Dumb question - Can I run PT Ultimate on a Macbook Pro?

[innerbooty]

The thing is, I'm looking for a cheap, temporary solution for the summer, so paying $375 for a 2015 MB Pro with internal SSD and 16GB RAM I might grab tomorrow is just right. Any M1 machine is outside of what I want to pay for now. And since it's just audiobook/podcast editing, should be fine - hopefully...?

[seanmccoy]

Originally Posted by innerbooty

The thing is, I'm looking for a cheap, temporary solution for the summer, so paying $375 for a 2015 MB Pro with internal SSD and 16GB RAM I might grab tomorrow is just right. Any M1 machine is outside of what I want to pay for now. And since it's just audiobook/podcast editing, should be fine - hopefully...?

You'll be fine. I use my 2012 MBP for all location recording, up to 20 or more simultaneous tracks for a continuous hour and it's never even broken a sweat. I don't mix on it much, but when I've had to do medium-sized post work on it while travelling, again, no problem whatsoever, even when utilizing fairly high plugin count.

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

My 2015 i7 MBP [snipi] Fans would come on and stay on.

Yes! That is an important point that I'd forgotten about. A 2015 MBP will be fine if you only use it in an environment that stays below 75 F while you're working. I was in Oxford, England during their heat wave in a Airbnb with no AC. I had to buy extra ice trays and keep bowls of ice near the air intakes on both sides all afternoon to keep it running. That was with one audio track with EQ, compression, and de-essing. For a couple days, I had to switch to working at night, though it was almost impossible to sleep during the day when it was over 80 in the flat. So do take that into consideration.

[innerbooty]

Hmmm, that fan / overheating issue doesn't sound too good!

I'd be open to thoughts for the best value vintage of used Macbook Pro to run basic PT sessions...

[Darryl Ramm]

This is the reason "disable turbo boost" was added to Pro Tools 2021.6 on Mac/Intel platforms. Presumably this description was prior to that. Without disabling Turbo boost these things can be horrible.