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Faster Rendering for G5 with HD projects
Hello Cow Heads!
Mooooo from Raleigh NC. Over the years, I have enjoyed reading all the problems and answers from all my fellow bovine friends from around the world. Now I have a question, hoping that someone will point me in the right direction.
For the past several years, I have edited miniDVcam footage on my G5, using all external hard drives for a host of clients. I usually put one or two client projects on each 1.0 or 1.5 TB 7200 rpm hard drive. I have many, many of these external hard drives. Usually LaCie, GTech or OWC hard drives. I use Firewire 800 connections because the eSata cables just don’t seem to work on either my G5 or MacBookPro laptop. I have never used Raid drives on my main Desktop computer because I like the flexibility of editing these same projects on my MacBookPro laptop. Sometimes I am switching between several projects (and hard drives) in the same day!
Now I have finally migrated to shooting and editing 1920 x 1080 HD footage with my Sony EX1-R and the SxS cards. I have had much success editing from these same hard drives. My only concern is all the render times that I have to endure to edit HD. I know that some folks can edit HD and do lots of real time editing that I have to render before viewing. Is there a link to some sage advice on the best hardware rendering card? or something that will reduce my render times?
Even if it only works on my G5, I would like to upgrade my system to reduce rendering while editing HD. Any thoughts?
Thanks so much for any responses!
Best wishes,
Bruce Wittman
Eagle Video Productions
https://www.eaglevideo.comFinal Cut 6.0.6
Quicktime 7.6.6Model Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Model Identifier: PowerMac11,2
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 4
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 8.5 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1NVIDIA GeForce 6600:
Chipset Model: GeForce 6600
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: SLOT-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0141
Revision ID: 0x00a4
ROM Revision: 2149
Displays:
SAMTRON:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
SAMTRON:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: SupportedBruce Wittman
Executive ProducerEagle Video Productions, Inc.
2201 Woodnell Drive
Raleigh, NC 27603-5240Website: http://www.eaglevideo.com
Email: br***@********eo.compho: 919-779-7891
cel: 919-818-5556 -
6 Replies
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Hi Bruce,
At first sight, there are no many things to speed up your editing, but a better GPU.
One with 512MBs.
That would really benefit you.
Your RAM (8,5GB) is a very unappropriated number and can cause you troubles. Leave 8GB. 2GB per core.
rafael -
[Bruce Wittman] “Is there a link to some sage advice on the best hardware rendering card? or something that will reduce my render times? “
There’s no such thing as a hardware rendering card for FCP, except for h.264 encoding.
[Bruce Wittman] “I use Firewire 800 connections because the eSata cables just don’t seem to work on either my G5 or MacBookPro laptop. I have never used Raid drives on my main Desktop computer because I like the flexibility of editing these same projects on my MacBookPro laptop. Sometimes I am switching between several projects (and hard drives) in the same day!”
This common, but misguided, investment in firewire drives is the only thing you can change. Investing in eSATA technology and/or a RAID will give you more realtime performance, which doesn’t eliminate rendering, it just means you can render on your schedule, not when the computer dictates.
And, CalDigit (just one example of many) makes eSATA RAIDs (both big and small) that can be transferred between towers and laptops. So, the thing that’s been holding you back is just a figment of your imagination.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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A MacBook Pro 13” from this century will blow your G5 away.
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Hi Rafael,
[At first sight, there are no many things to speed up your editing, but a better GPU.
One with 512MBs. That would really benefit you.]Any recommendations for a better GPU for my G5?
Bruce Wittman
Executive ProducerEagle Video Productions, Inc.
2201 Woodnell Drive
Raleigh, NC 27603-5240Website: http://www.eaglevideo.com
Email: bruce@eaglevideo.compho: 919-779-7891
cel: 919-818-5556 -
I used to have a dual-core power mac with 6 gig memory and I was editing HD all day with no problems. Of course when rendering, just as Dave says, it’s a ton more info than what you are used to. You should get a spankin’ new computer with 10 gigs ram, make it a quick cluster, and use compressor to render from reference files. (so you can do more than 1 at a time, and don’t export to compressor though as many have had problems) besides that there is not much to do to your current set-up. (BTW, how can the esata not work with your machine? It doesn’t come with any ports so then did you get a pci card and it still didn’t work?)
-BeefReality? What did you make it?
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Hey Keith,
I did add a LaCie eSata card, but projects on my external hard drives kept crashing, so I went back to Firewire 800. As for rendering from compressor, my editing style requires me to render as I go to see the final results before I move to the next set of edits in a project. Do you think a different eSata card may help? Any suggestions on a better GPU card for the G5?
Bruce Wittman
Executive ProducerEagle Video Productions, Inc.
2201 Woodnell Drive
Raleigh, NC 27603-5240Website: http://www.eaglevideo.com
Email: bruce@eaglevideo.compho: 919-779-7891
cel: 919-818-5556
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