What are the i3 chips in the new iMac capable of handling?

[rmlred]

I'm thinking of buying a iMac and using it mainly for editing 2-3 minute promo videos for a promotion company.

So basically the iMacs main purpose would be running these programs 90% of the time:
Final Cut Express
Safari
iTunes
Preview

And these programs would be running rarely, but it does happen:
Skype
iChat
Microsoft Messenger
Photoshop

Will the i3 with 4GB of RAM work flawlessly and not lag, or do I need to upgrade it to the i5?

 

[AnimaLeo]

From what I've been told the CPU bump will get you 10% faster rendering speeds. So if you're rendering out a video on an i3 that will take 1 hour to do, if you have the i5 it will take 55 minuets. I don't really see the point in the upgrade. But then again, I won't be using the machine for work. Basically it might be worth it to you because time = money for you.

Edit:

I think what's more important is more RAM and a fast hard drive. So you might want to think about spending that money on buying more RAM instead of bumping up the CPU.

Buying the i5 'futureproofs' you a little bit. But I personally don't buy into all that. There will always be something better/faster coming out.

 

[Sun Baked]

Always Barefeats... to see where CPU/GPUs stack up against one another.

http://www.barefeats.com/imac10o.html

And the

button at the Apple store to see if you can stretch out the cash and grab the next CPU/GPU upgrade by going refurb.