[Mr Scruff]

We're looking at upgrading our Single 800 G4 Final Cut Pro machine to a G5, and the choice is between the 1.8 & the dual 2.0.

The question is, does FCP take advantage of the dual processors sufficiently to make the purchase of the dual machine worthwhile? Does anyone have some benchmarks/factual data regarding this?

[Nonsuch]

FCP is definitely multi-processor aware, and with a dual G5 could probably give you some really impressive real-time effects. I don't think I've ever seen FCP "benchmarks" as such though.

[Axo1ot1]

Yeah FCP is one of those apps that makes having a second processor really pay off.

[Hydra]

Yeah, Nonsuch is right. FCP really loves dual cpu's. I posted this elsewhere but to restate: In FCP 4.0.1 the RT FX script rates the single 1.6 G5 above a dual 1.42 G4. In no way do I have any info about the actual performance of FCP on a single G5 but according to the script in the app itself, it rates the single G5's as more powerful. I seriously doubt Apple would change an obscure little script to make the G5 look better than it really is. The only thing this would accomplish is that FCP would start to drop preview frames much sooner if it began to swamp the G5. This would give the illusion of worse performance IMHO. I have heard that a dual G5 can render multiple layers of video in realtime and output over firewire all in realtime.

-Jerry C.