Looking for a New Mac for Video Work

September 21, 2007 7:07 AM

Thinking about buying an iMac. I'm looking at the 24inch model with 2.8 MHz processor. I plan on doing some Final Cut and After Effects work, nothing insane like HD or heavy graphics. Will this computer serve my needs?

Currently I have an early model G5 with 2.0Mhz and 2.5 Gig of RAM. I'm wondering of the dual Core IMac will at least put me in the same playing field. Granted, I realize the Mac Pro is of course better for these applications but daddy ain't got the dough.

Anyone have insight on this or use an IMac with these apps?

posted by captainscared to technology (6 comments total)

Yes the iMac will be sufficient. That said, so is your G5. I want to replace my G4 laptop and desktop, but the fact is I am able to do exactly the work you describe without too much hassle, so I've been unable to justify the purchase.
posted by mzurer at 7:27 AM on September 21, 2007

Captain has it. The new one's faster and plain nicer (and it comes with a keyboard that is surely one of the most elegant input devices ever made, its sometimes-frustrating elisions notwithstanding).
posted by waxbanks at 7:57 AM on September 21, 2007

I am a production artist, and I work on a 2.0 GHz iMac with 1 gig of RAM. Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Distiller, plus supporting things like Suitcase, Safari, Entourage and more are all running all day long, and the computer never skips a beat.

The new Intel Macs are flat-out screamers (I'm typing on my wife's MacBook right now, and with the 1.83 Ghz Core Duo and less RAM, it runs circles around my work desktop.) A 2.8 GHz quad-core processor should be just fine for what you're doing. Remember that it was just a couple of years ago that the dual core G5 was doing a lot of heavy lifting in video production.
posted by azpenguin at 10:03 AM on September 21, 2007

It will be more than enough for your needs. I was doing equivalent "heavy lifting" on a 450Mhz G4 Cube just five years ago. Wow, how time flies.

I upgraded from a 1.8Ghz G5 iMac to a 2Ghz Core Duo iMac, and it "feels" at least twice as fast. The current Core2Duo-based models will be even nicer, as its a better CPU and more L2 cache.
posted by mrbill at 1:15 PM on September 21, 2007

A 2.8 GHz quad-core processor should be just fine for what you're doing. Remember that it was just a couple of years ago that the dual core G5 was doing a lot of heavy lifting in video production

Just FYI, the 2.8ghz iMac is not a quad core machine. It's a dual core 2.6ghz intel X7800 "Core 2 Extreme" processor overclocked to 2.8ghz. This is still a fast processor, but is not quad core.
posted by neustile at 1:56 PM on September 21, 2007

The iMac should be fine, but you may want to test drive a Mac Pro and compare, depending on how much you like Apple displays.

overclocked to 2.8ghz

overclocking is when a processor is set to a faster speed than the manufacturer's specifications. Apple isn't taking Intel chips and manually souping them up. (But yes, the difference between a 2.6ghz and a 2.8ghz chip is sometimes only a setting the manufacturer applies AFTER the chips have been baked)

/pedant
posted by onalark at 2:59 PM on September 21, 2007