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8 Core Mac Pro…is it fast enough for my needs?
Hi everyone!
I am putting together a new edit system for HD video and Print. Ideally I would like the below configuration for editing using Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium.
Product Highlights
2 x 2.66GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere” or 2 x 2.93GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere”
64GB (8x8GB) Kingston RAM
2TB 7200rpm Hard Drive
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
Dual-Layer SuperDrive
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
802.11n Airport Extreme Wi-Fi
Multiple Display Support
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
Included Apple Keyboard & Magic MouseHowever for one reason or another (Not important to give details) my boss can only get me the below configuration. Is this 8 core robust enough to handle heavy After Effects work with HD as well as operate Premiere editing HD with no problems?
1 Apple Mac Pro – 2 x Intel Xeon E5620 2.40 GHz – 6 GB RAM –
1 TB HDD – DVD-Writer – ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB Graphics Card – Wi-Fi – Bluetooth – Mac OS X 10.7 Lion – DisplayPort3 Apple 1 TB Plug-in Hard Drive Module for Mac Pro
Kingston 8GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory Module – 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) – DDR3 SDRAM – 1333 MHz DDR3-1333/PC3-10600 – ECC – Registered – 240-pin DIMM
Any thoughts would be welcome!
Thanks!
-Nick Bierzonski
Video Editor/DVD Author/Media Problem Solver -
4 Replies
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I think the processing is fine. You probably want to change the video card to 1TB Nvidia card to take advantage of the Cuda processing. This will greatly enhance the speed of both premiere pro and AE.
In addition. The more ram the better. I am running a mac book pro with 16 GB ram and wish i could put more in for AE.
If you are running a lot of effects and large comps, I find editing an AE project difficult with my configuration.
With the processing. This comes down to rendering your project out. If I have a large project I have sometimes done it over lunch break or even over night.
Sean
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After Effects doesn’t use CUDA at all, but if you’re using Premiere Pro it might be worth a look.
I have the same basic system with 32GB RAM and a 1GB ATI Radeon 5870 HD card. I use After Effects pretty heavily and Final Cut Pro X with no issues. YMMV.
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Thanks to everyone for their help!
I ended up ordering a 12 core MacPro with 64 GB of RAM.
I can’t wait for it to arrive!-Nick Bierzonski
Video Editor/DVD Author/Media Problem Solver -
8 cores is fine – but 8 GB of RAM is NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH.
For an 8 core machine you want 24 GB MINIMUM. (a good rule of thumb is 4 GB PER CORE minimum). However, the Westmeres also have the advantage of “virtual cores” (2 threads per core) – depending on software, you may then actually want 48 GB.
But 24GB is a minimum for 8 logical cores in any case, assuming you want to use multiprocessing to good advantage when rendering.
AE and Premiere share libraries, so you can run both without a “substantial” increase in your RAM footprint.
Video Card:
Regarding the suggestion of the nVidia card: At the moment only Premiere takes advantage of CUDA, After Effects does not – YET – However in CS6, AE will be CUDA accelerated.The CUDA enabled nVidia Quadro 4800 card is VERY expensive relative to the ATI 5770 – system RAM is more important. Adding a $1500 nVidia card and then NOT buying a few hundred dollars worth of RAM would make no sense. Buy the RAM first,
If ou are using Premeire for EDITING, then you would probably prefer to have a proper SDI/HDMI card such as the BlackMagic Decklink.
the entry level SDI decklink is only $300, and DOES offer real-time effects for Premeire, etc. and support of the Mercury Playback Engine
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/decklink/
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