Hey @bentacular, congrats on the sponsorship!
If I were buying a laptop based solely on the performance specs, I’d lean heavily towards the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. Here’s the breakdown in the same order as your list:
| Laptop Model |
Processor |
Cores |
P-Threads |
Base GHz |
Turbo GHz |
| Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro |
i7-1260P |
4 |
8 |
? |
4.7 |
| Acer Swift X |
Ryzen 7 5800U |
8 |
16 |
1.9 |
4.4 |
| Acer Swift X |
Ryzen 7 5825U |
8 |
16 |
2.0 |
4.5 |
| ASUS ROG M16 |
i7-11800H |
8 |
16 |
2.3 |
4.6 |
| ASUS ROG G15 |
Ryzen 7 4800H |
8 |
16 |
2.9 |
4.2 |
| Lenovo Legion 5 |
i7-10750H |
6 |
12 |
2.6 |
5.0 |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro |
Ryzen 7 5800H |
8 |
16 |
3.2 |
4.4 |
| MSI Creator M16 |
i7-12650H |
6 |
12 |
? |
4.7 |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 |
i9-11900H |
8 |
16 |
2.5 |
4.9 |
When choosing hardware for Shotcut, my priorities are in the following order:
- Highest processor base frequency
- 32 GB RAM minimum for 4K
- 8+ fast threads (ideally 12+)
Since Shotcut does all processing in the CPU, the high base frequency is what provides raw performance, especially if a single-threaded filter happens to get in the chain. A processor with 48 cores at 2.0 GHz will likely be slower than the Lenovo because Shotcut will not actually thread out to use all 48 cores, and the cores that do get used will be half the speed of the Lenovo’s cores. Shotcut typically uses 8-12 cores efficiently, so make those 8-12 cores fast since the rest will probably sit idle or maybe get picked up by a software encoder.
You may have noticed that the graphics card is not stated on my priorities list. Shotcut does not use GPU processing for preview or export. What little GPU it uses for the UI elements can be easily handled by Intel integrated graphics. The only thing an RTX card brings extra to the table is hardware encoding. If you plan to use hardware encoding, the Lenovo has you well-covered with the RTX 3070.
Basically, the Lenovo checks all the boxes for Shotcut performance. I can’t speak to other deciding factors such as build quality, battery life, heat dissipation, screen calibration, ports, etc. since I’ve done no further research on it. But at least you have a background on what matters regarding a spec sheet. For instance, the Acer Swift X would probably be no faster than your current laptop because its base frequency is only 1.9 GHz. That’s barely over half the total GHz available on the Lenovo.
For reference, I bought a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 7020 off of Amazon for $270. It has an Intel i7-4770 which is 4 core/8 thread at 3.40 GHz base and 3.90 GHz turbo. Came with 32 GB RAM and an SSD. This is half the core count of the Lenovo, yet this Dell is able to preview 10 tracks (with opacity filters) when using 360p proxies and 360p preview scaling over a 4K 29.97fps timeline. (A 60fps timeline would obviously cut performance and track count in half.) It can do more than 10 tracks since CPU hadn’t even hit 50% yet, but I got tired of adding tracks to test. High base frequency and Preview Scaling make this possible. That Dell tower is incredibly hard to beat on performance-to-price ratio.
Dell link for those interested in a cheap monster Shotcut workstation:
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Optiplex-i7-4770-3-4GHz-Renewed/dp/B07ZDKDXRX/
Between that reference point and past i7-7700K benchmarks I’ve shared, I feel pretty good saying the Lenovo would serve you well. Best of luck to you!
