Is my iMac capable of running FCPx?

Apple's printed spec concerning how much RAM any particular computer can use should never be trusted. It is very common to be able to add more RAM than Apple says and to do so with no problem at all. The best thing to do is check around for real world experiences like this.

While the OP's video card and current computer may work fine for him by using it on very limited projects I would entirely understand Apple not listing it as supported. Many or most people would find very quickly that iMac was insufficient for a lot of video work. BTW...it doesn't matter much what you shoot with..GoPro or whatever...because ultimately people with a marginal machine will choose to transcode to ProRes or use Proxy.

I forgot to mention, many of my videos have as much as 67 bible text or quotes, overlaid with a moving back ground, with cross dissolve, while the speaker quotes the text.

I produce about 300 DVDs a year for distribution.

I agree with those who say it will run on your iMac. I have the same model with 6 gigs of RAM. I would recommend updating your OS to Mavericks. Since the 10.9.1 update, my iMac has gained a new lease on life. I tried the free trial of FCP X (I still use FCP 7, which is more analagous to the physical film editing I learned years ago) and found it ran well (since the still-useful ATI GPU isn't Open CL compliant, the CPU has to do all of the work, which slows things down a bit—it's funny, Apple offered a build-to-order Early 2008, with an NVIDIA card with 512MB VRAM—wish I'd bought that one, as it's compliant). My problem is having to relearn video editing, with what amounts to a completely new NLE. I like many of the new features: background rendering is a great improvement, e.g. I am now going over Apple's white paper, which explains the similarities and differences between 7 and X. In addition, I am reading the FCP X manual and taking copious notes. Once I feel I know enough about FCP X, I plan to drop the $300. Will probably buy new version of Compressor as well. Perhaps you can enlighten all of us users of "antiquated" Macs, how well that works on an early 2008 iMac. Meanwhile, I'm saving up my shekels for a new Mac. BTW—I upload much of my work to YouTube. If, like me, you've noticed that full-screen playback of their HD Flash versions looks choppy, try switching to their HTML5 player. Gives you full framerate. Thanks for bringing up this issue.

Sorry!

By the time I'd got to the end of your reply I'd forgotten you had tried the trial.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown