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G5 1.8 PM or Mac Mini 2.0 for Final Cut Pro?

California

California

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 21, 2004
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I have a project coming up and I need to learn Final Cut Pro.

Is a G5 1.8 single processor still better than a Mac Mini in terms of CPU crunching power for FCP?

Does the 8gigs of Ram I can stuff in a G5 make any difference to the 3.3 gigs I can stuff in a mini? (For Final Cut Pro)
 
The Mini is much faster in terms of CPU speed, however it has terrible graphics and can only use 3.3gb RAM.
 
California said:
I have a project coming up and I need to learn Final Cut Pro.

Is a G5 1.8 single processor still better than a Mac Mini in terms of CPU crunching power for FCP?

Does the 8gigs of Ram I can stuff in a G5 make any difference to the 3.3 gigs I can stuff in a mini? (For Final Cut Pro)
Click to expand...

1.) Mac mini is much faster in terms of RAW procesor speed

2.) PowerMac has a dedicated graphic card, this can be faster than the GMA950

3.) The difference in RAM ammount (if you have a PCI-X PowerMac, the PCI PowerMac G5 accepts only a max. of 4 GB RAM) is a plus for the PowerMac, so you can have more apps opened etc., but in terms of speed, well, i don't think, that there is much difference (PowerMac using DDR400 RAM, Mac mini using DDR2 667 MHz). Maybe the only advantage is, that you don't need to swap so much to disk (well, than there is a speed difference).

4.) I would go for the Mini, but you must know, that the integrated graphic ins't supported by FCP
 
Buy a used iMac instead; the integrated graphic chipset on the Mini and Macbook won't let you install half of FCS, particularly Motion.
 
My Dual G5 1.8 with 2GBs of Ram worked fine in FCP. No problems what so ever. The only thing i needed for my video was a lot of HD space, which i could easily add with my G5. This is one thing i miss about my G5, as i have since bought an iMac. Now i have a Terabyte External HD, and sond of that running just annoys me.
 
Definitely get the PowerMac, since the GPU is very important in Final Cut. Also, the ability to add harddrives will be a big bonus.
 
Sonicjay said:
Buy a used iMac instead; the integrated graphic chipset on the Mini and Macbook won't let you install half of FCS, particularly Motion.
Click to expand...

Huh? Totally not true. I've installed Final Cut Studio, 1 and 2, on my 1st gen Macbook. I've never had any problems running Motion, etc.

BTW, Final Cut Pro isn't reliant on the GPU. The CPU renders the video frames, not the GPU. How do I know this? I've put several tests between a 2.0Ghz Macbook 1st gen, and a 2.16Ghz Macbook Pro 1st gen. I did a series of test between ProRes 720p rendering, both from standard rendering, to rendering effects. Both had very similar results, with the Macbook even edging out the Pro in a few tests, which I though was weird. Both had 2 GB of RAM, and identical Hitachi 100GB 7200 RPM drives.

So even though the Macbook Pro had a better GPU and 160 Mhz increase in CPU power, the Macbook either almost-equaled, or even surpassed it in rendering FCP frames. Hope this helps.

Oh, and I used my Macbook as my main machine for almost 2 years before I got my Mac Pro.
 
Mini upgraded to a 7200 rpm hard drive and a external firewire hard drive will run circles round the powermac in everything but motion.
 
Ok to clear things up a bit.

The Mini would be better for FINAL CUT PRO and all the other apps besides motion because of the faster processor, which helps with rendering. Also running Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini WILL give you an error about an AGP/Quartz Compatible card, but you can easily bypass that by editing a file in the install folder.

The PowerMac would be better for Motion specifically, which does 3D renderings and depends heavily on GPU power (which the mini isn't strong in)
but the PowerMac would be slower than the mini for all the other programs.


Your best bet would be to look for a used intel iMac which can be had for about the same price as a new mini. I personally think that system would offer you the best of both worlds, graphically and in terms of its power.
 
The video card business is worrisome...

I like the idea of having at least three hard drives at my disposal.

If I could pick up a G5 at about 450 bucks, put in a new video card, I'd be happy.

i cannot run dual monitors off a mini, either, correct?

Can I run a dual monitor off an imac?
 
California said:
The video card business is worrisome...

I like the idea of having at least three hard drives at my disposal.

If I could pick up a G5 at about 450 bucks, put in a new video card, I'd be happy.

i cannot run dual monitors off a mini, either, correct?

Can I run a dual monitor off an imac?
Click to expand...

No, you can not run dual monitors off a mini, yes you can off an imac
 
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