-
G5 or not G5, that is the question
Hi Cowfolk,
I’m a gnats chuff away from getting an FCP suite for my studio at long last – and I have a dilemma.
I have a long term client who cuts on 5.1.2 on a G5 dual 2ghz. One of the reasons for my getting a suite is to do their work at home (rather than 150 miles away where they’re based) and it looks like there will be a sizeable chunk of it. They shoot HDV, and aside from being a little slow on renders, their kit works fine – in short, they have no desire or need to upgrade for a while yet.
My dilemma – as I understand it compatibility may well be an issue. My client has 2 licences for 5.1.2 (long story) but NOT universal binary versions. I have FCP3 that I can upgrade to FCS2, and a whole host of old (but still perfectly usable) non-universal Mac SW – Photoshop and the like. I’m happy to upgrade FCS (no brainer really) but I’d like to avoid doping same for the rest of the packages I’ve amassed over time – it’s a small fortune to upgrade them all.
So I’m looking for compatibility first, but don’t want a snail in the speed stakes. I’m leaning toward a maxed-out Quad G5 – there are some nice ones for sale in the UK with lots of RAM and decent specs (one in particular with a GeoForce 7800GT card which was the whizzy-dink BTO option AFAIK)
So, anyone with any real-world comparisons of this vs a mid-range MacPro? Bearing in mind;
1. I rarely edit with a client watching over me and if I do it’s usually doc type stuff, rather than effects heavy work – so render times are not the ultimate.
2. I’d be running under Rosetta for much of my SW (assuming I could get my client to upgrade to FCS2 and it will run OK on a Dual 2ghz machine)
Oh and one more thing – I’m likely to stick an IoHD on when they arrive. Editing HD is a requirement and pro-res seems the way forward to me.
Your thoughts, and wisdom, as ever are appreciated
Jason
-
7 Replies
-
[Jason P] “Oh and one more thing – I’m likely to stick an IoHD on when they arrive. Editing HD is a requirement and pro-res seems the way forward to me.”
The only G5’s that seem to be able to work in ProRes are the Quad G5’s. Our Dual 2.0 G5 can’t work with the format at all, but our Quad works fine with it.
If that’s a requirement, you’ll need a newer machine.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
-
[Jason P] “My client has 2 licences for 5.1.2 (long story) but NOT universal binary versions.”
Jason,
5.1.2 is actually universal binary – when FCP went from 5.0.x to 5.1.0 it went universal binary.
You will have issues sharing work with your client unless you can somehow figure a way for yu both to use the same version of the FCP. The hardware won’t affect your ability to share the work with them.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY
-
You can also find some great deals on Mac Pro 2.66ghz quad machines.
There are some packages coming online that will only run on Intel, so you might take that into account.
I’ve been using a new 8-core at a clients, and I have been getting by with a G4/500 upgraded with a 1.8ghz Sonnet processor upgrade and ATI 9800 Pro video card. Talk about a tale two Macs. 🙂
I recently sold my home studio G5 2.0ghz DP to make way for some flavor of Intel Mac, either a Mac Pro or MBP. I’m trying to make the best decision for what tasks I will have. I’m leaning heavily toward a Mac Pro 3.0ghz quad over the faster Octo, but I can also make a great case for a new MacBook Pro.
IMHO, you should consider investing in an INtel Mac. It will have the longest legs as more and more Intel only software is released.
Good luck with your decision.
-
FWIW Walter, ProRes works on my G5 2 gig, I just can’t run other apps at the same time or it drops frames. I’m using native HDV 1080i in ProRes timelines. Can’t capture it though…
-
Sounds like you need an edit machine and also keep your old machine with photoshop etc. A networked second computer can be very useful.
I would advise getting the most grunty intel machine that you can afford. In time things will only want more cores, speed and RAM. If you want to use ProRes then both machines will need to be on FCS2.
-
[Chris Poisson] “Can’t capture it though…”
so if you have a single workstation, then the format isn’t that useful.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
-
Thanks for the replies, chaps. Kinda confirmed what I was thinking – get them on to FCS2 and drop the max on an Intel machine with a decent spec. Future proofing does make good sense, anbd we’re talking about a grands worth of difference really. I’ve been reading up on Rosetta too, and some real-world performance for typical video-based photoshop work leans towards it being usable (it’s huge print files that bog it down – as you’d expect) if not ideal.
Now I’ve just gotta give the plastic a hammering!!
Jason
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up