@jakepowell I'm in the exact same situation as you buddy. Same laptop, same exact problems. I've gone around and around but the two things you've mentioned, memory and SSD are the only two things you can do. I run a Mac Cine monitor off of mine and you still can't run Davinci because it's using the same shitty GC. I'm just going to buy a pre-made hackintosh with support from some guy down in Orange County. When I upgraded my RAM, I didn't notice that big of a change, there was a bit but not like you would think. These MBP are great for basic editing I think but as soon as you start to get into higher bit CC and Neat Video type stuff, they just can't render fast enough no matter what we do. Maybe a program like FCPX might run more streamlined on these, not entirely sure since I've never used it.

Your system has a Thunderbolt port on it, so you would need to have either a Thunderbolt or Mini Display Port display, or DVI/HDMI/VGA or what not with an adapter. Externally your system can support displays up to 2560x1600

Being that it's a thunderbolt system, you'll also have good luck boosting performance of video editing by investing in thunderbolt storage, particularly setup in a raid configuration (LaCie has some 2 drive raids, or you can get into the more pricey Promise raids). Another option is a Thunderbolt to eSata card from Lacie so you can use eSata storage and raids.

16GB of ram would do you well. Swapping the internal drive for solid state would be nice as well. Aside from that, you're pretty much at the wall.

@vicharris - Thunderbolt was introduced in the early 2011 models.

Yep, exactly what @vicharris said. More RAM and SSD will surely help. I have a similar MBP and did exactly that. Put the hard disk that came with the laptop into the optical drive bay. Running FCPX with no real problems even cutting with full res files. NeatVid is slow but can be managed. As much as I'd love to use it, Resolve has never worked well. Not enough graphics power even when running on second monitor with enough resolution. Until they come out with an Ultralite version, it's not worth it to me.

@5thwall, did you ever sell your setup?

@bug009, I did, NO HARDWARE FOUND :)

@vicharris you mean the hackintosh? if so, almost, but decided to keep it for a while longer - at least until (if) new mac pros come out.

hi guys , cheers for all your responses,

@vicharris I am lucky actually in that i do have thunderbolt (little lightning blt symbol) in mine and it is core i7. (think apple made a quite quiet second release of updated models near end of 2011) so more ram and ssd ? can anyone recomend an ssd?

@010101 software is premier pro , after effects, davinci resolve lite , and speed grade (but i havent really explored that one fully ) , just my own footage to work with , usually transcode avchd with 5d to rgb (gh2 and soon to be gh3 footage)

@5thwall - i understand what your saying but i simply cant afford to change systems - (i get this macbook pro free with uni and dont have 1200 to blow also it needs to be a laptop for me , i have to get to and from studios and have to travel abroad with it on shoots )

@bmorgan83 - i didnt know it supported 2560x1600 , thats good news if so. those raid drives (sorry this is going to sound so dumb) but what are they? external harddrives that make duplicates and store them ? alieviating storage on my system yes?

@jakepowell, After upgrading your RAM to 16 GIG and boot drive to SSD you should be OK. The only stinker in that line up of software would be Resolve. Although the " Lite " version is HD only and and if you don't run complex cycles all at once even that's good to go. That's if we are talking about possible to get work done. I have seen some of the latest and the greatest of MBP and Windows machines struggle on big AE renders and multi layered HD on Premier.

You may want to get an " OptiBay " MCEtech. That will give you a DATA drive internally on a separate SATA stream. Then your application drive wouldn't get bugled down with i/o read/write of data. Make sure you get the external case for your optical drive that comes out of MBP - it's only $20 extra. That will be your coolest external USB burner. Just keep your workflows as simple as possible and don't try to compete with the big work stations out there. Remember that you can't rush art !

@010101 thanks for all the advice , my workflow is simple by necessity as well as preference anyway , but thanks again and hopefully all these things will help bring it to an acceptable level, does anyone know if my graphics card supports resolve lite? ive been running it but and it functions slowly but there seems to be some glitchy artifacts , and banding happening when i use it and render out footage.... any ideas? (clueless)

@Hallvalla , im afraid that goes over my head , thanks anyway but what is an external gpu?

@christianhubbard , unfortunately you can only do that through terminal on snow leopard os , i am currently on lion.... for which i dont think there is any similar work around.... (spose i could go back but that seems a little silly)