Would a Mac Mini be powerful enough to run FCP X?

I'm looking to replace my 2009 Power Mac with FCP 7.0 with a more recent computer with thunderbolt capabilities. All I use it for is FCP. I was hoping that one of the more high spec Mac Minis would be enough to run FCP but am concerned about the graphics card. If it wouldn't work on a Mac Mini, what mac (other than a Power Mac) would be most suitable?

After a bit of reading I've also gathered that I wouldn't be able to install FCP 7.0 onto a new mac with Yosemite, is this true?

Thanks very much for any help at all!

That'd be my last choice for FCPX or a MacBook Air- due precisely to the GPU which is what almost exclusively powers FCPX. Any current Mac will technically run FCPX but your performance- i.e. fluidity of the interface and speed of transcodes/filters/effects/export, etc will vary widely as you go up and down the line.

These days the machines to get are the higher end MacBook Pros with Retina, the retina iMac and the Mac Pros in order of increasing power.

-Noah

_____________________________________

FCPWORKS - Workflow and Integration

Do remember that you ask this in a FCPX forum and not FCP7, FCP7 would drum perfect on a MacMini.
But why do you what thunderbolt. If this is your only argument than with running FCP7 why?

FCP7 will run perfect on a MacMini.
But you are telling 2009 Powermac?? This would be a Mac Pro in 2009.
Depending on what 2009 Mac Pro (processor) this is far enough for FCP7.
FCP7 needs power from the CPU. And there is plenty enough in a 2009 Mac Pro.

If you are planning for FCP- X, which is far better en much much faster that FCP7 (imho) than there eis room for another Mac with better GFX. Although there a faster GFX card for a Mac Pro 2009 which make FCP-X fly.

If you're going for a new Mac, seriously go for FCPX.

Guys .....

Do you ever read the topic title ?

The question was : Would a Mac Mini be powerful enough to run FCP X?


FWIW .... To cover the annual Breeders Cup, we had in a trailer a mac mini with two screens and for all the basic editing we had to do ( even transcoding inside the timeline some reference videos brought with us from the PAL SD world up to an US compatible HD file ) it worked without any GUI fluidity problems.
Not that the mini is a powerhouse, with the lack of a discrete gfx card rendering suffers quite a lot timewise and the fans are always in the starting blocks, but with the previous generation of highend quadcore minis and 16GB ram on board, that machine worked flawlessly for a whole week in an overheated trailer.

With the newest generation of minis I wouldn't dare trying the same.
Apple just did a crazy marketing kill on the "new" minis for anything like serious work on FCPX.

alex

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have the new iMac Retina yet? I was wondering (and Larry Jordan intimated) that the horsepower to push those pixels 'may' make it slightly slower in some areas than the non-retina? Perhaps better for photographers? Any first hand knowledge? I know it's depends on what your editing etc., but just curious of any early knowledge.

It's pretty zippy in FCPX actually. Looking forward to seeing a version of X tuned for Yosemite to really push it.

-Noah

_____________________________________

FCPWORKS - Workflow and Integration

Working with some people cutting a Red feature with one, I'm pretty impressed by how well it actually works.

BenB wrote: If you're going for a new Mac, seriously go for FCPX.

I agree with BenB, if you are going for a new mac, try fcpx.

If you want to know about FC/p7 on a mini - no idea.

If it's about FCPX:
read about my stunt here
www.fcp.co/forum/2-off-topic/20516-4k-mu...th-a-macmini-why-not
performed on a 2012/mini ...

Thanks for all your help so far, very much appreciated!
It would be FCP X I'd be after on the new mac, sorry I wasn't that clear.

I'll tell the whole story to see if that makes it make more sense, there is probably a much easier answer that I'm missing. I've worked off macs for a long time, but only use very basic features on FCP - editing 5 minute long clips, nothing major.

The 2009 Mac pro is perfectly fine and I've never had any issues with it or FCP 7, however the raid drive attached to it has broken beyond repair, it was a caldigit HD One which we'd had for some time.
I've been told (maybe incorrectly) that all the best raids now are thunderbolt and that I can't retrofit a thunderbolt port to my mac. Without this I can apparently only go backwards in technology and get a slower raid than the one I had previously.

This is where the need for a new mac came in and the upgrade to FCP X which is quite possibly a far better program than I need.

I hope that makes a bit more sense - thanks a lot

HeliganWild wrote: ... I've been told (maybe incorrectly) that all the best raids now are thunderbolt ...

What makes 'Raid' so fancy for you? (rethorical)

Raids offer two main features:
* speed - for sure TB is nice, but usb3 is fast too....
* reliance - depends on, how important that is for your work (here: me hobbyist, so if my Raid0/usb3 with two cheap 2.5" drives fails, it is unconvenient, but no catastrophy)

What I like to say is, and what my demo with the 4x4k Multicam proofs:
If you don't get paid for speed and reliance, there's very little need to invest into 'best'=expensive hardware.... 2nd best is fast enough...

a smart ( = distribuetd media) set-up of usb3-drives can make FCPX fly too ....

Hi HeliganWild

I'm doing all my work on a Mac Mini (I bought it in January 2013).

FCPX runs VERY WELL on it, even with 4K footage.

You can do basic editing without any problem, and you can do all the rest as well but you need some patience to render effects. That's of course to be expected because there is no real graphic card.

So when you do color grading, or apply motion effects, etc, you'll have to be patient to render them. But it stills "works", meaning you don't feel the pain of waiting like with FCP7 when you have to render all the time.

Ideally, if you have money, you should go for an iMac with a good graphic card. But if like me you're limited with your budget, I'd say you can go for it without fear.