Real world Difference with new GPU and RAM

Apple Final Cut Pro

Real world Difference with new GPU and RAM

Posted by Bryan Fowler on September 1, 2011 at 1:01 pm

Hi fellas.

I have a 2×2.8Ghz Quad Core Xeon MacPro.
6GB of RAM
RadeonHD 3870 512MB
Caldigit HD Element for video.

I’ll be buying a new Mac Pro when they are released, but I’m wondering what kind of merit there would be in adding more ram and upgrading the graphics card now? Anything to speed up my FCPX performance.

I would add 8GB of ram, making it 14GB total.
I would add the ATI Radeon HD 5770

So total would be about $500.

I’m looking for your opinions. Would this result in a noticeable difference with FCPX?
Would it be a waste of $500 that I could later apply to a new Mac Pro?

Thanks

Tom Brooks replied 14 years, 8 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Matthew Celia
September 1, 2011 at 3:57 pm

I think that would make quite a difference.

A faster hard drive or RAID would make a huge difference as well.

—————-
FCP Guru
http://www.fcpguru.com
Bryan Fowler
September 1, 2011 at 4:04 pm

Thanks Matthew for the input.
If you had to choose between 8GB more ram and double the graphics card which would you go for first?

As for the drive speed, right now I have an HDelement. I’m getting about 300MB/s – I’m pretty happy with that for now. I deal mainly with Prores 422 HQ 1080p stuff
Matthew Celia
September 1, 2011 at 5:55 pm

I think it’s a tough call RAM vs. Graphics card because I’m not entirely sure yet how much FCPX is using the card. My instinct says quite a bit, so I’d lean towards the graphics card first. Especially with Apple’s technology moving to utilize the GPU for more and more things. However, with only 6GB RAM, when working in Final Cut, I’d try and not have anything else open.

To give you a sense of comparison, I’m running my FCPX system with the 2GB ATI graphics card that ships with the iMac and 12GB RAM. Very speedy. But I have seen FCPX eat over 9GB of RAM alone on a very large project with 2300 clips.

Hope this helps!

—————-
FCP Guru
http://www.fcpguru.com
Jeremy Garchow
September 1, 2011 at 7:45 pm

I’d lean towards RAM, especially if you’re running 64bit.

I am thinking about quadrupling my current config from 12 to 48.
Tom Brooks
September 2, 2011 at 12:11 pm

Both RAM and video card are probably important. I just got a 12-core machine. Could not wait any longer for new machines. It has the 5770 card and 64GB RAM. So far the machine loafs with fairly minimal use of RAM and processors, as far as I’ve seen. It will take some time to figure out what makes it work harder and just what is OpenCL and what aspects of FCX and Motion 5 it affects. I might need to upgrade the card in the future.

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