Mac Pro CPUs

[Jerry Hofmann]

For FCP 7 or earlier, I doubt there would be a substantial difference in rendering times (would be faster but not all that much).

However all bets are off for the next generation of software… which is more than likely on it’s way before long. Course, that’s pure speculation, however it’s unlikely that the next generation won’t take advantage of all those cores, and it’s likely to be a 64 bit app for the first time. I could be wrong of course, but I don’t think so, and if I’m right, those extra cores will likely look to be worth the difference.

If however, you run more than one app at a time, render in more than one app at a time etc, the extra cores come into play. But with FCP 7 by itself, it’s likely just a smudge faster. Quite frankly, if you don’t care all that much about the future, the 6 core 3.33 machine is likely the speed champ for the present version of FCP. See barefeats.com for current speed tests.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.

[Thomas Prunty]

Thank you for the information. How important would you say a RAID is?

[Ben Holmes]

If you import this footage as Pro Res, as you should, then it would depend on what filters etc. you apply to it. I still find my 3.0Ghz 8-Core nehalems as fast as modern 8-cores. I did notice a decent speed improvement in some instances using a brand new 12-core with 32Gb RAM. Hard to quantify if it was worth $4,000 more…

Always buy the best machine you can afford, don’t buy the top end processor (it’s always a massive price hike for 5% gain) and fit a good gfx card. I suspect the last item could end up being much more relevant in a few months time – gfx cards are much better suited to render calcs than CPUs anyway…

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Thomas Prunty]

How do I go about importing as ProRes? I believe the 7D (and HVX for that matter) take the video as .MOV and when I import into FinalCut it automatically uses compression as H.264 in the Sequence Timeline Settings.

[Richard Cooper]

“I believe the 7D (and HVX for that matter) take the video as .MOV and when I import into FinalCut it automatically uses compression as H.264 in the Sequence Timeline Settings.”

You need to bring the 7D footage into FCP through Log and Transfer. This will allow you to choose the ProRes flavor you wish to work with. Never try to edit with H.264 files. FCP does not support this codec. Just asking for problems.

Good Luck!

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Thomas Prunty]

Im curious, when you say FInalCut doesn’t support H.264, what do you mean exactly? For instance, I can manipulate, view, etc. those H.264 files with seemingly no issues. Is there something I’m missing? Also what ProRes should I use? There seem to be various different ProRes’s

Thank you

[Thomas Prunty]

Excellent video. Thanks for the link. So Im curious, does that mean the only codec Final Cut works with natively is ProRes? Or does it work with others as well?

[Jerry Hofmann]

To add to David’s response, seems like when you get to the export phase, it all falls apart. Like you attempt to make a DVD or web stream, the exported h.264 file will not contain the right portions of the clips you’ve edited etc…

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.

[Richard Cooper]

“…does that mean the only codec Final Cut works with natively is ProRes? Or does it work with others as well?”

…Uncompressed HD, DVC Pro HD, XDCAM HD, XDCAm EX, HDV… all work natively in FCP7, you just need to tran-scode formats like AVCHD and h.264. and others I am sure, to ProRes.
But what is really common, if you are working say on a doc with many different flavors of codecs and camera types over the course of the project, is trans-coding everything to ProRes 422 upon ingest via HD/SDI through an i/o card like the Kona so your project wont get bogged down trying to work with all kinds of formats… Can it do it? Sure… in small doses, but when your business depends on a SOLID WORKFLOW, life is much less complicated when working in ProRes. It just works. Every Day… All Day.

…YMMV

Good Luck!

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com

[Thomas Prunty]

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. So basically rule of thumb, encode everything to ProRes! Im assuming ProRes compression doesn’t hurt the video quality (ruin colour, cause colour smearing, bad compression, etc.)