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Upgrading Mac question
Hi,
I use FCP 7 and dabble in After Effects. Currently working with a 2009 MBP, 2.66Ghz duo and 4GB ram.
I want to upgrade because I’m sick of how long timeline editing in FCP can take, as far as rendering goes. IE: when chrome keying or using Twixtor for slowmow, I have to render individual clips so they aren’t choppy and pixelated. I’m also a little tired of how long exporting takes, but that’s not too big of a deal. It’s mainly the whole real-time editing thing.
Now, after much research, I believe I will keep my MBP for mobile things, but upgrade to an iMac for my every day use. Here’s where my question comes in:
Will there really be a huge difference in performance between the 2.9GHz processor with 512MB graphics card and the 3.2GHz processor with 1GB graphics card? Is it worth paying the extra $500+ or will the benefits be pretty minimal?
Thanks.
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5 Replies
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The RAM makes a difference, but the real issue I think may be that the application wasn’t written to take advantage of multi-threading. The reason FCPX seems faster is that it actually puts all the cores to work for you.
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And if the OP stays in FCP7 all it can take advantage of is 4GB of RAM because it’s a 32-bit app that’s not written to take advantage of modern computer architecture (same goes for the any video card in FCP7). Now any modern NLE will take advantage of more RAM, better video card, more cores, etc. – FCPX, Premiere Pro, and Avid are all 64-bit apps that can turn the most out of your computer.
Motion on the other hand probably would benefit from the spec bump in the video card, especially if you get layer heavy in your comps.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
So I should go with the 27″ higher-end model, just in case FCPX turns into something I like. Plus I’ve been debating trying out the newest version Premiere.
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If you move to Premiere a 27″ iMac would be a pretty good choice. I believe Adobe has a 30 day trial for CS6 as well. PPro is what I primarily use now and with an Nvidia GFX card it’s a great app (PPro taps into the Nvidia architecture via the Mecury Playback Engine). I think you’d experience good gains as well if you move to FCPX with a new iMac.
I don’t think you’ll see a tremendous performance boost if you buy a new machine and continue to run FCP7. It should work fine if you do, but there’s not going to be a $2K speed boost! 😉
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
I actually just realized I already have a CS 5.5 disc that I completely forgot about! So I’ll most definitely be installing that on the new iMac and upgrading it to 6. Thanks for the info!
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