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Spec for Final Cut Express HD

Q

Quillnat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2006
4
0
My son likes video editing, and was using Pinnacle on a PC but our machine was getting past it. Bought one of the new dual core iMacs but son found iMovie a bit limiting. Therefore bought Final Cut Express HD, loaded it, tried to run, and got error message saying that I need an AGP graphics card. Nightmare scenario is that after spending the £1200 or so, this top of the range iMac can't run a cut down version of Final Cut. Say it ain't so?! Can the card be upgraded, or is that not possible with an iMac?
Help!!
 
Get the UB cross grade disc for FCE. IIRC you can alter a text file in the FCE app so it won't look for an AGP GFX card, but the Universal Binary version of FCE will run much better than the PPC version via emulation.


Lethal
 
errr....thanks

Thanks Lethal. Sounds good, although this poor English non-techy Newbie needs a translation. FCE I can work out, but UB, IIRC and the rest of it is too opaque. If you can bear to expand, I would appreciate it.
 
Quillnat said:
Thanks Lethal. Sounds good, although this poor English non-techy Newbie needs a translation. FCE I can work out, but UB, IIRC and the rest of it is too opaque. If you can bear to expand, I would appreciate it.
Click to expand...
UB=Universal Binary.

Up until recently Macs had been based on PPC chips. But starting earlier this year all Macs will be based on Intel chips. And because of the under the hood change the software needs to be changed too. Software that is UB means it will run natively on both PPC and Intel based Macs. Mac software that is not UB (like your version of FCE) will run on Intel based Macs, but it will be slower because the Mac has to use emulation software (called Rosette) to "translate" the PPC native application into something the Intel Mac can understand.

Apple just released the UB version of FCE. What you should do is buy the "crossgrade" disc so that it will run natively on your Intel Mac.

IIRC=If I Remember Correctly (another common one is AFAIK=As Far As I Know).


Lethal
 
If he's at school/college/university, bear in mind that you can get the Universal version of Final Cut Studio (the expensive one) for £428.88...

Which isn't that bad...
 
Thanks both. Not going for FCP just yet - too big a jump - but thanks for the tip.

From surfing around, looks like the upgrade for the Intel mac might be imminent - I'll ask the local store. But if anyone else has any thoughts on any workaround, I'll be happy to hear them.
 
That last post directing me to a thread elsewhere - very helpful. Would you believe that the solution is simply to press the escape button when the error message about the graphics card comes up?!
 
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