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

Which laptops meet the most of these

The 30 best of 128 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. The graphics class and processor each maker names are in the source links too.