FCP Imac VS Mac Mini GPUs

Hey everyone,

I'm searching for the right next mac purchase in light of predominantly using FCP and other general video editing progs..

I read the fcp.co review on the new imac, but currently i sit on the fence leaning towards the mac mini for practicality and future repairs or resale pros. The gpu is the only reason i'm still on the fence at all. It's all a bit new to me, so don't know and haven't yet found solid enough info as to what would suit my needs best.

The imac's Nvidia GeForce GTX 660m (or any of the GTX cards currently available as an apple upgrade) seems to rank far superior to the mac mini's Intel HD4000 (according to benchmarks i've seen), but then i've also read how the HD4000's performance is hugely reliant on what processor it's coupled with; and then i've also read how that fcp is big on ram, so the gpu isn't a major issue.

Can you help shed some light on these two in hope that i may understand what i need better. Apple's site requirements for FCP show both are useable, but the grip of it all which i hope you experienced fcp users can answer is - What does FCP fundamentally rely on? GPU, processor? Which GPU would be better and longer lasting?

ps - can the mac mini's gpu be replaced? if so, it'd be safe to say that'd be fantastic.

Cheers everyone.

Not even a close comparison IMHO give the GPU use in FX in FCPX which are Motion based and you can see how Motion fares.

barefeats.com/imac12p1.html
and
barefeats.com/imac12p2.html

If all you're do is simple cuts and dissolves and don't might slow background encodes for export than the Mini is serviceable.

If you even have a mild interest in FX filters or Motion the Mini isn't even worth a passing thought.

It is not just Motion, but much of what FCPX does independently is now GPU based. GPU is a major factor in FCPX performance.

Also should mention the complete inability to use DaVinci Resolve (including the free version) on the Mini

BenB wrote: It is not just Motion, but much of what FCPX does independently is now GPU based. GPU is a major factor in FCPX performance.

Will notice a "bigg" difference beteen the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX with 1GB and the 800 whit 2GB, when using Motion and so on - or is this more for -the player-?

Ummm... it seems that most of the responses here are written by people that don't actually have the mac mini and haven't done any real world testing with it in FCPX or Motion. I have one that my asst. editor predominantly uses. It's great. The performance with FCPX and motion has been fantastic. As long as you aren't looking to use it with DaVinci Resolve (it won't be compatible), you don't need to worry about it. The only other thing to be aware of if you go the Mac Mini route is you should upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM. There's a big difference in performance there.

Barefeats has a MacMini and did a comparison I posted above. As per his tests, GPU related functions are slow compared to other Macs, non integrated GPU Macs.

Yes it'll work. It's an Apple Approved GPU for FCPX and Motion. As to whether I'd chose it over an iMac depends on your cash and your work demands.

Barefeats did test comparing the MacMini to the 21" iMac i5 and 27" BTO i7 680MX
iMac.

Example Motion Render RAM Preview fps
Mini 2.6 - 9.5fps
iMac 2.9 i5 650M- 17fps
iMac 3.4 680MX - 40.8fps

FCPX Direction Blur Render time
Mini 2.6 - 32.2 seconds
iMac 2.9 i5 650M - 17.7 seconds
iMac 3.4 680MX - 10 seconds

So the 21" iMac GPU tasks are roughly twice as fast as the Mini, the 27" three to 4 times as fast. Obviously the tests were limited but my guess is they are indicative.

I'd note that the Mini did have 16GB RAM and was the faster i7, not the i5 model.