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Will After Effects CS3 work well on iMac?
I was wondering if the new iMacs will run After Effects CS3 efficiently. I was told that the graphics card on the iMac will not hold up with the software. I was also told that the iMac will run After Effects CS3 just fine. So, I’m hoping that the iMac would be feasible, but I’d like some opinions from experts in the field if possible. Thanks a bunch.
Allan
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5 Replies
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it should perform about as well as a macbook pro, actually a little better.
barefeats.com has some photoshop and ae benchmarks of the new imac compared to macpros older imacs and a mbp. if you go back to the main page you can find other benchmarks for the new imac with other software.
i don’t know how concerned i would be about the gpu, opengl rendering in ae is still somewhat flakey, most use it only for previews, and many just disable it all together.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Agreed. For AE, the video card isn’t a real issue at all. You will run into video card issues if you try to install Final Cut Studio 2, however. It doesn’t seem to even run without a decent, non-integrated GPU.
Other than that, I’m sure the iMac would work great with AE CS3, just bear in mind that multicore features will be more limited.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Thanks for the info.
What type of multicore features will be limited? Also, what type of graphics card and processing speed would you recommend for the iMac. ?
Thanks,
Allan -
Hey!
I am running CS3 just fine on my 7 year old PowerMac G4. Its runs somewhat slow, but pretty well for such a computer. But yes, there will be no multicore functions though…. -
you’ll just be limited by the number of cores.. the imac only has 2, versus the macpro’s 4 or 8 cores. with cs3, ae’s render engine can render multiple fames simulatneously by using all avalable cores, thus speeding up rendering. with the imac, you’ll only have 2 cores available.
as far as speed, it’s kind of relative. if you are used to a 800 mhz quicksilver, anything in the 2ghz range will seem amazing… but, if you have to make a choice between the cost of ram and the cost of speed, get the ram.
also, if you are looking at older imacs, see how much ram the can hold. i know at least the higher end new version can hold 4gb, which would be ideal for mulitprocessing on a 2-core imac. i would recommend starting out with at least 2gb, and upgrading to 4gb when you can.
if you were looking at a new one, the 24″ 2.4ghz model looks pretty good. you get a large screen, which is good for palette heavy apps like ae. it only comes with a 1gb stick of ram from apple, so you can buy a 2gb stick elsewhere (owc has a 2gb module for $132 or 2x2gb matched pairs for $269). the 320gb internal sata drive is pretty good, and you can get an external firewire/usb drive for media storage.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
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