I have an iMAC 24 inch with 2 gig ram which I purchased in June 2008.

I am running Final Cut Studio 2.

Whenever I am editing in Final Cut Pro I am finding I have to render the most basic of edits and effects.

Are there any easy solutions to get around this?
EG: Is more RAM a solution?

Or is this one of the draw backs of using Final Cut Pro on the iMAC 24 inch?

Thanks
Simon

Have you set real time playback (the RT drop down at the top left of the timeline) to unlimited RT? If you have, make sure playback video quality and frame rate are set to dynamic.

N

Thanks Nick,

I will check this setting when I get back infront of the computer.

Just a further question:
You mentioned: "make sure playback video quality and frame rate are set to dynamic."

How does one do this?
What does this actually do?
What are the benefits of doing this?

Thanks
Simon

They are options further down the same drop down menu. Setting them to dynamic just means that for playback, FCP will adjust the quality and framerate to give the best the hardware can support. This has no effect on the final product, which is always at full quality and may take some time to render.

As well Simon, make sure the Sequence settings match the media settings. For example, if you are editing NTSC DV at 60i, make sure you aren't in a PAL DV at 50i or 24P sequence, which will always require rendering.