Capture/Playback Cards with new Mac Pro

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Capture/Playback Cards with new Mac Pro

Posted by Shawn Gaiero on October 4, 2013 at 4:37 pm

Hey ya’ll

With the new Mac Pro releasing soon, I’m wondering about i/o devices as there’s no room for internal cards. Will BMD Capture cards be phased out in favor of the Ultrastudio boxes? If so, does anyone have experience using an Ultrastudio Express to Playback 4K footage? Can Thunderbolt drive 4K out to a grading monitor without sync issues, glitches, etc?

Thanks in advance.

Ericbowen replied 12 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 12 Replies
12 Replies

Al Arnold
October 4, 2013 at 6:57 pm

I don’t see them phasing out non-thunderbolt adapters… There are plenty of people who prefer pci-e expansion on other platforms.
Shawn Gaiero
October 4, 2013 at 7:18 pm

True. But to connect an external chassis to your mac pro you’d still be using Thunderbolt to get it to the capture card. I guess what I’m really trying to figure out is: are there any problems playing back 4k footage from a mac pro to capture card via Thunderbolt?

I’ve read that even Thunderbolt 2 is significantly slower than PCIe 3.

Anyone using the Ultrastudio 4k or Decklink Extreme 4k in a chassis for playing back 4k footage?
Al Arnold
October 4, 2013 at 7:31 pm

Thunderbolt 2 is slower than PCIE-3. I am sure that if BM sales a TB product as 4K compatible, it is. I however have no experience with it! 🙂
Ericbowen
October 10, 2013 at 10:49 pm

Thunderbolt 2 is 20Gbits/sec or 2.5GB/s

PCI-E Gen 2 is 512MB/s per lane

Thunderbolt 2 = PCI-E Gen 2 5X bandwidth

Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com
Eric Fiegehen
October 23, 2013 at 7:10 pm

Thunderbolt 2 = 20Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen2 x4 = 20Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen3 x4 = 40Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen2 x8 = 40Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen3 x8 = 80Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen2 x16 = 80Gbps bidirectional
PCIe Gen3 x16 = 160Gps bidirectional

Therefore, the Thunderbolt 2 controller / interface should produce performance numbers similar to a PCIe Gen2 x4 interface.

Eric Fiegehen
Director, Visualization & GPU Compute Solutions
Cubix Corporation
ericc@cubix.com
https://www.cubix.com
Ericbowen
October 23, 2013 at 11:03 pm

Yes that’s what is listed for PCI-E 2.0 4x. However if you do the math 20Gbits is 2.5Gbytes and not 2Gbytes.

Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com
Eric Fiegehen
October 23, 2013 at 11:15 pm

You are correct sir! Forgive my brain-fart. We (Cubix) generally talk internally about PCIe bandwidth performance specs in Gbits per second, but you are absolutely correct in calling it 2.5GB/second, which also equals 20Gbps.

Eric
Ericbowen
October 23, 2013 at 11:28 pm

Believe me I have always wondered about it myself. I have seen some sites list Gen 2 x4 correctly at 16Gbits and 2Gbytes and others 20Gbits and 2 Gbytes and as of yet I have found no explanation why.

Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com
Eric Fiegehen
October 23, 2013 at 11:45 pm

The difference in specs you’re referring to may be a difference in perspective – where you (more specifically, a component) are located relative to the PCIe bridges or switches. I’ll check on it and get back to you with any definitive response from my engineers.

Eric
Shawn Gaiero
October 26, 2013 at 2:03 pm

If TB2 is 20Gb/sec, is that fast enough for 4k storage? Is Thunderbolt 2 RAID fast enough for grading 4k R3D in real time assuming there are no bottlenecks elsewhere?

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