hi , i just have a couple of questions when video editing is it the graphics card or the processor that does more work ,because i thinking of geting rid of my iMac G5 and getting a MMD dual 1ghz and i am just wondering would i suffer alot from the downgrade? i don't do much video  editing but i do abit.

thanks for your time

Rob

I could be wrong, but I believe CPU is more influential. Graphics cards are predominantly for 3D work. They deal with vectors. Video is (usually) flat, so the file is read, decoded and displayed. For playback, the CPU certainly does the lions share of the work, for editing, if you start copy-pasting clips left, right and centre, then RAM and disk speed will come into play.
Never done much video on anything, but I own a dual 1GHz G4, with 2GB RAM and an nVidia GeForce FX5200. I only ever splice things together in QT Pro, but it doesn't feel all that quick to me. Sometimes I am copy-pasting up to 1GB at a time though.
If you I were to fit a SATA card and boot drive to my G4, it would probably beat the iMac quite easily. But only you know if you can stretch to a pile of RAM, a new HD and a SATA card to go with the G4.

Hey wisdom_105 give us some feedback on how the MDD G4 does on video editing. I have just installed Final Cut Pro HD on my MDD g4 and I have not had a chance to really get into it yet. The only video work I have ever tried is compressing large video files down so they could be burned on a standard 4.7 gig dvd and I did that on a PC and it took forever.

Compressing DVDs is easiest with Toast. Still ages though.
Video can be monstrous to any CPU. I acquired (cough) the Matrix Trilogy in HD wmv format. My dual 1.42 MDD couldn't play them watchably, so we opted to try a conversion. I don't recall if it was MPEG Streamclip or Compressor but a dual-core G5 2.3GHz sat there all day from 9-5.30 and didn't get halfway through converting the first film. I ought to try on a Mac Pro. I forget exactly how big those files are, I think they were 20GB each or something stupid. I have a 12GB version of Pirates of the Caribbean but the MDD plays it fine becuase its not a stupid wmv.

What software were you using may I ask.  Pro or consumer?  Any dual Mac still does very well with video.  I would chose a quad G5 with 7800gt.  But if you are on a budget I think a dual MDD 1.42 is a good choice.  I still do all my video work on it and I have faster PCs.

i do a decent amount with fcp 5 on my 12" pb 1.33 ghz 1.25 gb ram, and it does fine.  granted, I normally plan on having something else to do while I edit, cuz the renders take awhile, and the final render I always do before going to bed or class or something, that takes forever.  So I'm sure the MDD will be good for it, it has better specs than mine on all acounts.