Will a Macbook do Final Cut Pro?

[Sannekita]

Hey, I'm a film student and i'll probably be buying a mac in january. Will the high end macbook run final cut pro properly? or should i save up a bit more and get the macbook pro? I like the macbook because it's easier to transport. i'll probably hook it up to an external screen, so screenwise it doesn't make a difference.
Thanks!

 

[skubish]

Apple's website says that FCP will not run on the integrated graphics chip so therefore it won't even run on a MB.

I can't confirm it but it probably won't even allow you to install it.

 

[Sannekita]

that's odd, i definitly know someone who has it running on their macbook. So it has to be possible... I just don't know how well the macbook runs it...

 

[idea_hamster]

Sometimes Apple decides that a product "requires" certain features because (I assume) in their opinion the product's performance would otherwise be too poor.

One example was the original iPod Nano. Apple said that it "required" a USB 2.0 connection -- a factor that I didn't realize when I bought one (my PB had only USB 1.1). Did the Nano work? Sure -- but it took a fair bit of time to move even medium-sized pictures. It made you think twice about frequent updates.

 

[typewriterchimp]

Which apps do you need to run

from the final cut pro suite? The pro package includes many apps all with different minimum requirements. Some, like Color, really will only work well with a decent graphics card. Others, like Final Cut, will work fine using integrated graphics. The Final Cut Express software bundle does not list a video card in its requirements:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...de=home/shop_mac/software/apple&nplm=MA261Z/A

Note that it includes Final Cut Express, Livetype, and Soundtrack. My advice would be to think about which features you would use--if you don't do special effects or other fancy stuff, you can get by with no video card and FCE (and some extra $$ in your pocket for a swell external firewire drive from OWC for all your captured footage:http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go). If you really do need those features, a video card will be well worth it. Also consider the file size you are using. If its bigger than DV cam stuff, it will be more system intensive. But for DV footage, even ye olde ibook g4 handles it well. Skim through the forums and see the number of users plugging away on FCP with g4 minis on maximum RAM. Remember, the minis didn't have much for video capabilities either, even though they technically had "discreet" graphics.

happy shopping
-cs

 

[ironsidephoto]

i'd assume that even if it worked on a mb, it would be really really slow.

 

[yoak]

I ran FC 4.5 on my G4 ibook and it was ok. Just DV stuff though.
You won´t have any problems doing light editing on your MB. The screen size will probably be your biggets problem

 

[Sannekita]

Thank you for all the advice!!

 

[opus2]

Macbook: no, ibook: yes

Hi, I just found your thread - i tried running FCP 4.5 on my new macbook with Leopard and it will not run.

It did, however, work on my old ibook (running Tiger) - though, yes, it was painfully slow.

However, bottomline: If you are a film student - as a former film student myself, i highly recommend you invest in a mac pro, or at least a macbook pro. It is worth the investment if you are going to do some serious film and video work.

good luck!

 

[JFreak]

I ran FC 4.5 on my G4 ibook and it was ok. Just DV stuff though.

Yeah, but weren't those the ones with dedicated GPU chip? If my memory don't let me down, I'd say Apple moved to integrated graphics when PPC iBooks went Intel Macbooks.

 

[MovieCutter]

Final Cut Pro will run great, DVD Studio Pro will run great, Motion will run, but will be rendered (ha ha, see what I did there?) completely unusable for anything but very, VERY basic motion graphics. 3D and particles are out of the question.

 

[4God]

Apple's website says that FCP will not run on the integrated graphics chip so therefore it won't even run on a MB.

I can't confirm it but it probably won't even allow you to install it.

Actually from Apple's website:

Minimum Requirements to Install All Final Cut Studio Applications
A Macintosh computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
1GB of RAM
An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors)
A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
Mac OS X v10.4.9 or later
QuickTime 7.1.6 or later
A DVD drive for installation

That means you can't install and run ALL of Final Cut Studio's apps. You can however install and run Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Compressor just fine.