FCP 4.5 HD drops frames

I have a 933 mhz G4 with over 400 gigs of available space and 1.5 gigs of ram. Fcp has always dropped frames during playback in the timeline and on capture. I am at my wits end with this machine. I know it should be capable of editing no problem but I just can't figure this out. My final thought is the stock video card which is only 64meg. Does it makes sense that this could be my problem? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
---strapper---

I've got a 64MB card in my Powerbook, it seems to do O.K. so I don't think it's that...

Have you tried going to "Easy Setup" and making sure you have it set to "Firewire Basic", of if you have a HD camera "Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i/60".

Try that and reimport some stuff to see if it's still dropping frames.

Thanks for the input. I'll try it tonight or tomorrow night and respond with how it worked.

I was able to use an old Powerbook Wallstreet with a 450Mhz upgrade CPU. To create the best circumstance for not dropping frames on import, I created a special partition on the drive that I would reformat each time before an import. This allows the data to be placed on the drive in a sequential format. Because the drive isn't working hard on find the next block to write data to, the import can keep up to the firewire copy.

As for regular DV playback. Your system should be fine, unless your relying on realtime rendering for editing. That does consume alot of power and as I recall 4.5 has some bars on top to let you know it is stressing out. Render when you hit that barrier.

Before you go spend money on a new card, check the specs. Can 4.5 use the card to gain performance as 5.x can.

I'm still on 3.1, so can't be of much further help.