Final Cut Pro on a 2.8 GHz iMac
- Thread starter KeithnFW
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FF_productions
macrumors 68030
Depends on what you are editing...there are many factors.
If you are going the iMac route (which isn't suggested), max out the ram, and make sure you have an external drive (firewire) to store your stuff.
It is a plenty fast Mac, I just don't recommend it because of lack of expansion.
If you are going the iMac route (which isn't suggested), max out the ram, and make sure you have an external drive (firewire) to store your stuff.
It is a plenty fast Mac, I just don't recommend it because of lack of expansion.
KeithnFW
macrumors member
Thanks FF. I have max'd out the ram at 4GB and have the external 1TB. Would mainly be used for editing 30 sec. commercial spots.
fiercetiger224
macrumors 6502a
Yeah if it's just for 30 sec commercial spots, it's more than enough. I used to edit on a 2 Ghz Macbook Core Duo with 2GB RAM, with 720p HD ProRes. With 1080p it chugged a little bit, but was still enough speed to edit.
You've got a 2.8 Ghz iMac with GPU acceleration, although the graphics card plays little role in Final Cut Pro. So you've got a plenty fast machine for HD editing.
TheEpicFilmCo
macrumors regular
I've got Final Cut Express so I don't know if that uses less power than Final Cut Pro, but I use it on my 2.8Ghz iMac and it runs really smoothly editing HD video. I haven't even upgraded the RAM yet either.
How did you run Final Cut Pro on a 2 Ghz Macbook? The internal graphics is not enough to meet the minimum requirements is it?
Anyway, I have a Imac 3,06 with 3 Gigs of RAM and it EATS FCP for breakfast... Go for it!
I'm using FCP on a 2.2 Ghz MBP. I'm working in ProRes 1920x1080, which I believe is easer for real time playback than HDV. No problems, except I get the red render bar quicker than someone with a faster computer, so RT playback is limited.
I'm pretty tired of the render bar when just adding a few filters/effects, so I've been reading about Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, which does more RT. I've heard that it needs 8 GB of RAM to be really stable, but another person said he was having no problems with 4 GB.
Check out the Adobe Production Premium before you buy FCP. You'll also get free tech support, at least until 3 months after CS5 comes out.
The reason I'm sticking with FCP is primarily because I'm editing with AVCHD, which FCP can transcode to ProRes. PPro does AVCHD natively, which I have read will not work well without a quad to eight core machine.
If you do go with FCP, I highly recommend the Larry Jordan tutorials on lynda.com.
(I'm no pro, so take this for what it's worth).
I'm pretty tired of the render bar when just adding a few filters/effects, so I've been reading about Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, which does more RT. I've heard that it needs 8 GB of RAM to be really stable, but another person said he was having no problems with 4 GB.
Check out the Adobe Production Premium before you buy FCP. You'll also get free tech support, at least until 3 months after CS5 comes out.
The reason I'm sticking with FCP is primarily because I'm editing with AVCHD, which FCP can transcode to ProRes. PPro does AVCHD natively, which I have read will not work well without a quad to eight core machine.
If you do go with FCP, I highly recommend the Larry Jordan tutorials on lynda.com.
(I'm no pro, so take this for what it's worth).
I have been using FCP studio on my quad 2.8 mac pro with 2GB of ram and runs fine. I am editing 1080i but I just bough extra 8GB because I am having many software open at same time and FCP is crashing on me now.
But I used to use the same software on my quad G5 with 4.5 GB and they never crashed there, well, just once but after having the computer running on a project for 2 weeks with FCP, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, safari, MS messenger, yahoo messenger and Toast Titanium and so on... at once. It crashed on me when I connected an extra monitor for the extended desktop.
Still... I left the computer frozen for a day because I knew it was running the renders in the background and it did!!!!
That was with panther, I do not know if leopard does the same.
But I used to use the same software on my quad G5 with 4.5 GB and they never crashed there, well, just once but after having the computer running on a project for 2 weeks with FCP, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, safari, MS messenger, yahoo messenger and Toast Titanium and so on... at once. It crashed on me when I connected an extra monitor for the extended desktop.
Still... I left the computer frozen for a day because I knew it was running the renders in the background and it did!!!!
That was with panther, I do not know if leopard does the same.
fiercetiger224
macrumors 6502a
Haha, you can install Final Cut Studio on a 1st gen Macbook, Apple just doesn't "support it".
It runs fine, and even Motion runs on it. I think if you didn't have a graphics card supported, Core Image is offloaded onto a CPU core instead of a GPU. At least that's what I've heard...Which explains why people have been able to run FCS on their Intel Integrated Graphics based Macbooks and Mac minis.When I got my Macbook in 2006, I compared it to my Powerbook running FCS. And my Macbook spanked the hell outta my Powerbook, even though it had a dedicated GPU...
fiercetiger224
macrumors 6502a
Everything should install but Color. I think I remember installing the whole suite, but once everything is installed, when you try to launch Color gives some sort of error. I haven't had my Macbook for over a year, so I can't test it anymore...