Intel Core Duo, or 2 Quad cores (Mac Pro)?

Question

Level 1

12 points

Intel Core Duo, or 2 Quad cores (Mac Pro)?

While I like the idea of a portable Mac, I want to know if there will be a big difference between the rendering ability of a Quad Core system (Mac Pro) and a Duo core system (Macbook Pro). I went into an Apple store today & opened up Final Cut Pro on a display Macbook Pro 2.4 GHz w/2 Gigs RAM. I applied an obnoxious number of filters to see how long it would take to render & it basically shut the application down ("Final Cut Pro not responding"). So really, before I invest 2 or 3 thousand dollars, I'd like to know if going with the desktop unit will be worth it - will the 2 quad cores mean that FCP will render layers of filters easily that slow down or grind to a standstill on the Macbook Pro I tried?

G4 733 MHz, Mac OS X (10.3.x), 1.5 GB SDRAM

Posted on Feb 21, 2009 7:09 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Feb 21, 2009 7:13 PM in response to Eric ESAD

The MacPro is miles faster than the MacBookPro.

x

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 22, 2009 12:35 AM in response to Eric ESAD

MAC PRO 8core: Simply, if you have a business and/or workflow need and you need to render and transcode with more resources and you can afford it and you have HBA's and other peripherals and you have a large SCREEN and so on then go buy one.

the iMAC is fien for home usage and renders and transcodes well. Rumours of a new 1uad core continue to circulate.

Rumours of an update have been circulating for ages for the MACPRO for 2009. IF you wanna wait then do that. If you want to go first and you have HBAs and sowfatre that you wanna try out before most then as usual wait, else as above go buy one.

If you need one go get one.. an 8core (2 x quad core) . THEse work great.

budget constrained as alternative to MACPRO then consider:
• iMAC (also new rumoured) + new rumoured MAC mini and use QMASTER over a GbE hub for compressor.app, maya, shake etc... (not implemented for FCP in single user mode yet in FCSuite 2)
w

Reply