Question Regarding Graphics Card

[Edward Robinson]

Hello; I am very new to this site and I am very interesting in capturing video and doing post production. I have no experience nor equipment but I think that this is the career for me. But any way I will be purchasing my equipment in the next few months but I want to know how important is a Graphics Card in doing video editing. I'm on a budget but I don't want to start off with very cheap equipment so I was going to get a MAC G5 Quad but the difference in price between 1 with the Quadro FX 4500 and the one without which is the GEforce i forget what verison is 1800.00. Is it really worth the additional price to go with the better graphics card or can i get by with the lower end one once I get my money up. If it is any help I was going to with the Sony Z1U HD camcorder ( I found one brand new for 2500.00) and Final Cut Studio
and the latest ver of procoder and i will use 2 17'' flat screens as a screen display. Any help would be greatly appreciated along with any advice on how to learn how to shoot,edit,ect. I'm as raw as can be but very eager and willing to learn. I am also interested in using this equipment to become a wedding videographer

[Boyd Ostroff]

I don't think the graphics card itself will make much difference on the G5 when using Final Cut Pro. However if you plan to use Apple Motion then graphics card performance is very important.

Also realize that the RAM on the graphics card will be split between both monitors if you have two. So in other words, a card with 128MB of RAM will allocate 64MB to each screen. Again, this won't be a big deal in FCP but it would matter for Motion.

OTOH, if you plan to keep this machine for a few years then it is never a bad idea to get the best you can afford...

[Edward Robinson]

Thanks for that information. I might just buy the graphics card later, then again i don't know. I have to see what i can do with motion

[Boyd Ostroff]

FWIW, I have a dual 2.5ghz G5 with the Radeon 9600 XT card with 128MB VRAM. Sometimes I use this card with 2 monitors. No problems whatsoever in FCP. I used Motion a lot for a standard definition PAL project last summer and didn't have any complaints. When using 2 monitors I think performance was a little worse, but still acceptable for me.

This was version 1 of Motion however, not sure what may have changed in the current version. If you read the Motion forum on Apple's website you'll find lots of discussion on this topic. Others report that faster cards with more RAM make Motion more responsive, especially with complex projects. You'll find the Apple Motion support forum here: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=656

Good luck with the new machine, let us know how it works out!

[Edward Robinson]

Thanks Boyd I went to the apple site and it gave all the information that i needed. Thanks again for all your help. As someone who is planning on going into videography or anything that has to do with filmmaking this is the best site a person could find. Other sites are really waterdown and don't really provide clear and concise information

[Chris Hurd]

Thanks Edward, we try to stay focused and on-topic around here. Much appreciated,