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iMac or Mac Pro for video editing?

VirtualRain said:
LOL... We do a lot of creative work (artwork and video) both in-house and with several contract shops, and neither us nor any of them use Mac Pros. All the creative professionals I've seen use MacBook Pros.
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I totally believe you, I also believe the new Mac Pro and new iMacs have tons of power, that is why I am looking into an older Mac Pro. From what research I've gathered, even the 2009 8 core would be better than my MBP. I just like the ability to have internal drives and having the ability to use a better graphics card than mobile one.
 
VirtualRain said:
LOL... We do a lot of creative work (artwork and video) both in-house and with several contract shops, and neither us nor any of them use Mac Pros. All the creative professionals I've seen use MacBook Pros.
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Too funny - check your sig!

(And for the record, I didn't say MPs were the only choice, rather, just a better one as compared to a glued-up iMac.)
 
tjgonzo said:
I totally believe you, I also believe the new Mac Pro and new iMacs have tons of power, that is why I am looking into an older Mac Pro. From what research I've gathered, even the 2009 8 core would be better than my MBP. I just like the ability to have internal drives and having the ability to use a better graphics card than mobile one.
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Yeah, no doubt. However, you give up portability (which may not appear on your list of requirements).

Santabean2000 said:
Too funny - check your sig!

(And for the record, I didn't say MPs were the only choice, rather, just a better one as compared to a glued-up iMac.)
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Yeah, I get it. There's no doubt a Mac Pro may be better for video editing, but video editing just isn't taxing for a modern computer like it use to be. I wasn't kidding when I said earlier you can do 1080p video editing on an iPhone.

In my experience, RAW photo editing seems more taxing on my system than HD video editing, but I've never really done any comparisons.

BTW, the Mac Pro is my home computer and I selected it because I'm a geek that likes to tinker with computers (which also explains why I hang out here). I work all day on the rMBP and wouldn't trade it's portability for anything which is why all my colleagues and our contractors use laptops as well.
 
For light to medium video editing the iMac can do the job. If the task is for heavy editing for long hours, I would go for the Mac Pro plus it has the edge in internal storage.
 
Macsonic said:
For light to medium video editing the iMac can do the job. If the task is for heavy editing for long hours, I would go for the Mac Pro plus it has the edge in internal storage.
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Plus the new Version of FCP X is being developed to take advantage of the new Mac Pro's internals, more cores for CPU, and GPU.
Which means current 6core and higher model Mac Pros will get a nice boost hopefully, along with the fact that you can add in a better graphics card.

MacVidCards has already shown that if you flash a current 7xxx card it'll show up as a Firepro in Mavericks, and I'm sure OpenCL performance has been improved as well for the new FCP to take more advantage of the GPU, and Multi GPU's.
 
VirtualRain said:
Unless you're doing a lot of really fancy effects, that's not true. I can edit HD video just fine on my 5 year old 4,1 Mac Pro (~9000 Geekbench)... which is significantly slower than today's Mac Mini (~12000 Geekbench).

HD video editing was maybe a stressful workload for computers 7-8 years ago, but now I can do it on my iPhone.
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Last year, i bought a core i7 2.6 mini with 16 gb ram because of the high geekbench. I tried using fcp x with it, but applying any filters to 1080 video was painful. The fans crank up. The processor throttles back, and you wait, hoping it doesn't crash. I'm sure it works great for cropping and splicing, but effects, etc will shut a mini down.

For what it's worth, geekbench does not test video card function. I'll bet your 5 yr old Pro would run circles around a mini.
 
pertusis1 said:
Last year, i bought a core i7 2.6 mini with 16 gb ram because of the high geekbench. I tried using fcp x with it, but applying any filters to 1080 video was painful. The fans crank up. The processor throttles back, and you wait, hoping it doesn't crash. I'm sure it works great for cropping and splicing, but effects, etc will shut a mini down.

For what it's worth, geekbench does not test video card function. I'll bet your 5 yr old Pro would run circles around a mini.
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I see. My 5 yr old Pro only has GT120 graphics so I don't think it would be great with filters and effects either.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
Plus the new Version of FCP X is being developed to take advantage of the new Mac Pro's internals, more cores for CPU, and GPU.
Which means current 6core and higher model Mac Pros will get a nice boost hopefully, along with the fact that you can add in a better graphics card.

MacVidCards has already shown that if you flash a current 7xxx card it'll show up as a Firepro in Mavericks, and I'm sure OpenCL performance has been improved as well for the new FCP to take more advantage of the GPU, and Multi GPU's.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the handy tips and heads up. Didn't know that FCP can benefit with more cores as I know. Still saving up for MacVidCards Nviidia 770 :)
 
whatever you decide, in a couple days apple will announce new mac pro, old ones prices will go down, and reconditioned even more so.

Here is a table of all Mac geekbench scores. You can search their site for the model(s) that interest you for reviews and further app test scores. ...Note in particular that the Macs w/"Fusion drive" or SSD have the highest scores. Putting SSDs in some models of Mac Pro, I think, will give you the best results. (Mac Pros tested on this chart do not have "Fusion"/SSDs, this is a BTO only option.). http://www.macworld.com/article/2013458/measure-mac-performance-with-speedmark-8.html ...and I'm not one to push brands much, but, OWC is a terrific source for quality, reliable Mac expansion, at lower than Apple prices, best warranty (w/their own brands) and customer service is within U.S. (They have SSDs). In my experience, they are second only to Apple. You can spend less, but, won't get this.

Also, if you expect to keep this new mac for more than a year or two, I highly recommend getting AppleCare. My last tower crapped out at about 2 years, $800 minimum to fix (5 yrs ago), would have been free w/AppleCare.
 
It depends

For "heavy" video editing my vote is the mac pro. If you can hold out for the 6.1 you will have a beast for sure. If you need the advantages of an old school enclosure, snag a 5.1 but there will be trade offs. ( ie no thunder bolt and all that jazz) I am on a really tight budget and my 3.1 8 core chews through work pretty hard core.
 

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