Performance question...

[DammitJanet]

I'm curious to know how FCP works in comparison to Vegas in a couple of ways. Vegas relies almost solely on processor speed, so the amount of RAM involved or the video card you use has little to do with the program's performance. Does FCP work in the same way?

 

[VaricamLife]

FCP is definitely not a processor only application. The rendering based aspects are processor based for sure (look at FCP render benchmarks pre and post Intel machines for the most blatant demonstration of such). But for a lot of the general cutting it is definitely RAM reliant. You want to typically throw as much ram as you can afford at it (I believe FCP won't use more than 4GB though; that was the case with 5 and I've not seen anyone say 6 will manage more).

For solely FCP, I don't think you need a crazy intense video card, just for the editing. But for FCS you need/want a better video card. Some of the other applications (Motion really) need the better card.

Cheers.