• Adobe After Effects

  Which version of AE for my hardware?

  Posted by Babylon Slim on November 5, 2010 at 3:30 am

  After many years editing and teaching editing, I have decided to teach myself AE.

  Briefly, what I’d like to find out is which version of AE I should buy that will run smoothly on my (older) Macbook Pro (2,1). It does NOT have Open GL graphics ( I have read on this forum where folks disable that anyway):

  ATI Radeon X1600:

  Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1600
  Type: Display
  Bus: PCIe
  PCIe Lane Width: x16
  VRAM (Total): 256 MB
  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID: 0x71c5
  Revision ID: 0x0000
  ROM Revision: 113-xxxxxx-158
  EFI Driver Version: 01.00.158
  Displays:
  Color LCD:
  Display Type: LCD
  Resolution: 1680 x 1050
  Depth: 32-bit Color
  Built-In: Yes
  Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
  Main Display: Yes
  Mirror: Off
  Online: Yes
  Quartz Extreme: Supported
  Display Connector:
  Status: No display connected

  Core 2 Duo, 2.33 GHz, 3 gigs ram, currently 10.4.11 (tho I can change that). Assorted esata raid drives, etc.

  I’d really prefer (right?) an older version that will just run smoothly as I am just learning. Obviously I expect long renders.

  So… CS2? CS3? CS4?

  Thanks for your time and consideration…

  Nature – is the great provider.

  Kevin Camp replied 15 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Simon Bonner

  November 5, 2010 at 10:14 am

  Philip,

  Your computer doesn’t look like a dinosaur or anything, so I would say you don’t need to worry about getting an older version. Besides, I’ve used AE7 through to CS4 on a succession of not especially high end PCs and have never noticed massive improvements in speed / response over the versions of the software. I’ve never found it to be the most stable of programmes, so I would expect it crash every now and again on whatever machine I used.

  Simon Bonner

  youtube.com/simonsaysfx
• 

  Kevin Camp

  November 5, 2010 at 3:42 pm

  i’d agree with what everyone has said, adding that cs2 (listed as ae7.0) is not a consideration for your mac.

  that version was powerpc only and will run like a dog on an intel based mac, it will be slow and crash frequently.

  also, when purchasing used software on ebay, be a bit careful. if the previous user did not de-authorize their software prior to uninstalling it (from ae, they should click help>deactive to allow others to activate the software), you’ll be on the phone for a while with ae support trying to get your software authorized.

  Kevin Camp
  Senior Designer
  KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
• 

  Babylon Slim

  November 5, 2010 at 4:55 pm

  Thanks for your reply. My macbook pro “maxes out” with only 3gb of ram. Bummer, huh?
  Should I even bother to install CS3 with this caveat + no OpenGL support? Like I said, I’ll be teaching it to myself, but knowing me, I’ll have a complex project up in no time. I can wait for renders. What does bug me is when the system gets so bogged down that the mouse even responds like it has Parkinson’s.

  I won’t bog this forum down with anymore “basic’ questions. I’ll move over to AE Basic if i have more.

  Thanks in advance…

  Nature – is the great provider.
• 

  Babylon Slim

  November 5, 2010 at 5:01 pm

  Cool. CS 3 then. I hope that my measly maxed out 3 gigs of ram won’t bog the whole system down – tho I have become accustomed to long renders when I do compositing with multiple video streams – I go a little nuts when the mouse moves 10 seconds after i command it to.

  Thanks Alot…

  Nature – is the great provider.
• 

  Kevin Camp

  November 5, 2010 at 5:53 pm

  with 3gb ram, you’ll not want to try enabling multi-processing (it should be off by default), and i would avoid having any other applications open when working in ae, particularly when previewing and rendering… let ae have as much of that 3gb as possible.

  Kevin Camp
  Senior Designer
  KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

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