Will these iMac specs be OK for editing FCPX?

nedcam

nedcam

Well-known member
I'd like experienced opinions as to 27" iMac specs. Also, I decided to compare Best Buy to the Apple store. Best Buy is a savings of $280 and much more convenient to my location but... they only have the 3.2GHz i5 and the NVIDIA card is the 675 not the 680.

So, knowing that I am not a professional editor, just a DP who sometimes produces, can I "get by" with these specs? Doing mainly corporate work and documentaries, are these specs OK? I will most likely buy FCPX but may decide on Premiere. Here's the specs:

27" iMac3.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1GB GDDR5

Also, I want to be able to physically pick up my new computer at a store since I don't want the drops and bumps UPS would add so I am not considering B&H, etc.

Many thanks!
 
Honestly, I would just go Maxed out on the new iMac. The machine you list will work, but the new Imacs are incredible!
 
Thanks for responding guys.

Dustylense, isn't the i5 also the new iMac? I thought it is, I will ask at the Apple Store. But I guess I can max it out. I thought I would be edting to an external har drive as I am presently with my tower, what do you think I need for the internal drive?

Thanks!
 
If by "tower" you mean "Mac Pro", stick with it, upgrade it, better performance than the new Macs, until the new models are released later this year.
Hyperthreading not on an i5? Um, yes it is.
 
BenB said:
If by "tower" you mean "Mac Pro", stick with it, upgrade it, better performance than the new Macs, until the new models are released later this year.
Hyperthreading not on an i5? Um, yes it is.
Click to expand...
My iMac smokes my 12 core tower in every way.
 
I've yet to find any modern Mac that handles REDCODE RAW native files as well as my tower does. iMac GPUs can stand up to mine, period.

Every GPU made in the last several years does hyperthreading.
 
The 27" with the 680MX is having some issues with Final Cut X. It supposedly has to do with just that particular card. The 675MX seems to be fine. Still developing, but no fix yet and it is a widespread, repeatable issue with the machines.
 
From the Apple website:
[h=2]Core i5 and Core i7 processors.[/h]The third-generation quad-core Intel Core i5 processor — built on the latest Ivy Bridge architecture — is standard on the new iMac. It’s available at a clock speed of up to 3.2GHz. Or configure iMac with a quad-core Intel Core i7 at up to 3.4GHz. Since OS X is designed to take advantage of each core, iMac captures every bit of performance from the processor. OS X also supports Hyper-Threading in the Core i7, allowing two threads to run simultaneously on each core — giving you eight virtual cores of processing power.
 
dustylense said:
My I7 Imac SMOKES my 12 core MacPro. End of story!
Click to expand...

I hear people say things like this and I still have a hard time believing it. Would love to see benchmarks done in FCPX. Same sequence, same export settings, timed, etc. I would be interested...

What's this 680MX issue I'm reading about?
 
I have worked with native REDCODE RAW on an Early 2008 Mac Pro, internal drives, 16GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB.
I've tried this same REDCODE media on a brand new i7 iMac.
My Mac Pro handles the media much, much better than the iMac.
When OS X 10.8.3 is released and I upgrade to the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950, it will be even more powerful. iMac GPU's simply are not there.
Although T'bolt drives are an advantage and help general performance quite a bit over SATA drives.
The new Mac Pros coming out later this year with possible SSD's and T'bolt connections will be very refreshing.
 
BenB said:
I have worked with native REDCODE RAW on an Early 2008 Mac Pro, internal drives, 16GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB.
I've tried this same REDCODE media on a brand new i7 iMac.
My Mac Pro handles the media much, much better than the iMac.
When OS X 10.8.3 is released and I upgrade to the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950, it will be even more powerful. iMac GPU's simply are not there.
Although T'bolt drives are an advantage and help general performance quite a bit over SATA drives.
The new Mac Pros coming out later this year with possible SSD's and T'bolt connections will be very refreshing.
Click to expand...

I still don't see anything where you admit you were wrong about the I5 hyper threading.
And to add to that, not everyone edits REDCODE.
 
KyleProhaska said:
What's this 680MX issue I'm reading about?
Click to expand...

Theres a thread over on the Apple forums about FCP X freezing up regularly on the iMacs with the 680MX. Link below, but the gist of the 24 pages is that FCPX doesn't react well to rendering titles, forcing restarts and the like. It seems to be more than a isolated problem, with consistent findings even when testing the machines within Apple stores! Supposedly techs are working on a fix, but per usual, no ETA or real information on the matter.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4707372?start=0&tstart=30

A shame, as I've been planning on upgrading since December, but would certainly like everything to work as expected. The 1GB card is reported as working fine...but it's still not a 2GB...
 
I'd like to expand the question a bit...Looking at the 15' MBP to use as a main edit station (clamshell) but also to travel for on-site edits too. I would love some suggestions on model, set-up, raids, ram and drives etc...Budget isnt really an issue.
Just looking for a rocket ship!...TY
 
Yeah the top line 15" rMBP is what I'm using right now:

2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage

If you have the budget for that system, it works great with X. Doesn't feel like a mobile experience at all- but pretty much desktop level performance.

-Noah
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top