Video Editing on Apple Silicon

For video editing, the most impactful specs are the dedicated media engines—not raw CPU or GPU cores. ProRes engines handle Apple's professional codec in hardware, dramatically speeding up timeline scrubbing and exports in Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve. Video decode/encode engine counts determine how many simultaneous H.264/HEVC streams you can process. AV1 hardware decode (1 engine on Pro and Max, 2 on Ultra) accelerates playback of AV1 content from streaming sources.

GPU TFLOPS and memory bandwidth still matter for effects-heavy timelines, colour grading, and Fusion compositing. If you work primarily with ProRes or multicam workflows, prioritise ProRes engine count above all else.

Laptops

The M5 Max is the laptop video editing champion: 2 ProRes engines, 2 video encode engines, and 614 GB/s memory bandwidth for buttery 8K ProRes timelines. The M5 Pro halves the media engines but is more than enough for 4K ProRes and multicam H.264/HEVC. The base M5 and A18 Pro have a single engine each—fine for straightforward 4K editing but will be substantially slower on heavy exports.

Desktops

The M5 Ultra in the Mac Studio doubles up to 4 ProRes engines and 4 video encode engines—the best option for 8K multicam or high-volume ProRes rendering. The M5 Max is the sweet spot for most professional 4K–6K workflows, with two encode and two ProRes engines. The M6 in the Mac mini and the M4 in the iMac each carry a single video encode, decode, and ProRes engine — fine for casual editing, but they will bottleneck on heavier exports.