Final Cut Pro X Notes: Some Mac Pros not burly enough, first reviews up, BluRay coming?

Had you heard? Final Cut Pro X hit the virtual streets today ($299 App Store Link).  Motion 5 ($49 Download link) and Compressor 4 ($49 Download Link)

Some users aren’t quite as happy as others.  Those include first generation Mac Pro users with ATI video cards.  Reader John writes:

BAD NEWS: I have a 2 year old, Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 6 Gigs of memory and I can’t download FCP X from the app store because my Mac Pro isn’t good enough!
I have an ATI Radeon HD 2600. What about all those iMac editing stations when they cant upgrade either? Nice timing, right before the new Mac Pros to be released.

I spoke to Apple, my Mac Pro from Early 2009 needs NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro (early 2009) for $149 1-2 week wait.

You can find out if you are in good Graphics card shape here.  You’ll want an OpenCL-capable graphics card with 256 MB of VRAM.  Somehow Apple accepts Intel HD Graphics 3000 (or later), even though earlier GPUs are much quicker.

It is good however, to know that the App Store is blocking purchases before they are made.  Chalk another one up for having an integrated App Store.  As for system requirements, this is Apple:  We’re fairly certain some new FCPX Mac Pro rigs are right around the corner.  But, for now, you older Mac Pro users will need to drop $149 on this.

Another pro reader writes in:

 The new final cut pro x is being received very badly by pro editors. There is not support for many of the key features required in pro editing. Namely: No support for previous FCP project files. No support for output for tape (used in TV companies) no support for EDL and no support for XML. This is unequivocally not a a Professional program. Unless Apple release some updates addressing these key issues which mark the divide between consumer and pro, the pro community will very quickly leave apple behind.

Speaking of rigs, Macworld got their hands on FCPX and has a quick review up.

Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X has been re-designed from the ground up with a radically different approach — one that acknowledges and uses device and camera data in a manner that has never before been attempted in the video editing environment.

Finally, we’re again seeing this:

“output for standard definition DVDs, and even Blu-ray devices, directly within FCP X”

You’ve always been able to dump to BluRay but we’ll say this again: perhaps Steve is ready to release a bag of hurt on us finally with the new Mac Pros – which are coming soon.