Will Upgrading My Graphics Card Speed up Export Time?

Question

Hello:
I am new to FCPX and I shot my first movie yeasterday and loved editing in FCPX. Here s my computer specs before I ask my question
Mac Pro 2009 Quad Core 2.93 GHZ
24GB Ram
Graphic Card - NVIIDA GT120 512mb
I use this computer for my recoridng studio and it works perfectly but now when working with video there are two things I noticed while working with my first project. I shot a 1920 X 1080 60P on my HD camcorder and the moive was 32 minutes. Here are the issues
1. Im FCPX the play head in the time line sometimes seems a little choppy and the background render is pretty slow at times as well.
2. When I went to export, the movie was going to me almost 10GB, so I purchased Compressor and in FCP went under FILE, SEND TO COMPRESSOR. I choose a 720P setting and started to process the batch. It took almost 8 hours to compress that footage which brought the file down to 1.5GB which was really great and the quality looks stunning, so I am happy aobut that.
In doing some reseach, I found that upgrading my stock graphics card may be the solution to some of the speed issues in FCPX. I nver gave that a tohught as I am new to the video editing world. I was looking at a
Sapphire HD 7950 3GB MAC Eddition
This seems like to would be a mjor upgrade to my graphic card. So my question is, by upgrading my graphic card woudl this help my issues I described aobuve? I got to image that it could not hurt for sure.
Thnaks for your time in advance.

Answer 1

I hope that other people more knowledgeable can comment on the matter of the graphics card.
I think that 8 hours is way too long for your hardware.
Did you turn App Nap off? If not, do it NOW for FCP X and Compressor.
Select the apps in the Finder, and hit Command I. In the Get Info window, check the box that says "Prevent App Nap".
Also, I think that you could probably do the same export in less time in FCP X itself.
FCP X has several export options. Compressor can be useful for a number of situations, especially for complex workflows, and if several macs can share the workload. I don't think Compressor makes any use of the GPU, so you would probably see no gain from the faster GPU in that export.
In most cases, a single export like yours can be done faster and easier from FCP X itself. FCP X DOES use the GPU.
As a test, I suggest that (after turning off App Nap, as described above) you try the same export from within FCP X.
File->Share->Master File
and in the Settings choose "Computer", H264 Better Quality and 1280x720.
I bet it will take substantially LESS than 8 hours (maybe close to, or a little above real time at most).