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Best system to speed up RAM Previews – MacPro, more cores?
Apologies if this ground has already been covered. I’ve done some reading, but have not found the answers!
We have two top end iMacs, maxed out RAM (2013). They are sloooow when it comes to RAM previews.
Excited by the prospect of a 12 core MacPro maxed out with 64GB of RAM, I would of fallen off the chair at the £7,900 price tag had I not of been laying down already.
My question is, what really makes the difference to RAM previews in AE (since this is the bit that causes the headache most)?
Cores? More cores the better?
Obviously RAM, but is 64GB overkill?
Graphics card? Above mention render times in their white paper: https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/creativesuite/production/cs6/pdfs/adobe-hardware-performance-whitepaper.pdf – there are some impressive render times for certain graphics cards. Maybe MacPro isn’t the answer and a custom PC instead.
Btw, slightly put off a custom PC as we often have to transfer large files between machines and a limitation of Journalised and FAT is a limit on the size of a single file.
Olly Lawer
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8 Replies
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Graphics cards like nVidia with CUDA will only speed up Ray Traced work in After Effects.
Also, RAM previews and renders depend a lot on what effects you are using, etc.
Some effects thread well, some don’t.
I’m currently in the market for a new computer myself.
After a LOT of research and phone conversations with Eric Bowen at ADK, I’ve come to the conclusion that a PC running Windows 7 or 8.1 and a i7 4930K over clocked to 4.5GHz with 64GB of ram will be the best thing for AE over more threads and a dual Xeon machine.
If something doesn’t thread well in AE, then the extra GHz will give it a bigger bump than throwing more threads at it.
Hope this helps,
Reel Inspirations – http://www.reelinspirations.com
Commercials, Dramas, Image Pieces, Documentaries, Motion Graphics -
Listen to James. He has this exactly right.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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Cool. Thank you. What about the issue or large file transfers between mac and PC?
Olly Lawer
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If you transfer over a network then the OSX file system doesn’t matter. If you transfer by removable drives then Mac Drive is the simplest solution for the PC.
Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com -
Hmm. Contacted some companies. Got this response from one so maybe I misunderstood your reply James.
“We can build whatever you need however you can not have a i7 4630k and a zeon in the same machine as they are 2 different process altogether please call me on 01914978341 option 1 to discuss options thanks”
Olly Lawer
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I have a Windows workstation and a Mac laptop and it’s simply not an issue for most things. I use MacDrive to read mac drives on windows, beyond that they share the same network with no problems.
Files belonging to any adobe product or avid (which are the two I use the most) can be interchanged freely without any problems.
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https://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects -
BTW after testing some of James AE projects I have to retract earlier statements on Red Giant Plugins. They are threading great now with AE. In the past I stated they were not since evidently things have changed. Thank you and sorry Red Giant.
Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com -
Thanks for your advice. So taking on my last post, which processor to I get? The i7 or the Xeon?
Olly Lawer
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