Overwhelmed by Graphics Card Options, Editing in Final Cut Pro X

[joechiazza]

I am building my first Hackintosh in a few weeks. I have most of the components picked out already but I'm a little stuck on what videocard I actually need. I will not be playing games ever. I am using this system for Video editing in Final Cut Pro X and some After Effects. I've read that ATI cards are better for FCPX but Nvidia are basically better for everything else. Budget for graphics card is $200, unless you feel there would be a huge performance boost in something around $300.

(Mobo) GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with Dual Thunderbolt
(RAM) CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M2A1600C10
(CPU) Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
(Cooler) CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Water Cooler
(Power) CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Semi Modular High Performance ...
(Case) Corsair Carbide Series 500R Black Steel structure with molded ABS plastic accent pieces ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
(Media Drive) Seagate Barracuda STBD3000100 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Kit -Retail kit
(MainSSD) SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
(Videocard that I kind of like...) GIGABYTE GV-N65TBOC-2GD GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

Oh I also need a firewire card...But I figure that wouldn't be much of a deal to find.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Does this look like a solid build? My newegg cart is $1,456...I would like to keep it sub $1500...

Thanks! Really excited to be part of the community!

Joe.

 

[thewisemac]

I'm in the same boat. I'm also on the fence for 1155 or 2011. I do a lot of multicam editing and need more power than my 2.5 ghz i7 16gb dual ssd mbp 17 inch. Would a hexa core cpu crunch FCPX more than a fast GPU?

 

[joechiazza]

From what I have read, the Hexacore does do great on Cinemark benchmark tests. I think you may need more juice if your doing RAW on a Red Epic or Blackmagic but I think a Quad core is fine. I went with the Gigabyte GTX650 TI Boost. I read that 10.8.3 natively supports it. I think that is what my biggest concern is at this point, getting the most native hardware that I can.

Good luck!

Joe.

 

[Nathan991]

You will have better performance with a better GPU, however the Hexa core works amazingly with FCPX and works well for raw video footage.