Video editing
Editing apps keep video frames in memory and lean on the graphics chip for playback, effects and export.
What matters
- System memory: more memory keeps long timelines and effects responsive.
- Graphics memory and a dedicated graphics chip: effects, colour work and export use them.
- Storage speed and cooling are not in the makers' lists, but matter for long projects.
General guidance in our own words. The figures below are the makers' published requirements.
The requirements
| App | Minimum | Recommended | System the list names (the recommended list where there are two) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Premiere Pro | 8 GB memory, 4 GB graphics memory, NVIDIA Maxwell or newer, or Intel/AMD GPU, with 4 GB GPU memory | 16 GB memory, 8 GB graphics memory, 8 GB GPU memory | Windows 11 24H2 | official page read 2026-10-22 |
| Adobe After Effects | 16 GB memory, 4 GB graphics memory, NVIDIA Maxwell or newer with 4 GB, or discrete Intel/AMD GPU with 4 GB and OpenCL 2.0 | 16 GB memory, 8 GB graphics memory, 8 GB GPU memory | Windows 11 24H2 or later | official page read 2026-10-22 |
| Final Cut Pro | 8 GB memory, Metal-capable graphics (Intel Macs only) | 16 GB memory, Metal-capable graphics (Intel Macs only) | macOS 15.6 or later | official page read 2026-10-22 |
| OBS Studio | DirectX 10.1 GPU on Windows; OpenGL 3.3 GPU on macOS | not published | Windows 10 or 11; macOS 11 or later | official page read 2026-10-22 |
| Adobe Premiere Elements | 8 GB memory, DirectX 12 compatible display driver | 16 GB memory, 4 GB graphics memory, 4 GB GPU memory; fast SSD for cache | Windows 11 24H2 or later; macOS 15.5+ or 26.5+ | official page read 2026-10-22 |
| DaVinci Resolve | 16 GB memory, 4 GB graphics memory, Integrated GPU, or discrete GPU with at least 4 GB of VRAM; GPU must support OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 12.8; NVIDIA Studio driver 581.57 or newer | not published | Windows 10 Creators Update or later; macOS 15 or later on Mac | official page read 2026-10-22 |
Which laptops meet the most of these
The 30 best of 359 listed laptops, compared with each laptop's largest memory option. Memory and graphics memory only. The operating system is not checked: many of these apps and games run only on Windows or only on macOS, so open the source link before you rely on a ranking. A laptop whose maker does not state its graphics memory counts as not meeting any figure that depends on it. The graphics class and processor each maker names are in the source links too.