Do I need a Graphics Card for Final Cut Pro X?

[tmhudg]

Hello,

I'm considering trying this Hackintosh thing... I've done some searching in the forum but still a little unsure of whether the onboard graphics on the i5 3570K with GA-Q77M-D2H would be sufficient for running Final Cut Pro X. I actually don't have FCPX yet but I'm considering getting it with the money I would save on the Hack.

I don't do a lot of video editing - just occasional home vids from my GoPro, etc. I don't do any gaming or other taxing video stuff.

I have a couple of other questions on the build but I'll make separate threads for those.

Thanks in advance,

Tmhudg

 

[MechSoup]

Here is what Apple recommends:

• Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better.
• 2GB of RAM (4GB of RAM recommended).
• OpenCL-capable graphics card or
  Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later.
• 256MB of VRAM (512MB of VRAM recommended).

All your specs are better. So you are going to be able to run it, but just above the minimum requirements. Don't expect blazing fast, but it should be capable of doing what you want. A thing that might help would be an discrete GPU as this can help editing video footage. But you can add this later if you find that its too slow.

 

[tmhudg]

Thanks for the reply. Always tough with those minimums since they seem to be geared for getting the program to run but just barely. It wasn't clear to me how much more headroom the HD4000 graphics would give me. I should also mention that I would be getting 16GB RAM and an SSD boot/app disk so I would think those would help somewhat with the performance as well. Render/Scratch would be on 7200 RPM 1 TB HDD.

One of the drivers for trying to get away with *not* using a graphics card is I want the thing to be as quiet as possible. That's actually one of the things giving me pause on the whole build. My iMac is dead quiet and I'm concerned that case fans and coolers are going to, well, not be.

 

[MechSoup]

I wish I had personal experience with each, however here is what I came up with under with a Google search:

"I did read on the website that the Intel HD 4000 is 65% faster than the 3000. But the more filters and full HD tracks you're trying to composite or render at once, the more a dedicated GPU will help. So it sounds like if you're not doing anything too fancy, the mini should be great."
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4461837?start=0&tstart=0

Also:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html


So, it seems that HD 4000 will do the job for a majority of the things used in FCPX.

 

[tmhudg]

I agree, seems like it's a good bet.

Thanks for your help.

 

[asarath]

Hi,

I'm running FCX (trial) with a 3770 - which uses an hd 4000. No problems so far, though I haven't stretched it too much.

A