13" or 15" MBP for Aperture and Final Cut Express

[BouncerBoy]

I am looking into purchasing a MBP but did not know if I should get the 13" with the integrated graphics or go with the 15" with the dedicated graphics. I am going to use the MBP mainly to edit videos and pictures in Aperture and Final Cut Express, but nothing very heavy. I am leaning towards the 13" due to the cost factor but would hate to waste my money on it if it will be running at maximum potential just to perform simple tasks that the 15" would hardly break a sweat on. In case this will help with anybody's comments, I will be increasing the RAM to 8gb either way.

Help.

 

[billgates99]

I'm not familiar with Aperture, but AFAIK, Final Cut cannot benefit from any amount of RAM beyond 4GB because it is a 32-bit application. I don't think it is very optimized for multi core systems, either, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable can confirm this. Also, the rendering in FCP is performed by the CPU, not the video card, so unless you use Motion a lot, the video card isn't as important.

Hopefully the upcoming 2011 update to FCP will provide us with a 64-bit executable and some form of GPU acceleration, which would make larger amounts of RAM and a better video card more important.

 

[moreover]

the GPU and VRAm matter with Color

I don't know whether FCP indeed doesn't use the GPU for rendering but its color correction program Color and Motion sure do.

This may not be in your price range but the high end MBPs now have 1GB of VRAM.

The new version of FCP is coming (some video VIPs were just invited to an early preview but can't talk details) and chances are it'll exploit GPU and 64bit.

 

[iDisk]

I don't know whether FCP indeed doesn't use the GPU for rendering but its color correction program Color and Motion sure do.

This may not be in your price range but the high end MBPs now have 1GB of VRAM.

The new version of FCP is coming (some video VIPs were just invited to an early preview but can't talk details) and chances are it'll exploit GPU and 64bit.

source?.... And I think he was talking about final cut express

 

[moreover]

Larry Jordan was among them, here's his teaser. It contains no info but the fact that the meeting was for real and that FCP is indeed coming.
http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/wordpress/archives/1365

 

[zer0sum]

I am looking into purchasing a MBP but did not know if I should get the 13" with the integrated graphics or go with the 15" with the dedicated graphics. I am going to use the MBP mainly to edit videos and pictures in Aperture and Final Cut Express, but nothing very heavy. I am leaning towards the 13" due to the cost factor but would hate to waste my money on it if it will be running at maximum potential just to perform simple tasks that the 15" would hardly break a sweat on. In case this will help with anybody's comments, I will be increasing the RAM to 8gb either way.

Help.

You really really need a larger screen and resolution for aperture and video editing.
I tried using lightroom on my 13" and it sucked big time.
If you have an external monitor it makes things a lot better.

 

[h00ligan]

I can see for final cut, with all of the scrubs - but what about lightroom sucked on the 13"

The reason I ask is that for retouching, you have to go pixel level anyway - and for general changes fit to screen should be fine once you autohide panels.

Just curious as I'm considering, 100 pixels more vertically is not much.