Best Mac for Running Final Cut Studio

Just about any new MAC will run Final Cut Studio.  However, if you plan on doing a lot of work with Apple Motion, it is important to take a careful look at the graphics capability of the computer.  This is particularly important if you are purchasing a Mac Book Pro or an iMac.
 
If you have the budget to purchase a Mac Pro (desktop), then read no further, because its graphic capabilities are fine for most hard core graphic designers.  You can even add upgrade your Mac Pro to the ultimate graphics card which is currently the Nvidia Quadro FX 4800.

Okay, for the budget minded, I recommend a 24 inch iMac or Mac Book Pro.  For most editing scenarios the low-end models will work just fine.  However, I must say, go for the 27 inch screen over the 21.5 inch screen.  The real-estate in terms of screen size is a must have for a proficient video editor. The 27 inch iMac has a native screen resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels .  Now that's awesome! 

On the Mac Book Pro side of things, I have mixed feelings, because of the portability factor.  I travel quite a bit, and the 17 inch Mac Book Pro doesn’t work so well on an airplane.  I dare you to try and open the 17 inch Mac Book Pro while sitting in coach.  Just pray the person in front of you doesn’t decide to recline the seat.  If so, crunch! There goes your LCD screen.

Now, depending where you go, you’ll hear different stories about what works, and what doesn’t work.  I can tell you, as of today, that ALL the new iMacs and Mac Book Pro’s will work with Final Cut Studio.  You may hear stories, that if you do not buy the more expensive iMac, that Final Cut Studio will not work, or will not install.  It’s simply not true.

Now, to be fair, there is some fine print on Apple’s website for Final Cut Studio System Requirements that states ‘integrated Intel graphics processors not supported’. So what exactly does that mean?  Here’s my take.

Apple Motion is a motion graphics software product that is bundled with Final Cut Studio.  The performance of Apple Motion depends on the speed of the graphics card.  Depending on the model of  a Mac Book, Mac Book Pro. or iMac, it may have a graphics processor called the Geforce 9400M.  For most video editing scenarios, this is perfectly fine.

Apple chose The Nvidia 9400M Graphics processor to be a part of its hardware, because redefines the notebook architecture by combining a mainstream GPU, system memory controller, and system I/O into a single chip. For Apple computers this goes by the name of Geforce 9400M. The 9400M graphic’s processor allows for the smallest and most efficient Mac Book Pro ever.  However, there is one catch; The 9400M shares its processor memory with the main memory to process graphics.  This slows things down a bit when you’re doing complex tasks that require graphics memory.  You’ll see this item listed as ‘graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM’

The higher end 27" iMac processor models offer the ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics processor with 256MB or 512MB of GDDR3 memory. The key is to look for GDDR3 instead of DDR3.

In case you’re curious, DDR stands for: Double-Data-Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.  GDDR stands for Graphics Double Data Rate memory.
 
That being said, you can still run Final Cut Studio on any new Mac Book, iMac, or Mac Book Pro.  It just depends on how much you plan on using Apple Motion. If you plan on building complex scenes with Apple Motion, then you should really consider purchasing the new 27 inch Quad Core iMac.  Or, for the ulimate configuration, go for a Mac Pro desktop which allows more expansion.