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    MBP and Final Cut Pro

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Tree_Burner, Apr 8, 2011.

  1. Tree_Burner

    Tree_Burner Notebook Deity

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    I'm looking for a mac capable of running Final CUt pro with no issues, but still getting it as cheap as possible (haha, did I just say cheap when talking about a mac?).

    I read the system requirements but I'd like to hear from someone with experience using the program.

    I only ask because the iMacs at the college are quite worthless when it comes to this program.
     
    Tree_Burner, Apr 8, 2011
    #1
  2. MaxGeek

    MaxGeek Notebook Evangelist

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    Any recent MBP can run the program, but harddrive speed will be a major performance limitation. An SSD will solve this, but large SSD's are pricey and you'll probably want a large SSD for video editing with Final Cut Pro. Pro Res is about 20GB/hr for SD and 65GB/hr for 1080p.

    The 15" or 17" 2011 MBP would be pretty nice since it has a quad core processor and you can put an nice SSD in it. You can also swap out the dvd drive to add extra storage.
     
    MaxGeek, Apr 9, 2011
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  3. Tree_Burner

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    Alright, so the main thing to watch out for is the hard drive speed? should I worry about getting the faster GPU on the 15" model?
     
    Tree_Burner, Apr 9, 2011
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  4. wave

    wave Notebook Virtuoso

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    FC does not make good use of GPU acceleration. But a new version of Final Cut is due out in a few days. Maybe it will improve GPU use, I really dont know. But I expect the CPU and Ram still to be the main performance drivers.

    The most worth while upgrade for the 15" Macbook Pro will be the higher res. screen. Makes working in any editing program much better.
     
    wave, Apr 9, 2011
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  5. Tree_Burner

    Tree_Burner Notebook Deity

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    Actually they are just announcing in a couple days at the NAB in Vegas. No idea on the release yet.
     
    Tree_Burner, Apr 9, 2011
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  6. Starfox

    Starfox Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm willing to bet the CPU will be more important to the new FCP than the GPU - Sandy Bridge CPUs have Quick Sync which is the marketing name for a hardware H.264 encoder (as opposed to decode-only on GPUs) and it's faster than GPU accelerated encoding via CUDA and friends, I'm betting a new FCP would take advantage of that. We'll find out in a few days.
     
    Starfox, Apr 9, 2011
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  7. Tree_Burner

    Tree_Burner Notebook Deity

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    Yeah. I'm jealous that my GF will be there without me. :\
     
    Tree_Burner, Apr 10, 2011
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  8. Deathwinger

    Deathwinger Notebook Virtuoso

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    Won't the hard drive only matter for footage and a 5400 rpm speed hard drive is enough for just running the application alone?

    Any editor worth his salt would know that you edit on separate hard drive to what you use the application on. An SSD would be totally unnecessary if cost were a limiting factor. Just get a good OWC mercury Pro hard drive with the firewire 800 output and you're good to go for footage.

    I look forward to what the new Final cut brings. See how it compares to CS5.
     
    Deathwinger, Apr 10, 2011
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  9. Tree_Burner

    Tree_Burner Notebook Deity

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    Tree_Burner, Apr 13, 2011
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