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how much RAM for 12-core
I’m ordering a dodeca core Mac Pro, either 2.66 or 2.93 (I’m not sure the $1200 difference is worth the less than 10% speed difference). I’ll be working on 720p scenes, but they’ll probably be heavy with FX like Particular, and integrating 3D elements with dynamic lights, etc. I’m a video producer who will be splitting my time between filming, editing, motion graphics, and some sound design. The motion graphics part I’ll be jumping into as soon as I get the Mac Pro, so I want to make sure I have enough RAM. I’m considering jumping back into 3D again to, just to integrate into my motion graphics work. I know Maya well so I may go with that, but I’ve demoed Cinema 4D, and I like the speed at which you can work with dynamics, etc.
So, should I start with 4 8GB sticks of RAM for a total of 32GB? Will that be enough, or should I start with 48GB? I’ve seen a couple of tests showing how much AE renders slow down when there isn’t enough RAM, but they never seem to test how much things speed up when you have, say 64GB of RAM vs. 32GB.
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4 Replies
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As much as you can afford. Though don’t expect miracles in every instance. When it comes to rendering / preview speed RAM is only one factor. The nature of your Comp, the type of footage, the type of effects etc make a dramatic difference to what renders quickly and what doesn’t. Read Tod’s post thoroughly, its full of good advice.
I have a 2.66 12 core with 32 GB (8*4GB sticks), and would like more, though 32 is plenty for now. I notice that some Comps preview faster with MP off and others benefit from MP being on. I have the Throttle panel from aescripts.com to turn it on and off without going to the Preferences pane.
What I *do* notice is that I can preview much longer sections of my Comp. I’ve got MP using 18 of the 24 cores that After Effects sees, really 9 cores multi-threaded. I leave 8 GB free for other apps. Sufficient for Photoshop and Illustrator.
It takes a while when previewing to spawn all the background thread and there is a noticeable delay when I press 0 to RAM preview. The more processes, the longer the delay.
Render speed would be faster with a 2.93 when there is heavy computational work, but my budget was limited so I opted for the 2.66
C4D is very quick on the 12 core.
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Thanks. I’m heard others speculate that down the road you can swap out the 2.66 CPUs for the 3.33s, but I don’t know if that would cause heat troubles (otherwise why wouldn’t Apple have offered that as an option)?
Yeah, I was speculating about the real-time speed of working in an app like AE vs. the rendering preview times. I know the 3.33 6-core is probably a lot faster than the 2.66 12-core in FCP (except for rendering). I hope that when FCP 8 is out, that it will be faster on a 12-core for the actual workflow, and not just in rendering times.
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Thanks, yes I’ve seen that link. I’m just not clear on how much massive RAM helps over less RAM. Obviously AE will probably eat up all of it to have available for ram previews and rendering (allowing for background processes too, of course), but I wonder once you’re above 32GB on a 12-core, how much the general task speeds scale along with the change up to 64GB when working in an AE timeline.
Yes, I have FCP and use it extensively. If FCS 4 w/ 64-bit Cocoa FCS 8 isn’t announced at N.A.B. in April, I’m writing Steve a personal scathing email.
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I hope FCP 8 is 64 bit, that would be the most significant change.
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