Is FCP 5 that hungry?

[James Gleason]

I have this exact machine at work and it runs FCP 5.1.4 just fine. It’s not as fast as my MBP, but it does the job well.

[Adam Claude jones]

Do you think a G5 Powemac 2Ghz or 2.5Ghz would do much better?
What MBP do you have and what are the main differences you notice?
Thanks.

[James Gleason]

My MBP simply renders quicker. The disk speed is slower, but I’m not too concerned about that at the moment. With the Intel chip I get much quicker renders-and that’s worth it all to me. Don’t get me wrong, the 20″ iMac (PPC) is a great machine (much larger display), but I like the portablitiy of my MBP.
Both machines “suffer” from the fact that they can’t be expanded internally like the towers can.

[James Gleason]

Sorry, I forgot to answer your question: I have a MacBook Pro 2.16 Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of ram. Do you actually have the iMac or are you weighing the options of one over the other? I like the portablity of the MBP-I can work on project anywhere.

[Adam Claude jones]

No, I actually don’t an iMac. I’ just weighing the options of one over the other as you guessed. But a laptop is out of question for me. I’m just pondering if it’s worth it to get a G5 tower over an iMac. What do you think? They seem to have basically the same specifications but the tower are much more expensive on the sole fact they can be expanded. But do you think G5s run FCP 5 fast enough. What do you get extra when running FCP 5 on a new Intel Machine like the current Macs? Or what do you lose running it on a G5?

[Adam Claude jones]

For example this G5 tower:

Dual 2GHZ (PowerPC 970 2.2)
1GB Ram (I would most like expand the RAM to at least 2GB maybe more if it would help)
ATI 128MB VRAM
160GB drive

Would it be a good machine for professional HD editing?

[James Gleason]

“Would it be a good machine for professional HD editing?” Absolutely, as many people are using this exact same machine (or even older G4’s) to edit. Your real question is whether you should invest in old (some would say “obsolete”) hardware or spend the money for a newer Intel machine (present and future technology).
It’s your call, if it’s all about money, then buy whatever you can afford. I usually keep my hardware for 3 years before updating. My last machine was a G4/Dual 1.25 Tower. I choose to bypass the G5 line and wait for what I thought would be the G6 but became the Intel processor.
The same goes for software. Why update if it works? I usually only update my FCP suite at each new level and let everything else jump a number before investing cash in an ever changing world.

[Adam Claude jones]

Thanks James.
What I’m trying to figure now is if I would get the same level of real time functions and have the same features from FCP 5 on an Intel machine if I run it on a G5. I know rendering would be slower, but for that I can just leave it rendering over night. I’m more worried about editing performance, real time features, if a G5 is enough to take advantage of all features available in FCP 5 etc. Basically I’m asking what would I be losing editing on a G5 as opposed to on a Intel Mac besides rendering times?
Thanks again.

[James Gleason]

If you can, I would wait until Apple announces FCP6 at NAB this Sunday (the rumor) and see what to see what their requirements are for real time. As they say, “Time is money.”