Does the new MacBook Pro GeForce GT650M grfx card support Premier’s MPE?

[Greg Baber]

Yes, we included the rMBP in the 6.0.2 update. I run one myself.

Greg Baber, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Creative Cloud Expert – DVA

[Christine Edwards]

great news thanks so much

[Roel Bus]

Just make sure the VRAM is at 1GB. I bought mine this summer from Apple and didn’t realize it only has 500 MB VRAM, and the option is still greyed out.

[Erik Mickelson]

Also know that MacBook Pros overheat by design. When they do, and the do to a lot of After Effects users, the CPU goes into “thermal protection” mode. The CPU shuts down the hyper-threaded cores and throttles back the CPU speed to cool itself down, saving itself from melting. My current Macbook Pro 2011 17″ goes into thermal protection all the time and crashes AE and Premiere Pro.

Apple says that the machine is operating fine and as expected. My temps go above 200 F all the time and typically stay around 194 f when working in PPro and AE. Apple has tested and documented this themselves and they say it is operating how they designed it. Cuda is a joke on my machine (ATI, Open CL supported). I did demo FCPX on my machine and it flew. Go figure and YMMV. These machines will fry themselves out at about the three year and one day mark, just after Apple Care is done.

I do mostly mograph and docs and try to stay native effects.

CrippleBook Pro 2.3Ghz i7, 16GB ram, Lion 10.7.4, FCPStudio 3, Adobe CS6. QT 7

[Christine Edwards]

yikes! has anyone else been experiencing overheating? guess I’ll google that now. whats the best solution to staying Apple, go for the Mac Pro tower and loose the portability? i guess if one is going to spend over $2000 it makes sense to invest in something that will be around for awhile. why does the PC OS have to be so ugly, plus my IT friend says they get viruses all the time and that I’d need to install protection software that wld slow the computer down.

[Christine Edwards]

If anyone has any remaining advice it’s much appreciated. Shld I buy either:
A)MacBook Pro 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel
8GB (2 x 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

pros-grfx card is supported for MPE
cons- known to overheat and crash AE, possibley need to be replaced in a few years

B)Mac Pro 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel One 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor
6GB (3 x 2GB) of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC memory
1TB Serial ATA 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5 memory

pros- faster CPU, more longevity so better investment
con – grfx card not supported so I’d probably have to purchase a Quadro 4000 adding anthr $750 to total cost

I’m attracted to the laptop for portability, lower price and space saving, but I haven’t bought a new computer since 2007, so maybe I shld go for the longevity and feel current for longer? I know they will both fly compared to my 2007 MBPro, but it all seems like a pretty big chunk of $ to go into lightly, especially since I’ll need to purchase new Adobe bundles/and or subscribe to the Creative Cloud.
Anyone’s 2 cents wld be helpful. I won’t be working on the machine every day all day, but when I do it will be for heavy compositing and chroma keying.
thanks again.

[Erik Mickelson]

You forgot about a “hackintosh”.
Faster than anything currently available from Apple, fully supported hardware(same stuff Apple uses). Easy “Vanilla” installs. Ability to have 12 TB raid zero at 500MB sec plus any video card you choose. Fully upgradeable. Virtually no minus’.
Just make sure to buy confirmed build parts and you should be good to go in about an hour. Under $1000 would still be a really nice upgradeable system. = usually ugly.

CrippleBook Pro 2.3Ghz i7, 16GB ram, Lion 10.7.4, FCPStudio 3, Adobe CS6. QT 7

[Christine Edwards]

I don’t think I’m tech savvy enough to do such a thing. Are you talking abt building a workstation in a PC body, then installing the Mac OS? I guess it sounds pretty straight forward but the HP Z series workstations (that admittedly outdo the macpro) are up arnd $3000, which is more than the refurbished macs I’m looking at (granted I’d get more for my money). So how do I assemble my ideal workstation without going through a dealers/manufacturer’s service? I’ve nver done more with hardware than upgrading some ram.

[Erik Mickelson]

Your safest bet is probably to stay with a MacPro then…
or find a computer nerd to build you Hack, just make sure they are using parts from a verified Vanilla build. A real PC…maybe not LOTS of stuff to go wrong if you don’t know how to administer your system.

It is actually harder/takes longer to build/install Windows than it is to make a Hack.

CrippleBook Pro 2.3Ghz i7, 16GB ram, Lion 10.7.4, FCPStudio 3, Adobe CS6. QT 7