How to optimize macbook pro for video editing and 3d animation

Hello Everybody - I've had a macbook pro for about 5 years now. It works great, havn't had any issues with it yet, but I've started doing more video editing and 3D animation work on it with FCP7 and Blender (usually using photoshop at the same time). Even when I quit all other programs, it's not really able to handle many things I try to do in Blender (for example cloth simulation) and I end up waiting a while with the wheel of death and then having to force quit. I'm not in the position to buy an entirely new macbook pro right now - so I'm wondering if there are any ways I can modify my current macbook to render it more able to handle the heavy processing load?
Here are its specs:
Processor - 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory - 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
Startup Disk Macintosh HD 320 GB
Software - Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63b)
Greatful for any advise, thanks!

so I'm wondering if there are any ways I can modify my current macbook to render it more able to handle the heavy processing load?
Honestly, IMO, no. Even if you were to upgrade your HDD to a SSD, and increase your RAM, your CPU and GPU just aren't equipped for the tasks you ask of it (and there is no way to upgrade either your CPU or GPU). It would improve performance to upgrade these parts on your machine, no question, but ultimately, the processors would act as a bottleneck for performance/
The latest high end 15'' Macbook Pro vs your model:
The CPU is 7X faster in Geekbench 3 64bit multicore benchmarks
8X the dedicated VRAM as your GPU
Almost 2X the RAM speed for compatible DIMMS.
PCIe storage = 7X the RW speed of your HDD
From Geekbench:

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RAM?
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Here a post that goes over some basics

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Hello, I am new to the Apple forums and this is my first post. I'm a 19 Years Student and I'm actually attending a cinematography and television school
I am looking for a Macbook Pro 15" for Video Editing, the sowftware I'm be using and studying are Avid Media Composer, Adobe AE and Premiere , and Photoshop.
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( Both models "Costs" the same, I don't mind paying 100-200 more Euros for a 2500 Macbook so i'd love to have to find the perfect balance with Performance/Design and everything else!)
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Hello Andrea,
I edit video and am familiar with the MacBookPro models. Both the 15" MBP and the 15" rMBP will be fine for editing with Avid Media Composer, Adobe AE, Premiere and Photoshop. But there are some differences that may be important to you, depending on the external equipment you plan to use:
The regular MBP has the following i/o ports:
1 FW800 port
1 Thunderbolt port
2 USB3 ports
1 SDXC slot
Audio line-in port
Audio line-out/headphone port
The rBMP has the following i/o ports:
2 Thunderbolt ports (no native FW port)
2 USB3 ports
1 SDXC slot
Headphone output port (no audio-in)
HDMI output port (output, not input)
The lack of audio line-in port and native FW800 in the rMBP rule out that model as far as I am concerned.
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Hey BobRzand OGELTHORPE
Thanks for your reply! BobRzJust looking to clarify.. When you said "Also, that's typically not on the 13" models but is on the 15" (or the 17..." were you referring to the onboard graphics memory? Should I stay away from a 13 inch? I'm going to follow OGELTHORP''sadvice and go for the 2011 model. The 13 inch are the most affordable and I've found ones with a 2.8GHz Processor that is right in my price range. Thanks again for your help guys!

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Check these out:
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Hilary:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Congratulations on your upcoming graduation and the really wonderful gift you anticipate from your parents. Unfortunately, I am unable to give you information about upcoming Apple products or promotions, as I honestly don't know.
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cornelius

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Hi
Time needed can depend on several things.
• less than 5 GB free space on Start-up (Mac OS) hard disk = Redicolous long times AND a DVD that most probably will not work OK
Medicine - I never go under 25GB free space
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I use
Video - StreamingDV as from miniDV tape Cameras - or QuickTime Movies Converted to StreamingDV
Audio - .aiff 16-bit 48 kHz - (no .mp3, .wma etc)
• Use of old Mac - My G4 600MHz took about 24 hour per hour movie. my dG5 - about 2 hours per hour (I use Pro Quality encoding)
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Yours Bengt W

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How to optimize macbook pro for video editing and 3d animation

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