Do I need an exceptional graphics card if i convert video a lot?

[montblanc1]

Will the low end 15" MBP has significant difference with the high end?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The GPU is hardly used during video encodings, though even a Mac with NO dedicated graphic card will work.

 

[Tomorrow]

Video encoding is more CPU-intensive, not GPU-intensive.

 

[adnoh]

I think you need a very strong CPU for whwt you are doing. go with the 13" i7

 

[snouter]

It depends, on the PC side of things, there are apps that take advantage of nVidia's CUDA very well. I'm not sure how CUDA is exploited on the Mac side of things and the new MBPs use ATi anyhow.

There is CUDA for OS X. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/nvidiacuda.html

http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprot...y-playback-engine-and-adobe-premiere-pro.html

Handbrake loves cores and hyperthreads. ie CPU matters most.

 

[leman]

It depends, on the PC side of things, there are apps that take advantage of nVidia's CUDA very well. I'm not sure how CUDA is exploited on the Mac side of things and the new MBPs use ATi anyhow.

Thats hat you have OpenCL for... although, I have no idea if any converting software uses it (it should, though )

 

[snouter]

Thats hat you have OpenCL for... although, I have no idea if any converting software uses it (it should, though )

Google "CUDA encoding." There is a lot of support for it on the PC side.

EDIT: maybe that's all a little too theoretical. A good CPU is a sure thing with video encoding, no doubt.