Please help me Choose an 2017 Imac 27" for Final Cut Pro X

[Magus90]

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the Imac world and FCP in general. I want to do some video editing for my youtube channel and i coming from premiere pro and a custom built PC i made with pretty high specs. SSD, I7, 32gb ram, GTX 1050 ti, etc.......

I am trying to find out what specs i should be going for if i am doing 1080P 60 FPS editing for youtube videos in FCP. I don't think i will be doing 4K but it couldn't hurt to have the option.

I have the following Imac brand new sitting here.

I5
256 SSD
570 4gb GPU
16GB Ram

But i can't help but wonder if this won't be enough for my needs and i should spend the extra $200 for the upgraded I5 and 575 GPU. Or $400 for the I7 and 575 GPU?

Or should i just keep what i have because it is more than enough for my needs? I just am used to the power hungry Premiere Pro and custom built Windows PC's.

Thanks so much in advance

 

[Nyy8]

What i7 is in the custom built PC? 6700k, 7700k?

 

[Magus90]

What i7 is in the custom built PC? 6700k, 7700k?

It was a 6700k overclocked. It was a nice setup. But i hate premiere and really enjoy FCP from what i used, so i wanted to make the switch. But i have no idea on Mac specs and how they perform.

 

[velocityg4]

It really depends on how much video editing you do. If you have it already. Why not try to edit some videos and see if it is fast enough.

The $200 i5 and Radeon 575 won't make much difference. i5 3.4 to i5 3.5 isn't even worth mentioning. Radeon Pro 570 to 575 is substantial. You are likely to get around a 25% boost in GPU related tasks.

As for the i7 option. It is $500. But an i7 and the Radeon 575 should make a noticeable difference. As you'll get good gains in CPU bound and GPU bound tasks.

Although, depending on your workload. That $500 may be better spent on a 32GB (2x16GB) RAM kit, 500GB Samsung T5 USB 3.1 Gen 2 SSD and 4TB USB HDD.

 

[Magus90]

It would only be a few videos per week. Nothing crazy. I run a retro gaming channel, so it is just 1080p videos of both gameplay and some live action stuff. So no 4k or anything intense, and probably no crazy effects.

I think my machine will probably be totally fine for my needs. My other custom built PC was for gaming mainly and the video editing capabilities were just a plus for my channel.

Thanks for the input!

 

[joema2]

...I am new to the Imac world and FCP in general. I want to do some video editing for my youtube channel and i coming from premiere pro and a custom built PC i made with pretty high specs. SSD, I7, 32gb ram, GTX 1050 ti, etc....I am trying to find out what specs i should be going for if i am doing 1080P 60 FPS editing for youtube videos in FCP. I don't think i will be doing 4K but it couldn't hurt to have the option....

I used Premiere for years and still have a subscription to Premiere CC, although I mostly use FCPX. FCPX is far more efficient than Premiere at H264 editing and especially at rendering and exporting. The machine you stated is OK for 1080p/60 content -- in FCPX.

For 4K H264, virtually no machine is fast enough -- that is an entirely different world. With 4k H264 you must generally transcode to proxy files to obtain smooth editing performance -- on any machine. FCPX has had well-integrated proxy capability for years; Premiere just added this recently.

While your machine is OK for 1080p/60, you must budget your storage needs also. You will need eventually need external storage and a separate drive besides that for backup. Fortunately macOS has a great built-in backup program called Time Machine. It is vastly superior to any stock backup program on Windows and better than many of the paid Windows backup utilities. However it does require a dedicated hard drive.

Even though your stated machine is OK (and likely faster than anything you ever experienced with Premiere on Windows), the general trend is for software to require ever more GPU resources. And despite the GPU required for effects, most editing operations are CPU-limited not GPU-limited. In the US, the 4.2Ghz i7 is a $300 upgrade from the 3.5Ghz i5. That is a 20% performance increase from clock speed alone, not including hyperthreading.

With Thunderbolt 2/3 and USB 3 you can always improve storage later. You cannot improve CPU or GPU performance later. One approach is don't over-think this. The machine you described will do very well in FCPX. OTOH you can probably stretch the useful life of the machine by bumping up the CPU and GPU.

 

[Magus90]

I used Premiere for years and still have a subscription to Premiere CC, although I mostly use FCPX. FCPX is far more efficient than Premiere at H264 editing and especially at rendering and exporting. The machine you stated is OK for 1080p/60 content -- in FCPX.

For 4K H264, virtually no machine is fast enough -- that is an entirely different world. With 4k H264 you must generally transcode to proxy files to obtain smooth editing performance -- on any machine. FCPX has had well-integrated proxy capability for years; Premiere just added this recently.

While your machine is OK for 1080p/60, you must budget your storage needs also. You will need eventually need external storage and a separate drive besides that for backup. Fortunately macOS has a great built-in backup program called Time Machine. It is vastly superior to any stock backup program on Windows and better than many of the paid Windows backup utilities. However it does require a dedicated hard drive.

Even though your stated machine is OK (and likely faster than anything you ever experienced with Premiere on Windows), the general trend is for software to require ever more GPU resources. And despite the GPU required for effects, most editing operations are CPU-limited not GPU-limited. In the US, the 4.2Ghz i7 is a $300 upgrade from the 3.5Ghz i5. That is a 20% performance increase from clock speed alone, not including hyperthreading.

With Thunderbolt 2/3 and USB 3 you can always improve storage later. You cannot improve CPU or GPU performance later. One approach is don't over-think this. The machine you described will do very well in FCPX. OTOH you can probably stretch the useful life of the machine by bumping up the CPU and GPU.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah for storage i have a bunch of external drives that i usually write to. The SSD would be for the OS and all my programs so they can run smoothly.

I can get the I7 and 575 4gb for $400 more than i spent. I just am wondering if that money is worth it for what i use it for. Only a few videos a week for a youtube channel. I have a habit of over buying, so i wanted to be sure.

 

[Prizm4]

For what it's worth, I had a video editing PC with an i5 and later upgraded to an i7. Premiere Pro was a little faster with rendering (5-10% max?), but that was about the only difference I noticed. A number of people have commented on the iMac i7 heating up fast and causing the fan to rev up with a less-than-heavy load. So personally I'll be looking at an i5 version for video editing and general usage (looking to pull the trigger soon).

If the iMac that you have came with Apple's own 16GB RAM, I would drop down to 8GB and buy your own RAM to install for half the price of Apple's RAM. You can put the savings towards another component.
256GB SSD would be enough for core programs and a couple AAA games. Just put photos, videos and movies on an external drive. And of course if you ever want to wipe the iMac and do a factory restore you don't have to waste time backing up your personal data since it's all on an external drive. Although 512GB gives you extra breathing room... that would likely give you enough space to do a dual boot with Windows if you play Windows games.

Upgrading the GPU is a great idea, I'd prioritize that over the CPU.

 

[joema2]

...A number of people have commented on the iMac i7 heating up fast and causing the fan to rev up with a less-than-heavy load. So personally I'll be looking at an i5 version for video editing and general usage (looking to pull the trigger soon)....

I'm not sure anyone has said the iMac i7 rapidly gets hot and loud on a less-than-heavy CPU load. However if under sustained multicore high CPU stress, *any* iMac i7 since 2012 through 2017 will get hot and the fan will spin up, eventually getting pretty loud.

Each editing software package uses the underlying macOS and hardware differently. Premiere CC for example does not use Quick Sync on Mac, so just scrubbing a 4k H264 timeline will peg all CPU cores and cause the fans to spin up. FCPX uses the hardware more efficiently so scrubbing the same timeline doesn't peg the CPU yet gives smoother performance.

I have Premiere CC but don't use it that much anymore. If I did and I was sensitive to noise I might get a 2017 iMac 27 with 3.8Ghz i5 and the top-spec GPU. However anyone using Premiere has the option of a Windows machine so there are a lot more options there.

 

[gian8989]

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the Imac world and FCP in general. I want to do some video editing for my youtube channel and i coming from premiere pro and a custom built PC i made with pretty high specs. SSD, I7, 32gb ram, GTX 1050 ti, etc.......

I am trying to find out what specs i should be going for if i am doing 1080P 60 FPS editing for youtube videos in FCP. I don't think i will be doing 4K but it couldn't hurt to have the option.

I have the following Imac brand new sitting here.

I5
256 SSD
570 4gb GPU
16GB Ram

But i can't help but wonder if this won't be enough for my needs and i should spend the extra $200 for the upgraded I5 and 575 GPU. Or $400 for the I7 and 575 GPU?

Or should i just keep what i have because it is more than enough for my needs? I just am used to the power hungry Premiere Pro and custom built Windows PC's.

Thanks so much in advance

Before changing to iMac why don't you try DaVinci Resolve?

 

[Daniel Reed]

In my oppinion Apple often tacks in most of their margin in the base model. And upgraded BTO versions often have minimal margins over fixed costs.

If you are not technician savy, then always buy the maxed out specs for a mac and minimum memory (unless memory is sodered and not upgradable)

If you have experience working on appliances AND PCs, then also get the cheapest CPU and upgrade it yourself. Macs are not PCs, frankly, their internal board layouts are often a bit of art in and of themselves (not always).

To get peak performance one often needs to replace the thermal paste on the cpu/gpu anyways, so upgrading the CPU is often a no brainer. Check iFixit teardowns for your specific model.


GPU is often tricky to upgrade, but when doable it often costs more then upgrading in the first place at time of purchase, so whatever you do, get the maxed GPU.

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the Imac world and FCP in general. I want to do some video editing for my youtube channel and i coming from premiere pro and a custom built PC i made with pretty high specs. SSD, I7, 32gb ram, GTX 1050 ti, etc.......

I am trying to find out what specs i should be going for if i am doing 1080P 60 FPS editing for youtube videos in FCP. I don't think i will be doing 4K but it couldn't hurt to have the option.

I have the following Imac brand new sitting here.

I5
256 SSD
570 4gb GPU
16GB Ram

But i can't help but wonder if this won't be enough for my needs and i should spend the extra $200 for the upgraded I5 and 575 GPU. Or $400 for the I7 and 575 GPU?

Or should i just keep what i have because it is more than enough for my needs? I just am used to the power hungry Premiere Pro and custom built Windows PC's.

Thanks so much in advance

 

[joema2]

Before changing to iMac why don't you try DaVinci Resolve?

He already *has* the iMac; he won't be changing to one. If you mean exchanging his iMac for a more powerful configuration, he probably won't get any better performance than FCPX with DaVinci, but it was improved a lot in version 14 so I suppose that's possible.

DaVinci Resolve is great but he already has FCPX which is well-suited for rapidly skimming content and editing Youtube videos. Obviously for more elaborate color correction Resolve would be better, or he could use an FCPX plugin like Color Finale or CoreMelt's Chromatic: https://coremelt.com/products/chromatic

 

[Daniel Reed]

Before changing to iMac why don't you try DaVinci Resolve?

FpcX is often twice as fast and frankly Resolve is a buggy mess. I'm currently forced to use fpcX because nothing compares to how fast it is. FCPX is able to actually use 96-98% of 24 threads when rendering 6-8K video. No other NLE can even compare to how efficient and fast fcpx is...

BTW, I hate FPCX, its a horrible pain in the butt to use for narrative film editing. But like in said, no choice. Once bigger core CPUs are availible, such as the 18-core (i)Mac Pro, and the 2020 new new mac pro are out, I will instantly go back to Avid.

 

[gian8989]

FpcX is often twice as fast and frankly Resolve is a buggy mess. I'm currently forced to use fpcX because nothing compares to how fast it is. FCPX is able to actually use 96-98% of 24 threads when rendering 6-8K video. No other NLE can even compare to how efficient and fast fcpx is...

BTW, I hate FPCX, its a horrible pain in the butt to use for narrative film editing. But like in said, no choice. Once bigger core CPUs are availible, such as the 18-core (i)Mac Pro, and the 2020 new new mac pro are out, I will instantly go back to Avid.

I am not sure how it is in windows but in MacOS DaVinci last release is almost on par with fcpx.

You can try to look at this two videos:
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[doublepost=1505260894][/doublepost]

He already *has* the iMac; he won't be changing to one. If you mean exchanging his iMac for a more powerful configuration, he probably won't get any better performance than FCPX with DaVinci, but it was improved a lot in version 14 so I suppose that's possible.

DaVinci Resolve is great but he already has FCPX which is well-suited for rapidly skimming content and editing Youtube videos. Obviously for more elaborate color correction Resolve would be better, or he could use an FCPX plugin like Color Finale or CoreMelt's Chromatic: https://coremelt.com/products/chromatic

ah lol. Just notice. I thought that was the configuration he was going to buy

 

[Prizm4]

The Titler in Resolve (PC) hasn't been updated in years, I find it clunky and buggy.

BTW, I hate FPCX, its a horrible pain in the butt to use for narrative film editing.

What do you find awkward about it? My videos are primarily voiceover driven. I haven't used FCP for any projects yet.

 

[mBox]

The Titler in Resolve (PC) hasn't been updated in years, I find it clunky and buggy.



What do you find awkward about it? My videos are primarily voiceover driven. I haven't used FCP for any projects yet.

True about Resolve and again it's a great color/finishing tool and maybe close to an NLE but IMHO the big three is still miles ahead but maybe not for long.
You're going to find that asking this question is a loaded one.
People are passionate about what they use as far as NLEs go.
From my experience, this was the case with computers/os, 3D software, and desktop publishing.
I use all three (Avid, Premiere, FCPX/FCP7) and they all their ups and down.
Why do I use all three... I deal with numerous projects and help with finishing and sometimes even work on set prior. With my job, I have to hold newbies/directors/editors/producers that think they can edit so yeah you need to be on the ball with their choices.
For us Apple users we really don't have much of a choice but that's a good thing.
I spent a month trying to piece together a mid-power Maya workstation due to pricing and availability issues.
Thus explains why I can walk into a mall and buy a powerful Mac anytime (well unless its BTO).
For my personal taste, I use a nMP for everything (except 3D).
I instruct at a local college (on the side) and both Premiere and FCPX run fine on the older 2015 iMacs.
I think you will be fine unless you're planning on color grading 1:1 5K and up files

 

[joema2]

I am not sure how it is in windows but in MacOS DaVinci last release is almost on par with fcpx...

That is correct from the standpoint of playback and render performance. DaVinci Resolve 14 has been hugely improved and seems competitive with FCPX on Mac hardware in several areas, although I haven't tested this myself.

However the OP will only editing a few 1080p videos per week for Youtube. No 4k and probably not lots of effects.

This entire line of discussion began because the OP questioned whether his new i5 iMac running FCPX would be fast enough for this, and whether he needed to return it for a more powerful iMac. The question was raised whether Resolve 14 would be fast enough to avoid needing faster hardware.

The answer is no -- FCPX on a 2017 i5 iMac 27 is plenty fast enough to edit H264 1080p videos without transcoding or any special measures. The OP doesn't need a faster machine or Resolve 14 or anything else.

However for anyone not already using FCPX, DaVinci Resolve is free, very powerful, and as of ver. 14, very fast. OTOH it is a complex professional product and the manual is 1,000 pages long.