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Would a better graphics card help ?

Y

yoe91

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 7, 2011
70
2
Hi guys, mid-2010 MPB 13' user here. I make a lot of iMovie videos, and it's very obvious the system has a really really hard time coping with the HD material on display. It's not even super heavy 1080p stuff, it's just basic HD, some times not even but still iMovie is very slow as I scan over the videos with the cursor, and playback has a bunch of discrepancy to it. It won't even play transitions smoothly, and slows way down whenever text appears.
The worst thing is as I finalize and release the video, as I play the file it's got those grey flashes that cover a lot of the footage on the screen, you know, that silver/white stuff whenever a device can't keep up with the animation. So I have to go back and re-release the video, make sure I close every app and not use the MBP at all for that time.
It also heats up like heck, and I keep telling it it's alright no need to get that excited but it won't listen - but I just ordered one of those cooler-mat things, will see if it really helps.

I recently upgraded to 16GB RAM, so that's max. I currently have the native NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB graphics card. Would upgrading that help substantially you think ?
Thank you !!
 
Maybe im missing something but how would you upgrade the internal gfx card?
 
You can't upgrade the dGPU.

Does the machine have an SSD or an old mechanical hard drive? If it's an old crappy HDD then a SSD could breath new life into your machine. However, I don't know if 2010 models had user-upgradeable drives or not so you'll need to check.
 
JTToft said:
- Especially considering it doesn't have a dGPU. ;)

---------
But no, the graphics can't be upgraded on that machine. You're stuck with what you have.
But an SSD upgrade will be worth it as recommended.
Click to expand...

The Nvidia 320m is a dedicated graphics processor, so yes it has a dGPU back then but it shares the system memory for it's video memory. In the end though, it is not user upgradable.

I would make sure your Mac is up to date and I would highly recommend switching the HDD for an SSD. You will wonder why you never made the switch before. A movie really isn't that taxing on a GPU, so what is most likely giving you issues is the speed of the HDD.
 
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JTToft is correct that was an integrated GPU and only kept in the 2010 because the core i processors graphics were so poor.

However OP us your issue is poor graphics and old CPU as well, not to mention using iMovie not the best video editing software out there. The only way to increase your performance for editing videos is to buy something else.
 
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oh. Thought for sure you could change a graphics card on a MBP just like any other machine. So that's a no-no then, alright thanks.
Steve I upgraded my local HD some years ago to a SATA WD-brand 500GB. Is that bad ?
 
SSD's are good. 2010 notebook is holding you back since its 5/6 years old now. Time to get another
 
I first started working with HD video on a PowerMac G4 so it is possible to do so on your machine. the solution is to match the parameters of the situation to the abilities of your machine and software. the format/codec of your source material, the settings of your project/timeline and the construct of your media storage all come into play.

I haven't touched iMovie in a long time so I can't speak to what is possible/reasonable with the current version of that software. I am going to assume you are working with camera native H.264 files, and that is likely your biggest issue. One possible solution, convert those files to Apple ProRes and they will play back smoother, provided your storage can now keep up.
 
yoe91 said:
oh. Thought for sure you could change a graphics card on a MBP just like any other machine. So that's a no-no then, alright thanks.
Steve I upgraded my local HD some years ago to a SATA WD-brand 500GB. Is that bad ?
Click to expand...
Very, very few laptops allow you to change the video card.
 
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ABC5S said:
SSD's are good. 2010 notebook is holding you back since its 5/6 years old now. Time to get another
Click to expand...
yyyyyep...probably will have to soon.

thats all folks said:
I first started working with HD video on a PowerMac G4 so it is possible to do so on your machine. the solution is to match the parameters of the situation to the abilities of your machine and software. the format/codec of your source material, the settings of your project/timeline and the construct of your media storage all come into play.

I haven't touched iMovie in a long time so I can't speak to what is possible/reasonable with the current version of that software. I am going to assume you are working with camera native H.264 files, and that is likely your biggest issue. One possible solution, convert those files to Apple ProRes and they will play back smoother, provided your storage can now keep up.
Click to expand...
Ooh, that sounds promising. Will look into that and get back to you. Thanks a lot !

robvas said:
Very, very few laptops allow you to change the video card.
Click to expand...
didn't know that. Thought it was like desktops.
 
thats all folks said:
I first started working with HD video on a PowerMac G4 so it is possible to do so on your machine. the solution is to match the parameters of the situation to the abilities of your machine and software. the format/codec of your source material, the settings of your project/timeline and the construct of your media storage all come into play.

I haven't touched iMovie in a long time so I can't speak to what is possible/reasonable with the current version of that software. I am going to assume you are working with camera native H.264 files, and that is likely your biggest issue. One possible solution, convert those files to Apple ProRes and they will play back smoother, provided your storage can now keep up.
Click to expand...

Well to answer you more specifically, no I use a bunch of mp4 files, small 4-10 clips, to make a compilation. About 8min, so it's heavy.
 
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