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Adobe Premiere Mac Vs Windows



Performance is important

  1. Download Adobe Premiere For Mac
  2. Adobe Premiere Free Mac

It's gotten better and it probably will improve further in the future, but for now, Premiere runs smoother on Windows. It's not at all unusable or anything on macOS though. I think it comes down to your preferred OS. In terms of bare hardware power you will get more bang for your buck when going with a Windows laptop though. Advantages of mac os x. Obsolete Mac Pro VS Windows PC - What should I expect? - Creative COW's user support and discussion forum for users of Adobe Premiere Pro. Also, check out Creative COW's Premiere Pro podcast. Adobe Premiere Pro Forum. DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci Resolve combines the world’s most advanced color corrector with.

At BIZON we often get many customers who want to switch from a Mac to a PC Workstation. Minecraft 2d demo. While there are many reasons our customers want a change, it usually comes down to one major factor, performance.

Whatever you use your Mac or Workstation PC for, performance is important to help you manage your workflow, to ensure your game runs smoothly, for high-quality sound and graphics, and to edit videos efficiently.

The rise in 4K, 6K, and 8K workflows makes optimum performance a necessity for many people, so it is essential to make the right choice when considering a computer.

With performance being the most important factor when deciding between a PC or a Mac, we take a look at why a PC is a better option to use Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editing application compared to a Mac or iMac Pro 2019.

To find out whether a PC or Mac is a best video editing workstation, we took three iMac systems and a PC workstation of a similar price and tested them across performance for live playback, render in to out, and export.

If you love data we’re sure you’ll enjoy looking at our charts, which show how the systems compare, but if charts aren’t your thing you can always scroll past the data to read our conclusion.


To compare the iMac Pro and Mac Pro to our BIZON V5000 4K/6K/8K video editing workstation, we tested the following system configurations, using Premier Pro version 13.1:


1. BIZON V5000 14-Core 4K/6K/8K Video Editing Workstation Computer 2020
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Price $5700 + $520 (4K monitor) = $6220 –> ~$6200

  • Processor: 14-Core 3.30 GHz Intel Core i9-9940X (up to 18 cores)
  • Memory: 64 GB DDR4 3200 MHz
  • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
    Note: With NVIDIA GPUs you get advantages of Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine acceleration and CUDA support. AMD that comes with Mac have no CUDA.
  • Hard Drive (Operating system): 1 TB PCI-E SSD (Up to 3500 Mb/s)
  • Additional HDD (Storage): 2 TB HDD SATA
  • Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
  • Monitor: Dell U2718Q 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor
  • Keyboard + Mouse: Logitech Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
  • Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 5 Year Limited Warranty (5 Year Labor & 3 Year Part Replacement)
  • Software Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

Price $7000 + $79 (mouse) + $129 (keyboard) + $520 (4K monitor) + $249 (Apple Care) = $7556 –> ~$7500
  • Processor: 2.7GHz 12-core Xeon
    Note: Old generation CPU (2013 Year)
  • Memory: 64GB 1866MHz DDR3
    Note: Old DDR3 RAM
  • Graphics Card: Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs 6GB
  • Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe-based SSD
  • Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
  • Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
  • Monitor: Dell U2718Q 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor
  • Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
  • Warranty: AppleCare+ for Mac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
  • Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

3. Apple iMac Pro 2019 (14-Core)
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Price $8000 + $169 (Apple Care) = $8169 –> ~8200

  • Processor: 2.5GHz 14-core Intel Xeon W processor
  • Memory: 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC
  • Graphics Card: Radeon Pro Vega 64 16GB
  • Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe SSD
  • Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
  • Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
  • Monitor: 27-inch LED-backlit 5K display
  • Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
  • Warranty: AppleCare+ for iMac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
  • Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

Price $7200 + $169 (Apple Care) = $7369 –> ~7400

  • Processor: 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor
  • Memory: 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC
  • Graphics Card: Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB
  • Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe SSD
  • Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
  • Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
  • Monitor: 27-inch LED-backlit 5K display
  • Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
  • Warranty: AppleCare+ for iMac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
  • Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

We used version 13.1 of Premiere Pro, as the latest version wasn’t released at the time of this article. We also found major performance issues with Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1), with performance drops in ProRes footage on the PC and RED footage on the Mac when using versions 13.1 and 13.1.1.

For a fair comparison we kept the specs and pricing as similar as possible. For example, as Mac systems only support a single internal drive, we used a single 1TB PCI-E SSD drive on our BIZON Workstation PC, rather than multiple storage drives, which improve performance when generating peak files and importing media. As the iMac Pro requires a keyboard and mouse, we also bought a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for the Mac Pro and PC.

To compare the systems, we tested three different functions in Premiere Pro: live playback, export, and render in to out.

Although we didn’t cover every available codec, we covered a large number of RED clips so that we could really see how different compression levels impact performance. Our tests also used three different timelines to stimulate different types of workload.


Recording results

We recorded the export time from the moment the ‘Export’ button was clicked until completion. We also measured Live playback FPS (frames per second) based on the number of dropped frames relative to the total number of frames in the sequence. For example, by dropping 100 frames in the 4K ProRes 422 HQ 'Basic' timeline (which has 579 frames), you will render 479 frames over 24 seconds for a result of ~20 FPS.

We used Lumetri effects from the 'Lumetri Presets –> Speedlooks –> Universal' effects folder. However, if you’re using a Mac you’ll probably need to delete and re-apply the Lumetri Color effects, as sometimes they don’t translate properly from the PC to Mac.


It can be a challenge to accurately test live playback performance because performance depends on the codec and resolution of your media, as well as the playback resolution (full, half, etc.) and the effects you’ve applied.

At BIZON we often get asked about live playback performance, so we decided to test our media with three different timelines, as well as with a full and half playback resolution. We also decided to calculate the average performance of each system relative to the 10-core iMac Pro using OpenCL.

We found that using Metal with a Mac is a bad idea for playback performance and found a 20-30% drop in FPS with most of our test media, and a massive drop in FPS with RED footage when using Metal on the Mac system. For example, with 4K RED 11:1 footage the iMac Pro 14-core went from 24FPS to 6FPS without any effects being applied to the footage.

Even when using OpenCL you will get a bump in FPS with a PC. However, compared to the iMac-Pro 10-core, our PC workstation gave 25% higher FPS with ProRes media, 30% higher with DNxHR HQ/H.264/ARRIRAW, and almost 75% higher FPS with RED footage, and was 94% faster on average in our ‘Heavy Effects’ test.

In comparison, the 14-core iMac Pro did slightly better with RED footage and was about 10% faster than the 10-core iMac Pro. However, the PC workstation was the clear winner for playback performance and was 25-60% faster depending on the type of footage used; making our PC workstation a better option for FPS as well as better value for money.

8K Footage


It takes time to export on Premiere Pro and export time is often used to measure performance. Taking 4K, 6K, and 8K projects using the different codecs listed in the Test Hardware & Methodology section we measured export performance on all the systems.

With our export tests we found using Metal on a Mac, rather than OpenCL often resulted in a decent performance gain. RED footage was an exception, usually taking twice as long or longer to export with Metal. However, as our findings in the Live Playback test show, Metal was significantly worse than OpenCL, so keeping Premiere Pro in OpenCL mode will be the best option for most Mac users.

If you do decide to stick with OpenCL a PC is your best option, as our Custom workstation computer exported projects approximately 40% faster than the iMac Pro 2019 10–Core. The performance gap closed by a small amount with the 14-core iMac, but the PC still had a 30–40% performance lead. Surprisingly, the Mac Pro managed to keep up with the newer iMac Pro systems with ProRes footage, but fell behind with other types of media, making our PC workstation 40% to 60% faster, as well as saving you a whopping $2,000 on price.

If you’re willing to switch between Metal for exporting non-RED footage and OpenCL for live playback, the Mac systems do better. However, the iMac Pro systems were still around 15% slower with DNxHR, H.264, and ARRIRAW footage, although the 14-core iMac Pro was able to pull slightly ahead of our BIZON V5000 PC with ProRes footage.

8K Footage


Rendering previews are sometimes a necessity, so we tested the ability to render in to out on all the systems for 4K, 6K, and 8K projects using the different codecs listed in the Test Hardware & Methodology section.

Using Metal on the Mac caused another performance problem, with RED footage dropping to 15-20%. However, due to the lower live playback performance with Metal across the media tested, we feel OpenCL offers the most valid comparison across the PC and Mac systems.

With ProRes media, there was around a 40% performance gain with the PC compared to iMac and Mac Pro. This reduces slightly with DNxHR HQ, H.264, and ARRIRAW media, but our PC was still faster and outperformed the Mac by around 35%.

Surprisingly, our PC had a smaller performance gain in RED media compared to the other tests, however, the PC was still around 20% faster than the 14-core iMac Pro.

Impressively, PC performance was also 30% faster than the 10-core iMac Pro and 40% faster compared to the Mac Pro.

8K Footage


Best Video Editing Workstation. Conclusion: iMac, Mac Pro, or PC?

Cost wise the BIZON V5000 Workstations is already a winner, with a $6200 price tag compared to a $8,200 iMac Pro 2019 (14-Core) or $7,500 Mac Pro system.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that we paid $420 for a 4K monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so if you already have them you would reduce the costs even more.

In terms of performance the PC Custom Workstation also comes out on top, with a 35-45% performance gain.

What was surprising was that the iMac Pro 2019 14-Core wasn’t that much faster than the 10-core version and only increased in performance by around 5%. However, live playback performance was usually twice as good on the PC, with tendering and exporting being 40-50% better.
Therefore, our BIZON V5000 video editing workstation PC is the clear winner on both cost and performance.

However, if you’re already stuck with a Mac and want to increase your performance, our findings indicate that OpenCL is a better choice for the majority of Mac users, who want better live playback performance, but Metal was faster with non-RED media for exporting and rendering.

For more information on PC performance compared to Mac systems, you can check out our other articles here.

You can also take a look at our Recommended Workstation PC for Premiere Pro and contact us if you have any questions about making the move to PC workstation.

Premiere Pro is known worldwide for its video editing capabilities and power, but it is not a program that satisfies all tastes. For some it’s too expensive, for others it’s too complicated and others just want to use something different to edit their videos. Whatever your reason for not using Adobe software, today I present you with the top 5 Adobe Premiere Pro alternatives for Windows and macOS.

Adobe Premiere Pro alternatives

This list includes free and paid programs, with options for Windows and macOS, so it’s safe to say one of them will meet your needs.

1. Movavi Video Editor Plus

The best Adobe Premiere Pro alternative

Movavi Video Editor is one of the easiest to use. One of the reasons for many people to get discouraged in the editing activities and in the video editing learning process is the complexity of some software interfaces, like those of Vegas Pro or Premiere Pro. This is why Movavi Video Editor offers an intuitive interface, designed for easy handling, with tutorials and an “Easy Mode” that almost makes the video for you.

The interface has some features in common with other video editing programs, but achieves a simpler finishing, without overloading the main screen with too many options and features, so that the people who have never edited a video feel confident anyway with Movavi.

Among the features it offers, Movavi Video Editor 14 also includes a tool to stabilize videos with motion and to reduce the noise in images and video.

Download Adobe Premiere For Mac

Movavi Video Editor is easy to use, but sometimes results in a bit short in the performance, so it is surpassed by other programs with greater power of editing and rendering.

2. Vegas Pro 17

The Best Premiere Pro alternative for Windows

Vegas Pro, formerly known as Sony Vegas Pro, is Adobe Premiere’s core competency when it comes to features. It comes with 4K video editing support and editing can be done in 2D or 3D by dragging and dropping elements. One thing I like about Vegas Pro is that its interface is very customizable and gives you total control over how you would like to edit.

Adobe Premiere Mac Vs Windows

How to calculate roulette payouts. Thanks to the OpenFX base, it works perfectly with almost all types of video effects, and Vegas Pro imports the project file and automatically converts it to its native format, saving you time and storage space on your hard drive.

Like other video editing programs, it also includes some unique features. Features include GPU graphics acceleration, multi-camera editing, independent editing windows, masking tools, automatic color selection, plugin support, 3D preview, stereoscopic 3D adjustments, autocorrection of alignments, Dolby Digital surround sound, support for multiple administrators, native XAVC support, Blu-ray Disc authoring, and much more. Overall, Vegas Pro is an excellent alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro that offers very similar features and, undeniably, a friendlier interface.

  • Platforms: Windows
  • Price: Trial version is free for 30 days. The paid version costs $599

3. Avid Media Composer | First

The Best Premiere Pro alternative for Enterprise

Avid has now released its free version of Media Composer, named Media Composer | First, available for Mac OS X.10.11 and 10.12; Windows 10 (Professional and Enterprise), Windows 8.1 (Professional and Enterprise), and Windows 7 Professional.

Under the slogan “Basically, Media Composer | First offers the same editing tools that your favorite filmmakers, editors, and directors trust on a daily basis. That’s why Media Composer First opens the doors of a career in the audiovisual and entertainment sector, much more than any other video editing tool.” Avid has released this software with the intention of facilitating a process of adaptation to its interface, without having all its features in their entirety, to make it easier to jump to its paid version.

Unfortunately Media Composer | First is limited to a timeline of four video tracks and eight audio tracks, which contrast with the 24 video tracks and 64 audio tracks that make its full version available to you.

But its restrictions are not only present in the number of tracks made available to the user, but also in other aspects, such as resolution, being limited to a maximum of 1080p. The tools for color correction, audio editing, and effects will also be limited, as will be the options for export and import video, etc.

For its part, and in order to facilitate the learning of this software, Avid has made available a series of basic tutorials. In short, despite its restrictions, this is an ideal software for novice users aspiring to take their first steps in Avid, as well as professionals more accustomed to using other video editing systems who want to expand their knowledge or take the final step to this software.

  • Platforms: Windows and macOS
  • Price: Free

4. Final Cut Pro X

The Best Premiere Pro alternative for macOS

Mac russian red lipstick matte. Apple Final Cut Pro X is another software that offers the same editing features as Adobe Premiere Pro but at a lower price. You could say that this application competes for face-to-face with Adobe. If you are a Mac user, then you should give Final Cut Pro a try, as it also has a free trial version.

It has one of the best interfaces of the applications in this list, it is simple, interactive and professional. It uses a magnetic timeline that is very different from Adobe Premiere Pro and other video editors. Instead of separating all video clips, this application adds secondary clips behind the main timeline for individual editing. If you have used any of the other video editing programs, the magnetic timeline of this application will be the first thing you notice.

Apart from the magnetic timeline, Final Cut Pro X also contains many other editing features, including Clip grouping, the ability to individually manage clips and see their effects, multi-camera support with up to 64 angles, automatic metadata reading, automated project management, and keyword assignment.

Now comes also the most interesting, which is the GPU support, effects and transitions, audio editing on the timeline itself, color adjustment, 4K support and much more. This application is best for you if you’re looking for Adobe Premiere Pro alternatives and you’re a Mac user.

  • Platforms: macOS.
  • Price: Trial version and a full version with a price of $299.99.

Read Premiere Pro vs Final Cut Pro: What’s the Difference?.

The Best Free Adobe Premiere alternatives

5. HitFilm Express

The Best Free Premiere Pro alternative

HitFilm is an editing and even post-production tool that lets you work with your videos for free. HitFilm Express includes the following content:

  • 180 effects and adjustments.
  • Resolution up to 1080p with 8-bit color depth.
  • Editing and composition 3d.
  • Keyframe animation and graphic editor.
  • Chroma Key and extraction tools.
  • 10 built-in premium effect packs.

HitFilm Express gives you up to 1080p editing with a large number of formats at your disposal. You can easily apply color styles from the effects tab of this HitFilm Express version, and even modify them to your liking to customize them.

Without too many complications you can separate a Green screen with the basic tools of the Hitfilm Express version. The quality with which it achieves it is worthy of other software at a much higher price.

When you finish your editing work, you can proceed to export in a variety of formats, and you can even link the program to your youtube account so that it uploads the content directly after rendering.

You also have on their website a list of additions for this free version, which will allow you to add packages of effects and/or tools to improve the software.

If you want to have the complete version, whether because you feel the free version is too limited, or because it is cheaper for you to buy the complete software instead of installing the free one and then adding too many add-ons, you can buy the PRO version.

  • Platforms: Windows and macOS
  • Price: free

6. DaVinci Resolve 16

The Best Premiere Pro alternative for Color Grading

Unlike Adobe, whose approach is to develop a complete suite of dedicated applications, Blackmagic has poured all the features of several acquisitions directly into its primary software tool: the DaVinci Resolve. When they acquired Resolve, it was just a gradation and color correction tool. Then an NLE video editor was added with version 10 in 2013. Then came Fairlight, a comprehensive suite of audio tools for manipulating and mastering audio. Now, with version 15, they have included their latest acquisition in Resolve: Fusion, which is an advanced node-based compositing tool.

Although there are many options for editing video for free and even online that you can use from multiple platforms, few are as complete and powerful as DaVinci Resolve, and with its latest release, it has added hundreds of improvements and additional tools.

DaVinci Resolve 16 offers editing tools, visual effects, motion graphics, color correction, and audio post-production, and you can download it for free for Windows, macOS, or Linux.

While the free version of the program includes all the editing features and lets you do projects with a maximum frame rate of 60 frames per second, you should be aware that the free version does not support h26x, so you’ll need to transcode videos of that type before you can use them.

The paid version, DaVinci Resolve Studio, costs $259 and offers multi-user collaboration, 3D tools and support for 4K and higher-resolution formats as well as frame rates of up to 120 frames per second, and includes other unique features and filters, such as glare or granularity effects.

DaVinci Resolve supports all major formats and the ability to process XML, EDL, or AAF files for import and export between it and other editing programs such as Final Cut Pro X, Media Composer, and Premiere Pro. Bulk video converter mac. And, its integration with Fusion allows you to send shots with visual effects to programs such as After Effects or ProTools for audio processing.

Resolve 16 is available for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux. You can download it from the Blackmagic Design website or the Apple MacStore.

  • Platforms: Windows and macOS
  • Price: free

Adobe Premiere Pro Alternatives | Final words

Adobe premiere free mac

This list includes the best Adobe Premiere alternatives, and they all include a way to test the software in case you decide to buy a final version, so don’t hesitate to use the free or trial versions.

Adobe Premiere Free Mac

If you would like to learn about video editing software check our article about the best video editing software.





Adobe Premiere Mac Vs Windows
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