Best hardware for Prem Pro?

[Dave Helmly]

Chris,

With CS4 and Premiere Pro we do have some GPU advantages when using a powerful GPU card but the big change will happen on the next rev of Premiere Pro “CS4+1” or “CS Next” – I can’t mention it by name 😉

Today we announced that we are going strictly 64 bit in the next version of Premiere Pro (& AfterEffects) , this means no more XP or Vista32 or Win7 32 support. You will be required to run a 64 bit OS like Win7 64 or OSX 10.6. Along with the 64 bit change , we have been working hard on a new GPU engine called Mercury. This will radically change the way people use Premiere Pro today. I’ve been testing the Mercury engine for several months and I’m completely blown away how fast it is.

For example in my test setup, I can do 7 layers of P2 (XDCAM EX works great as well) in realtime with no Redline. This includes effects to each layer. I’ve been a Premiere user for over 19 years and know every version inside out and this new version has been too long coming but well worth the wait.

We will no longer need to rely on 3rd party cards for acceleration and editing modes. For monitoring you can use a dual head nvidia card with a display port and a simple Display port to HDMI adapter (15.00 on Amazon) to a standard off the shelf HDMI display. If you need SDI or analog I/O you’ll still need a 3rd party card. All of our 3rd party partners (AJA, BMD, Matrox) are on top of the of the next version and are planning early drivers for us to test.

For a GPU card, I would suggest the nVidia Geforce GTX285 on the low end (great card) or the FX4800, CX, or FX5800 on the high end. All of these cards will support Mercury -I would also make sure to run Win 7 64 and 8GB or more of RAM to have all of your future bases covered. Mercury currently uses the CUDA technology from nVIdia.

For CS4 users – we will be releasing a new update in a few weeks . Both Premiere Pro and AME will have 4.2 updates. NEW Panasonic AVC-Intra import and FCP 7 import and more………. Watch my blogsite for new info on 4.2.

hope this helps,

DKH
https://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable
Adobe Systems

[Chris Barnard]

“We will no longer need to rely on 3rd party cards for acceleration and editing modes”

Thanks very much for your reply David.

The above quote suggests that I would simply dump my XDCAM footage onto the HD and edit using only the CPU and GPU for processing. Is this correct? If so, this sounds perfect . . .

Thanks again

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Chris,

The RT.X2 works great with XDCAM EX files, SP or HQ, but keep in mind that the RT.X2 uses HDV resolution, meaning 1440×1080. You CAN use your XDCAM EX HQ 1920×1080 files with RT.X2, but behind the scenes the internal processing is done at 1440×1080. You’d probably never see a visual difference on the output with your eyes, but if doing work for broadcast that requires full-raster, you might have an issue.

Disclaimer aside, you can drop your files into the CS4/RT.X2 timeline and get immediate realtime playback via DVI or component outputs (no HDMI). Most effects are realtime, as is downconvert to SD.

David mentioned exciting news about the next incarnation of CS, but the release may be many months away yet. Another option would be the Matrox MXO2 Mini, at less than half the cost of the RT.X2. Does support full-raster 1080. No realtime effects engine, but provides analog and HDMI i/o capabilities, so main purpose for your workflow might just be getting a full-quality HDMI preview from the CS4 timeline. Matrox provides calibration tools to get accurate color on the HDMI display.

If you would choose to build a new system for RT.X2, be sure to follow the Matrox hardware recommendations for compatibility here:
https://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/rtx2/design/

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Chris Barnard]

Thanks very much for your advice. Much appreciated!