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Mercury Playback Engine. New iMac
I am new to the forum. This is my first post. I know this has been talked about a lot on this forum and I think I am aware of the specific requirements (now, unfortunately) of Pr CS5 Mercury Playback engine.
Here is my concern: I just purchased a new iMac 27″ Quad Core i7 with 12GB RAM. I spoke extensively with Apple and with Adobe before purchasing and both said my computer would work with Pr CS5. But, as you know my ATI HD 5750 will not support the MPE.
Here is my option: The Apple rep feels bad for steering me wrong and will allow me to send back the iMac in exchange for a system that will work or to bring it in to have a new GPU installed. I know of no way to upgrade a GPU in an iMac and don’t know if it is possible.
My question: Would it be worth it to spend the extra cash for a Mac Pro with the proper GPU and how much better would Pr CS5 run with the MPE running?
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9 Replies
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A couple things to think about is how you use your system now and how you want to use it in the future.
An iMac is a great machine for certain tasks, but it is limited. If in the future your needs change, it is very hard to add/modify. If it is possible in your budget, a jump to Mac Pro might save some headaches in the future.I have older iMac 5 running Final Cut Studio. It works, and I can edit on it, but it is not ideal. Now, I need to go bigger and faster and since I can’t do an upgrade of the components in the iMac I am going to go Mac Pro.
Also, I don’t see the computing needs of our industry going down anytime soon. As technology progresses it is going to put more demand for speed and storage. Might be worth thinking about that now instead of a year and a half from now.
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Unfortunately, there are no supported video cards for MPE playback installed in any iMac. You can get an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for a MacPro, but nothing yet for an iMac.
You can file a feature request for supporting your video card here: https://www.adobe.com/go/wish. More on how to give feedback: https://bit.ly/93d6NF
Kevin Monahan
Sr. Content and Community Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
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That is what I thought. This is very frustrating. I will have to dump more money in to this. I am wondering if I should just cut on Final Cut. But, I really like what I have done with Pr CS5 so far.
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An important terminology clarification:
I’ve noticed a lot of people using the term ‘Mercury’ or ‘Mercury playback engine’ as if it refers specifically to CUDA processing. Not true. The term ‘Mercury playback engine’ refers to a whole set of performance improvements in Premiere Pro CS5, including the port to a 64-bit application, the multi-threaded nature of the application, and the use of CUDA on the GPU to accelerate some things. Anyone using Premiere Pro CS5 is getting all but one of these advantages; people with certified CUDA cards are getting one additional advantage.———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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HI Todd,
You said, “Anyone using Premiere Pro CS5 is getting all but one of these advantages; people with certified CUDA cards are getting one additional advantage.”
What is that one ‘additional advantage’?
More to the point – what kind of performance hit or reduction would the poster be taking if he were on the i7 iMac he mentioned, instead of a Mac Pro with a proper CUDA video card.
I’m new to the PPr world, so sorry if my terminology is off.
Thanks,
Wayne
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> What is that one ‘additional advantage’?
processing with CUDA, which is much faster for some things, and gives higher quality for some things
> More to the point – what kind of performance hit or reduction would the poster be taking if he were on the i7 iMac he mentioned, instead of a Mac Pro with a proper CUDA video card.
It depends. If you’re using computationally expensive effects, then CUDA can make a huge difference. If you’re just doing straight cuts with no effects or compositing, it won’t make as much difference.
Premiere Pro CS5 can use CUDA to process some effects, deinterlacing, scaling, and blending modes. Your benefit from CUDA will vary depending on how much of these things you use.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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Todd,
Thanks for the detailed explanation – much appreciated.
Wayne
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Has this changed at all with CS5.5?
I just purchased a new iMac 27″ i7 today with the AMD Radeon HD 6970M in hopes of using it with the Mercury Playback Engine.
The timeline is turning red after just 3 tracks of HD video, and “Mercury Playback Engine Software Only” is grayed out in the project settings menu.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
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> Has this changed at all with CS5.5?
Has what changed?
All changes related to CUDA procesing and the Mercury Playback Engine are listed here.
> I just purchased a new iMac 27″ i7 today with the AMD Radeon HD 6970M in hopes of using it with the Mercury Playback Engine.
No AMD card will provide the CUDA processing features, as explained here.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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