Will my Mac Pro Tower handle FCPX?

[Steve Connor]

[Ned Miller] “As of now I need to limp along with my tower which is probably five years old”

I have the same Mac with 16GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 4870 card, it doesn’t ‘limp along” it runs FCPX very well. Add some RAM and make sure you have a good graphics card and you’ll be fine.

Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”

[Ned Miller]

Hi Steve,

Should i bring it into he store and have them do it or is it a DIY project?

Thanks,

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Mark Dobson]

[Ned Miller] “Should i bring it into he store and have them do it or is it a DIY project?
“

Unless you are very hamfisted I’d say you could add more memory and a new Graphic card yourself ( that’s if you need one )

On the minimum system requirements section on the Apple FCPX Technical Specifications page they recommend an openCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later.

And they only recommend 6GB of RAM!

I’ve got a similar Mac Pro and have now installed 22GB of RAM but I’m not that sure how much it helps me.

There are loads of instructional documents and tutorials available on the net and it’s good to get to know your mac.

However if you are only planning to use it for a couple of months your will be sinking cash into a soon to be redundant system.

What I would do is install FCPX on your Mac Pro as it is at the moment and see how you get on.

[Tony Brittan]

Check out OWC @ macsales.com and you’ll find GREAT prices for your upgrades and EASY instructional videos for each. On the Mac Pro its very easy to do both things.

[Ned Miller]

Thanks for the advice. It says I need to upgrade my OS so I must wait until I am done with some of the editing projects I am in the middle of. After that I can download the trial version.

If I can get this tower to run X fairly well then I don’t need to buy the 27″ iMac. I presently have two large Cinema Display monitors so it would be great if I don’t need a new computer.

Thanks

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Ned Miller]

Post Script: I just figured out I would need a new card. Seems around the $700 range. That plus a new OS I think I might as well buy the iMac, ugh!

Need a favor. Could you please look at these specs from my tower and tell me if this card is capable? I’m not that technical, basically a DP who produces now and then. Apple says on their website: OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later. What is CL?

Here’s what I have on my Mac:

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 2600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9588
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B1480A-252
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.252
Displays:
Cinema:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Cinema HD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported

Memory Slots:

ECC: Enabled

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x0000
Part Number: 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number: 0x00000000

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x0000
Part Number: 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Serial Number: 0x00000000

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1:

Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x830B
Part Number: 0x4E543147543732553850423942442D324320
Serial Number: 0x35313441

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2:

Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 800 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x830B
Part Number: 0x4E543147543732553850423942442D324320
Serial Number: 0x85303441

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:

Size: Empty
Type: Empty
Speed: Empty
Status: Empty
Manufacturer: Empty
Part Number: Empty
Serial Number: Empty

Thanks!

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Bob Zelin]

what crazy advice you are getting.
Leave your old hard drive alone.
Put in a new hard drive in your Mac Pro (you have 4 slots in that computer). Build an OS X Snow Leopard boot drive ($29 at the Apple store, and I am sure you can find this on ebay), and then upgrade with the APP store to OS X Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.2). If you can’t figure out how to do this, then find a 12 year old, because they all know how to use the APP store.

Once you are running OS X 10.8.2, go back to the App store and download FCP X. That’s it. Now you can boot off of your existing hard drive, and continue to work, and when you want to play around, just go to System Preferences>Startup Disk, select your new boot drive with 10.8.2 on it and FCP-X, and play all you want.

Bob Zelin

[David Chai]

Your 2600xt graphics card is not supported, so you’ll need to upgrade that to a better one. The mac 5770 works fine, or if you are more adventurous, you can get a PC nvidia GTX 570 or 670. Just install mountain lion first.

—————–
David Chai
Writer . Director
http://www.davidchai.com
dc@davidchai.com
212 363 0159

[David Eaks]

I have the same Mac as well but with 16gb of OWC RAM, a Radeon 5770 and SSD boot drive. FCPX runs great.

I’m with Bob, leave your current drive alone and get a new one for playing with this new stuff. For your new Mountain Lion and FCPX drive, I recommend a 128gb Crucial M4 SSD, for around $100 (don’t forget the 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter) it’s well worth it.

[Dave Jenkins]

I installed FCP X on a 2006 iMac and it works! (Not great, but it works) It comes up with a message and says the graphics card is not supported. I hit the button message disappears and Final Cut X launches and works. I agree with Bob, put in another hard drive and see what you think about Final Cut X before you spend any money. Play with it, if you like it then think about upgrading your tower or getting a new iMac.

Dajen Productions, Santa Barbara, CA
MacPro Two 2.66GHz Quad Core – AJA Kona LHe
FCS 3 OS X 10.7.4
FCP X, Adobe CS6, Logic Pro, Squeeze, Filemaker