Need advice on purchasing secondhand MacBook Pro for Premier

I_dont_know_what wrote:

My main MacBook Pro (A1398, Mid 2015) recently experienced a logic board failure, and with the price of replacement I’ve decided to purchase another secondhand Mac instead.

The main place I’m looking is CEX, primarily because I get a 5-year warranty on the item purchased. The issue is that I don’t know exactly what specs I need to be able to run Premier Pro 2025. My current understanding is that I generally need these two things:

At least1. 8GB of RAM

At least1. 2.5GB of VRAM

Adobe – Adobe Premiere Pro technical requirements

8 GB of RAM may be the "minimum" – but the recommended about is "16 GB". When a software vendor lists both "minimum" and "recommended" requirements,

• "Minimum" is often the very minimum required for the software to stagger painfully to its feet, and/or to do the most basic, least demanding tasks.
• "Recommended" is usually the true minimum for satisfactory performance.

Now maybe that rule of thumb does not apply to Premiere Pro, but I wouldn't count on it. Especially since it isn't possible to expand RAM on any Apple Silicon Mac, or any Intel-based Mac notebook with a hardware model year later than 2012, after purchase.

I’ve narrowed the MacBook Pros that are applicable (and relatively cheap) down to these model/series numbers:

8,1 = A1278?

13" Early 2011 or Late 2011 model. Can't run anything later than High Sierra.

9,2 = A1278

13" Mid 2012 model. Can't run anything later than Catalina.

10,2 = A1425

13" Retina Late 2012 or Early 2013 model. Can't run anything later than Catalina.

11,1 = A1502

13" Retina Late 2013 or Mid 2014 model. Can't run anything later than Big Sur.

What I need to know is, which of these (with the right amount of RAM) would be able to run Premier Pro 2025?

None of them. Premiere Pro currently requires Ventura or higher. Adobe has a policy of supporting only the three most recent versions of macOS, and with the release of macOS 26 (Tahoe), Ventura fell out of the that list. Which means that any day now, Adobe could raise the minimum requirement for Premiere Pro to Sonoma.

None of the MBPs that you listed qualify. Even the MBPro A1502 is only a 2013-2015 Intel model. It's not just obsolete, it's very obsolete.

The minimum & recomended requirements for Premiere Pro 2025 are here -> https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere/desktop/get-started/technical-requirements/adobe-premiere-pro-technical-requirements.html Among the requirements are a minimum of macOS Ventura (13.x) and even that is now 4 generations old and no longer on Apple's list of its 3 most recent supported versions.

You should be looking at a recent model Apple Silicon MBPro (M2 or M4 model) with at least 16GB RAM, preferably 24GB or more RAM for Premiere Pro that can run at a minimum macOS Sequoia (15.x).

I_dont_know_what wrote:

My main MacBook Pro (A1398, Mid 2015) recently experienced a logic board failure, and with the price of replacement I’ve decided to purchase another secondhand Mac instead.

The issue is that I don’t know exactly what specs I need to be able to run Premier Pro 2025.

What were you using for video editing on your 2015 MBPro ... and what version of OS X/macOS was on it?

Premiere Pro 2025 requires macOS Ventura (13.x) as a minimum requirement. You would need a Mac that is at least compatible with Ventura ... see macOS Ventura is compatible with these computers And it won't be long before Adobe updates the minimum requirement to macOS Sonoma (14.x) ... see macOS Sonoma is compatible with these computers

Even DaVinci Resolve (which is free) currently requires, at a minimum, macOS Sonoma 14.3. Final Cut Pro currently requires Sonoma 14.6 at minimum. These, too, can be expected to be updated to require at least macOS Sequoia sometime in the not too distant future.

While you "could" invest in a used Intel Mac that "could" install today's version of Premiere Pro (with an Adobe subscription) on macOS Ventura, it won't be long before you would be looking for yet another Mac ... an Apple Silicon Mac.

BTW, you cannot "go even older" ... because the last non-subscription version of Premiere Pro was Adobe CS6, which is long gone. Even if you were able to get a legitimate copy of CS6 and an older Mac running Mojave (the last version CS6 was able to run on) you would still be out of luck because Adobe took the CS6 licensing servers offine years ago.

I_dont_know_what wrote:

Will an A1502 MacBook Pro be similar enough to my A1398 in specs to run some versions of Premier Pro from the 2020s? I’ll go earlier than that if I have to, I just really need something that I can do video editing on (and which has plenty of inputs for stuff like mics).

A1398 would be a 15" Retina MacBook Pro from Mid 2012, Early 2013, Late 2013, Mid 2014, or Mid 2015.

• The Mid 2012 and Early 2013 ones cannot run anything higher than Catalina.
• The Late 2013 and Mid 2014 ones cannot run anything higher than Big Sur.
• The Mid 2015 one cannot run anything higher than Monterey.

A1502 would be a 13" Retina MacBook Pro from Late 2013, Mid 2014, or Early 2015.

• The Late 2013 and Mid 2014 ones cannot run anything higher than Big Sur.
• The Early 2015 one cannot run anything higher than Monterey.

Adobe has been known to shut off DRM activation servers for old one-time purchase versions of their products, and if I remember correctly, their switch from a "purchase" model to a "rental" model happened so far back that there are no one-time-purchase versions of Photoshop or Lightroom that will install and activate on Catalina, or later. So you might buy an outdated Intel-based notebook only to discover that you cannot successfully transfer your copy of Premiere Pro to it.

Note that

• Adobe has a policy of supporting only the most recent three versions of macOS
• Only two Intel-based Mac notebooks can run the current version of macOS (Tahoe). These are the MacBook MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) and MacBook Pro (13-inch, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2020).
• Apple has announced that Tahoe is the last major version of macOS that will support ANY Intel-based Mac … thus, if you buy any Intel-based Mac to run Adobe applications, you are guaranteeing that you'll be unable to keep up with Adobe's minimum system requirements sooner, rather than later.

I_dont_know_what wrote:

Thank you for letting me know. It looks like I’m out of luck with Premier Pro 2025 then, as anything newer (aka Silicon) is way out of my price range.

Will an A1502 MacBook Pro be similar enough to my A1398 in specs to run some versions of Premier Pro from the 2020s? I’ll go earlier than that if I have to, I just really need something that I can do video editing on (and which has plenty of inputs for stuff like mics).

Check the Refurb / open box /returns...

Certified Refurbished Products - Apple

Financing and Credit

Apple Financial Services - Apple