There is the slight possibity that the Graphics card drivers on your MSI aren't working with your version of PS. Have you checked them (both nVidia and Intel). Don't use Windows, use the card manufacture's website. But given the vintage of PS18, that's unlikely Euphonograph:The HP is set to Cuda, I don't know why as it has integrated graphics ...

What are your project settings? Are you using Best Quality for Preview. When you say Rendered, do you mean Exported or timeline rendered? What resolution is the source footage? PS24 now boasts sharper text, as long as you use the right settings. In the past its was poor, particualtly for HD and UHD.

Thanks for posting the information Chris

Oh, and I've looked back and I can't see any reference to the relative CPU clock speeds of the two laptops. The number of cores above 2 probably makes no different in PS18, and if the i3 has Intel HD intergrated graphics and the i7 has them disabled (and a nVidia card that isn't working with PS) then the i3 could acutally be quicker.

The only things I can suggest is to try changing the timeline to 25p. I can't remember when, but at one time hardware acceleration fell over trying to work with interlaced footage. I'm having issues deciphering yout test results. Is the new laptop actully slower than the old one, or just about the same when you actually get a usable result?

It depends on the codec and bitrates the capture device produce, The Mpeg-2 bitrate is above that which a DVD can handle. If I were in your position I'd just use Mpeg-2, I can't see how MP4 would improve the situation, but as in all these cases, the best thing to do is run a test if you are worried. One thing to bear in mind when testing is to ...

What is the source footage? Oh - and is your project timeline Interlaced or Progressive

MP4 should work as well, but it depends on the type of codec used if it a a better or worse choice than mpeg-2. TS won't be recognised by Studio although it might if renamed to *.M2TS

Could you not just use your C: drive as either the source or the target, even for just a short test project and compare the times? If the perfomance is still poor, then it's nothing to do with the drive connections.

Yes, plenty. What formats do you have a choice of? I assumed that the you used the only format possible. Mpeg-2 is suitable. That's the format it's going to end up on DVD, but it's going to be re-coded anyway. Another format that will work is DV-AVI As I said before, I very much doubt if you will see the difference caused by the addtional ...