Difference in graphic cards for Imovie HD edit

Hi.
I plan to get a new Imac for imovie HD editing, upgrading a 2 ghz imac that is very short in memory, HD, and speed. I don't play games or do any 3d renderings.
What i would like to know is which process of the Imovie or Iphoto software would be benefited with better graphic cards.
For example for time consuming process like exporting a movie or doing a clip stabilization is it faster to have better graphics (4850 vs nvidia 130 vs nvidia 120) or faster processors (3.06 vs 2.93).
Thanks for any help you can give.

You will be much happier with 4850 especially when it comes to video like in iMovie or FinalCut. This is both immediatly and in the long run. 4850 will allow for a snappier GUI, much better performance under snow leopard, great video and image quality. (just do a search for which gpu platform video or photo creatives prefer on the mac. Ati usually wins out and Nvidia usually wins for 3d work IMHO.) Both 4850 and gt130 are great options though.
In the past ATI has had better drivers for the Core image and video functions in the mac. Recently, however, the 8800gt from Nvidia has seen significant improvement so the gt130 may not be a bad choice either.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html (example of past)
http://www.barefeats.com/nehal06.html (example of present)
As I'm sure you already know, http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html#performance has some nice charts demonstrating the massive gains in the GPU with each upgrade (gt 120, gt 130, 4850). I just want to point out that the gains in ~100MHz CPU will pale in comparison to a GPU change.
The future is with using the GPU as a co-processor. Apple will do it. PCs are already doing it!!
http://ati.amd.com/technology/avivo/technology.html ("The ATI only Video Converter transcodes up to 17 times faster than with the CPU alone, one hour of video can be converted to a portable player format in about 12 minutes.")
http://www.badaboomit.com/ (for Nvidia only. 20x faster. Though I have seen firsthand results showing ati avt using the 48xx series trouncing other cards using badaboomit...for now)
Also, you can always get something like the turbo.264 HD. It has some quirks. I have never used it. I just use it to show that the CPU is greatly complimented by dedicated hardware such as this device or your GPU.
Suffice it to say, the GPU will be THE best option for you in my opinion.
good luck
Message was edited by: shrouded
Message was edited by: shrouded

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At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
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Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Machine Model: PowerMac11,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 4
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware>Graphics/Displays and report like this...
NVIDIA GeForce 7800GT:
Chipset Model: GeForce 7800GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0092
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 2152.2
Displays:
VGA Display:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported

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>often find it's my graphics that freeze up
For video editing, you need to scale your pictures before importing into Premiere Pro
Photo Scaling for Video http://forums.adobe.com/thread/450798
-Too Large May = Crash http://forums.adobe.com/thread/879967
-And another crash report http://forums.adobe.com/thread/973935

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