Dedicated GPU make a real difference for FCP?

[whdigital]

I've been a "lurker" here for awhile now and appreciate the community here!

I have a dilemma in that I need to get a new portable for field programming, but also want to get into editing some video projects in Final Cut. I am not too thrilled about the larger size of the 15" vs. 13" MBPs, but the 13" does not have an option of a discrete GPU. For a very similar budget to 15" I could just get a base 13" AND a new Mini for the editing work. With either MacBook, I would of course hook it up to an external display.

Any thoughts about CPU vs. GPU for with respect to resource hogging in Final Cut Pro X?? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[cgbier]

If you really want to edit in the field, anything below 15" blows (had a 13" plastic MacBook with FCE, and am now a happy camper with a 15").
Motion likes a good GPU, and the embedding of many Motion features into FCP X, makes it even more important.

Get yourself a 15" MBP, and a TB Cinema Display for work at home - one plug to rule them all!

 

[whdigital]

Good point about Motion... I didn't think about that. As for the screen size point, I guess I wasn't too clear. The field work is completely unrelated to editing and screen size hardly matters. I would be doing editing at the desk only.

Thanks for the response!

 

[SatyMahajan]

I've been a "lurker" here for awhile now and appreciate the community here!

I have a dilemma in that I need to get a new portable for field programming, but also want to get into editing some video projects in Final Cut. I am not too thrilled about the larger size of the 15" vs. 13" MBPs, but the 13" does not have an option of a discrete GPU. For a very similar budget to 15" I could just get a base 13" AND a new Mini for the editing work. With either MacBook, I would of course hook it up to an external display.

Any thoughts about CPU vs. GPU for with respect to resource hogging in Final Cut Pro X?? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Dedicated GPU will allow more real-time effects processing.

 

[cgbier]

Dedicated GPU will allow more real-time effects processing.

That's a very good point!

In FCP X everything is (the closest you can get to) realtime, thanks to background rendering. No more need for Safe or Unlimited RT, no more waiting (at least not much).

 

[Macman45]

Dedicated GPU

Is a must for serious work, anything else will disappoint you for sure.

 

[whdigital]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like a discrete GPU is a must for editing. Now I just have to compare performance on the Mini vs. the 15".