10 Best Laptops for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate in 2022 (May release)

Have you ever wanted to create a blockbuster production? Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate is the perfect editing suite for you. Let’s go through what you need to make that dream a reality.

First, we’ll break down the basic specifications for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate and provide some laptop suggestions for each one. Then, we’ll take a look at which brands and specific models will give you the best experience with your laptop. If you can afford it, I highly recommend choosing a dedicated GPU to use with your laptop, as Pinnacle Studio’s heavy rendering load will chew through even the most robust integrated GPUs in minutes. The last thing we’ll look at is an assortment of recommendations, ranging from extremely portable to super powerful options that are sure to meet your needs no matter what they are.

Let’s get right into it!

TL;DR

if you want to edit movies, Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate is a good choice
you’ll need a laptop with a dedicated GPU
you can find these laptops on PCPartPicker or Notebookcheck
you can find ultrabooks on Notebookcheck or PCPartPicker

Requirements for a Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate laptop

Major Deciding on a memory

If you’re a professional video editor, you’re in the business of crunching through video. That’s why the CPU and graphics card are more important to you than RAM. A laptop with 8 GB of RAM will do for a hobbyist, but for professionals, that’s just not enough.

Minimum (8 GB)

If you’re a hobbyist or you don’t need anything more than simple cuts and edits, 8 GB is alright. That’s still enough to edit 1080p videos and use simple transitions. But if you want to work with 4K footage – then 8 GB won’t cut it. You’ll be getting annoying lag time, glitches and frame drops on any machine with 8 GB of RAM or less. So while Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate can run on an 8 GB laptop, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Recommended (16 GB)

If you have $2k or less to spend on a laptop for video editing, get one with 16 GB of RAM at the very least. A good budget option would be Lenovo Yoga 730 13″ – it has 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD for $1,299 USD at the time of writing this article. This is also my favorite choice if I had a limited budget but wanted something powerful enough to edit 4K footage without having to worry about too much lag time.

When you get up north to around $4k+ for a laptop, 32 GB starts becoming the standard, as most people want all their eggs in one basket – in other words, they want all their components (CPU/GPU/RAM) optimized for one specific task – video editing in this case. If your budget allows it – go for it! You’ll never regret going up north because laptops with 32 GB of RAM are readily available in this price range.

TL;DR

Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate can run on an 8 GB laptop, but I wouldn’t recommend it for video editing due to excessive lag time, glitches and frame drops
16 GB is the minimum for a powerful laptop for video editing (especially if you want to edit 4K footage)
32 GB is the recommended amount of RAM for a powerful laptop for video editing (especially if you want to edit 4K footage)

Major Deciding on a graphics card

Integrated graphics

Integrated graphics are generally very weak, even for basic tasks. The only way to get an integrated card to work for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate is to set the resolution below 1024 x 768. At this point, you’re sacrificing a lot of video quality. And even then, I don’t recommend it.

High-end consumer graphics ($1000+)

If you want a decent experience with Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate – spend your money on a mid-range card. If you have $1000+ – I recommend going for GTX 1650 or RTX 2070, whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase.

Professional graphics ($2000+)

If you need a laptop for video editing, then spend at least $2000. That way, you’ll get a certified graphics card that works with Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate. I recommend going for RTX 2070 or Quadro RTX 5000 – whichever is cheaper at the time of purchase.

TL;DR

integrated graphics are weak and unusable for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate
go for a mid-range card if you have $1000+ to spend on a laptop for video editing
go for a professional card if you have $2000+ to spend on a laptop for video editing

Major Deciding on a processor

Choosing the best processor for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate is not easy. A lot of factors go into it – from budget to the task at hand.

Requirements

To choose the best processors for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate, you need to know what you want to do with it. For example, if you’re an experienced professional and want to do heavy rendering or 3D work, then it’s worth investing in a top-of-the-line processor. On the other hand, if you’re just editing some family videos on weekends and occasionally producing short clips – a medium range CPU will be sufficient.

If you have a set budget, I’d recommend going for Ryzen 7 4800H. The quad-core/eight-thread architecture is excellent for video editing. It will handle 4K/8K video and still perform well enough when exporting – not too shabby! On the other hand, Intel Core i5-10300H is more power efficient so it’s perfect for those who need their laptop to last longer on battery life.

Recommendations

For an experienced professional, I would recommend one of these: Ryzen 9 5900HS or Intel Core i7-11800H. But if you’re just an amateur, any of these three will be good: Ryzen 5 4600H, i5-10300H or i3-1115G4.

Optional requirements for a Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate laptop

Optional Picking a good display

Display recommendations for Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate

I’m going to start with a couple of display characteristics that are indispensable: contrast and color accuracy. As you’re watching high-quality videos on your laptop, it’s not just about viewing them in Full HD or 4K resolution. There are plenty of other factors that make a great viewing experience. One of the most important ones is contrast. Look for displays with a contrast ratio of 1500:1 or higher, if possible. This is crucial if you want to view high-quality videos on your laptop in a dark room, otherwise you’ll end up having difficulty seeing what’s happening on the screen.

Next, color accuracy is another essential characteristic for any kind of work that involves looking at images and videos – including watching movies and creating presentations. You should always look for screens with high sRGB coverage (some laptops have “wide color gamut” displays but don’t mention what color space they’re covering).

TL;DR

for high quality videos, look for displays with high contrast ratio and high sRGB coverage
also look for Full HD+ displays with wide color gamut (but make sure they cover sRGB)

Optional The right storage

Your storage requirements

Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate is a workhorse of a video editor. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Pinnacle Studio will chew through all the storage space you can give it. It’s important to remember that many people like to keep their project files on the same drive as their operating system, so it’s imperative to get a laptop with plenty of storage space. You’re going to need it if you’re going to be editing 4K videos and 8K videos with tons of assets and effects.

Choosing the right size

The best laptop for Pinnacle Studio needs an SSD with enough space for both your OS and your project files. The only exception is if you’re using Pinnacle Studio 25 Ultimate for basic edits and compositing – in which case, a 256 GB or 512 GB SSD would suffice.

But, realistically, most people are going to need 1 TB or more. And that’s why I recommend getting a laptop with at least 1 TB SSD if you’re not happy with 256 GB or 512 GB of storage space. A brand new laptop with 1 TB SSD would cost anywhere between $1,100 and $2,380, while 2 TB SSDs cost anywhere between $2,600 and $5,000.

TL;DR