Final Cut

Is a program like Final Cut mainly using the Processor, the video card or the system ram? If you had a 2ghz Core Duo with 2gigs of Ram, would it run well with a basic video card? Which of these 3 components has the greatest effect on Final Cut performance?

Greenredfield said:

Is a program like Final Cut mainly using the Processor, the video card or the system ram? If you had a 2ghz Core Duo with 2gigs of Ram, would it run well with a basic video card? Which of these 3 components has the greatest effect on Final Cut performance?

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Final cut mostly relies on CPU, RAM and HDD. all RT effects in FC are CPU bound. so its no problem if you have stock GPU that came with your mac. its a different story if you want to use other apps from FCS suite, like motion and live type. then you can really benefit from good GPU. in any case, your iMac (I assume you have iMac with core duo) will do just fine. you can check the system requirement for FCS at http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs.html

^I went to your link, it says that Final Cut Studio does not support the intergrated video card in the MacBook. There are other versions, such as Pro and Express, right?

Basically, Im doing an in-depth obsessive analysis on wether I should get the MacBook, or drop an extra $500 and get the MacBook Pro. Its hard to justify that extra $$$.

its not entirely true, check this out: http://www.creativemac.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=43717
they had no problem with final cut pro, but motion was a bit slow. seems like video editing on macbook works just fine, but if want to do compositing and animation with motion you better get macbook pro.

^I think I could run Final Cut Express just fine.