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So do I really need the Nvidia 8800GS?

D

darkshine

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
12
0
Sydney, Australia
Hey everyone.

I will be purchasing my iMac 24" this weekend from my local computer store as they are having a special $200 off all iMacs. As I'm not built of money, I'm just wondering if I really need to fork out an extra $220 for the 8800GS or spend it on 4G of Kingston Ram instead.

I will be doing video editing, a small amount of gaming and other tasks like browsing/music etc. I will be editing footage from a Canon HV30, creating mini-series, short films, parodies and so fourth. I will be using Final Cut Express for now, and Final Cut Pro later on.

The iMac really needs to last me a good 3 years at the minimum.
So the question is, will I really need the 8800GS? or will the 2600 pro be good enough? Because I could really save the money.

Thanks in advanced everyone,
Cheers
Daniel
 
I'd rather get the ram, since the graphics chip won't affect you that much, as you won't be dong "heavy" graphics like hard core gaming and etc. Heck, I use the Intel GMA X3100 with FCE and it's fine... fans start blowing when I export and encode the movie, but just a little warm when editing.

For your purposes, the 2600 Pro from ATI is more than enough... the 8800 GS is simply overkill. Save the extra cash and upgrade the ram, which is more essential than a graphics card upgrade for performance.
 
The ATI card is more than enough for HDV or AIC, but as others have said, you can always upgrade the RAM. You're stuck with the graphics card.
 
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