You can run Final Cut Pro X on Macs with non-OpenCL graphics, here’s how

Apple is pretty unforgiving about system requirements for Final Cut Pro X. The software needs at least an Intel Core 2 Duo-based Mac with 2GB of RAM and an OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later. It’s understandable that Apple wants to guarantee a minimum performance in a heavy-duty program for video die-hards, even if system requirements pretty much rule out 2006 Macs or earlier. It turns out you can nevertheless trick Final Cut Pro X to run on older Macs that don’t feature OpenCL-compatible graphics, here’s how…

HardMac explains that you first must install the program on a supported Mac, put that computer in target mode and then copy over the Final Cut Pro X folder from Applications on the supported computer to your legacy Mac. The workaround apparently works, albeit at a notable performance hit due to the lack of GPU-acceleration via Open CL-compliant graphics. For example, Motion 5 renders a ten-second animation some 23 seconds on a September 2006 dual-core Mac Pro Intel Xeon rev. 1.1 with an unsupported graphics. Compare this to real-time rendering (ten seconds) on a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro 5.2.

While we’re at video editing, pros might wanna get their hands on Eizo’s latest display designed specifically for Final Cut Pro X power users. The 36-inch LED-backlit DuraVision FDH 3601, pictured below, features the full 4K resolution of 4096-by-2160, allowing it to display four full HD videos simultaneously or two full HD videos and the Final Cut Pro X interface. To drive a 4K resolution, the display takes video input from two built-in DVI connectors plus two DisplayPorts. Price? About $34,000.