Desktop vs. Laptop Showdown: Premiere Pro Render-Off!

I’ve got an onsite wedding coming up so I needed to test drive my new Acer. Then this came to mind :D

I’ve been curious: between an earlier generation i7 desktop and a latter generation i7 laptop, each having certain specs that are considerably better than the other, which one would be faster in terms of rendering video with Adobe Premiere Pro? Common sense dictates that the desktop would ultimately pawn the laptop anytime, but I was surprised with the outcome. Check it out!

Now, let the showdown begin:

	DESKTOP	LAPTOP
OS	Windows 7 64-bit SP1	Windows 7 64-bit SP1
Processor	i7-2600K @ 3.40 Ghz	i7-3630QM @ 2.40-3.40 Ghz
RAM	8 GB	8 GB
GPU	GeForce GTX 560 1GB	GeForce GT 640M 2GB
GPU Sofware	NVidia 306.97	NVidia 306.97
Editing Software	Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5	Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Video Duration	6:17	6:17
Video Details	-Mercury Engine Playback GPU Acceleration Enabled, HD 1080p 23.976 fps source (Canon T2i), HD 1080p 24 fps output, Maximum Render Quality On, BCC Film Process on all clips	-Mercury Engine Playback GPU Acceleration Enabled, HD 1080p 23.976 fps source (Canon T2i), HD 1080p 24 fps output, Maximum Render Quality On, BCC Film Process on all clips
RENDER TIME	26:28	22:51

The Laptop wins by 3 minutes and 37 seconds!

Normally, I’d bet on my desktop since its GPU could easily massacre the laptop’s video card. The Acer’s GT 640M is only ranked #179 in videocardbenchmark.net while the PC’s GTX 560 is #29- it’s definitely around 300% more powerful in terms of the site’s Passmark G3D Mark.

Now the question arises: what the hell made the laptop win? I’m not really quite sure, but I’ve got three hunches- it could be one of them, or it could be all of them combined: (1) the Ivy Bridge 3rd Gen processor compared to the 2nd Gen i7, (2) 2GB memory of the video card compared to the desktop’s 1GB and/or (3) Adobe Premiere Pro version CS6 compared to CS5.5. Got any ideas? Doing a net dive in forums and information sites isn’t probably the best thing to do right now- January’s gonna start and there are lots of clients to attend to. I have to avoid that extra headache- I guess I’ll leave that for another post. Gah, I’m falling behind technology already that the jargons are slowly but surely increasing outside my vocabulary bank. >.

I’m probably gonna  install CS6 on my desktop soon to make the comparison a lot better. Watch out for it!

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