IMAC G5 - Video Card drawback

[Marc Garrett]

I am about to junk/sell all my Windows stuff - and move over to an IMAC G5 20 inch screen, etc. My only concern is the video card, which is apparently not upgradable. My workload does include some mid-range video editing - not major motion pictures, but some work related projects. My question is, if I upgrade the imac to the 2gb ram, will the IMAC G5 be able to run Final Cut Pro smoothly, or should I wait until the next generation of IMAC's roll out, which will almost surely have a better video card, or at least allow you to upgrade it? I realize that the Power Mac is the best option, but i don't currently have the dough for that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[mcmav37]

Marc,
I cannot comment on the exact circumstances you propose, but I have the 20 inch iMac G5 with 1gb RAM and I have used Final Cut Express without difficulty. However, I have not tried FCE (or any video editing program for that matter) on any other systems, so I can't make a great comparison. But, overall I think the graphics is more than capable.
Good luck and welcome aboard.

[cluthz]

For 3D the videocard doesn't cut it, but FCP is 2D so it won't be a problem at all.

[Sun Baked]

Don't think you'll ever see an upgradeable video card on the iMac -- you'll need to buy the "Headless iMac G5" for that (aka, the current Single Processor PowerMac G5.)

That machine uses the same architecture as the iMac G5 -- but it includes some of the PowerMac features: more DIMM slots, additional ports, extra HD bay, PCI slots, and a video card.

[Marc Garrett]

Great Guys -

Thanks for the info - I think the IMAC G% will be just fine for my needs

[Phat_Pat]

Great Guys -

Thanks for the info - I think the IMAC G% will be just fine for my needs

if your going for video get the bigger screen... those 3 inches are gold. :)

edit: whoa missed that first line.... yeah your going to love your iMac G5 :D

oh yeah and FCP not running? I used to use a eMac that had 700MHz G4 384 Ram and it ran very well. (rendering just took some time) To install it i had to use an extrenal drive! :p

You iMac will run it fine if not great. (Ram will add a huge punch to it.)

[blodwyn]

I am about to junk/sell all my Windows stuff - and move over to an IMAC G5 20 inch screen, etc.

Come on in, the water's great. I bought a Powerbook last June after a lifetime of PCs, and now I just got my iMac G5 20".

If you've been using XP, then you'll know what it's like when you have to go back to a Win98 system to do something - it feels so old and clunky. That's what XP feels like when you've been using OS X for a while.

Good luck