Is M3 iMac enough for video editing?

[HootOwl]

I have a new iMac M3 (8cCPU/10cGPU/16gbRAM) running FCPX and it performs flawlessly. Most of my videos are 1080p and the iMac runs through them like a hot knife through butter. Interestingly...the iMac renders video through Uniconverter TWICE as fast as my Mac Studio M1 Max.

I bought the iMac as a backup. I'm an online trainer and needed something I could fall back on if the Mac Studio ever takes a day off.

 

[signuphere]

HootOwl, what size is the SSD?

 

[HootOwl]

HootOwl, what size is the SSD?

512gb. BTW, I bought it refurbished directly from Apple.

 

[signuphere]

I see. The reason I asked is because I made a dumb mistake and bought mine w/ 256 SSD (specs in sig), which grinds my gears even though I'm just a basic user and don't do video editing.

 

[Onimusha370]

M3 should breeze through that probably worth going to 16gb ram to ensure things stay smooth - could even go to 24gb if you want to futureproof and can afford it

 

[dandeco]

M3 should breeze through that probably worth going to 16gb ram to ensure things stay smooth - could even go to 24gb if you want to futureproof and can afford it

Exactly; this is why when I ordered my M1 MacBook Air three years ago, I configured it with 16 GB of RAM, since I figured I'd do quite a bit of video editing on it (and among seeing how quickly it renders video projects, it's become my main computer for editing video with!)

 

[SkweeBop]

I moved up to an M1 mini (16Gb ram) in 2021 from an intel machine. I couldn't believe how quickly video editing was going. It's still fast (Final Cut Pro and the occasional iMovie for quick and dirty editing). I can only imagine an M3 would be screaming.