-type videos (~1 min) exported at 2K max, but mostly in 1080p, is this workflow suitable and comfortable on the laptop?

For and cuts only, does Vegas Pro remain smooth:

For the derush and cutting operations only for long videos (final size 15min), does Vegas Pro remain fluid? on the laptop? on battery? with proxies enabled? The goal would be to get ahead with the work on my long videos, which I then finish on my desktop PC.

Is an external NVMe SSD USB-C 10 Gbps (~1000 MB/s) fast enough for this workflow?

Will the performance difference compared to my internal NVMe SSD at 4000 MB/s on the desktop be noticeable in practice (outside of exports)?

Are there any specific Vegas Pro settings recommended for this scenario (preview quality, RAM usage, GPU acceleration, proxies, etc.)?

Would it be feasible to occasionally do full 4K editing and exports on the laptop, or would it be too slow and impractical?

 

Thanks in advance for your advice and feedback! 👍

Comments

RogerS wrote on 1/6/2026, 6:39 AM

The laptop would benefit from a dedicated GPU. With that it would generally work well. The laptop I use (see signature) does fine for the type of editing you describe (no proxies, normally on AC power, have an internal 2TB NVMe drive.) I leave it on default settings and for most workflows it's not that different than editing on the desktop.
The bitrate of the files is likely within what your external drive can handle but are you doing multicam with 10-bit media? If so, no way.

I noticed you are using 10-bit media- that can be much tougher to deal with but it depends on what kind of media (AVC? HEVC? ProRes? 420 or 422?).

JH26 wrote on 1/6/2026, 7:26 AM

4K 10 bits AVC - No multi camera

 

No, there's no option to install a dedicated graphics card.

I saw the laptop you have, but it's not in the same price range. Your CPU does seem a bit more powerful in terms of performance: PassMark 18665 vs. 27874.

Do you think that with my setup I should be able to manage short TikTok videos or edit/cut longer videos and get a head start on the work before finishing it on a desktop PC?

RogerS wrote on 1/6/2026, 8:16 AM

I got mine refurbished, FWIW.

If that's what you have you can make it work. I worked with a much weaker laptop for years that kept overheating.

If you didn't buy it yet get one with a dedicated GPU, even if it's used or refurbished.