MacPro Quad Core- performance?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Check out http://www.barefeats.com

They constantly update benchmarks from all walks of Mac processors.

[Mark Maness]

[JackNastowski] “I use the iStat widget and i can see that the MacPro is never using all the cores. I have 9 gigs of memory and I can see that 6 gigs of it are inactive. “

This could be due to the memory. Apple and Final Cut on a Mac Pro system state that you need to have memory placed in a certain order (and preferably from the same manufacturer) in pairs. Final Cut works best with multiples of 4 gigs like 4, 8, 16 gigs of RAM.

Having 9 gigs will slow down FCP substantially. Remove the 1 gig of RAM (the two 512) and you will see an increase in performance of FCP. The other 8 gig need to be 1 gig bars of RAM in order to work properly. Take a look at this paper from Apple…

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

I have replaced the 512s on my system and put in 8 gig of Kensington memory which is the most stable memory available on a Mac Pro.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Chuck Spaulding]

Also, do you have a black power cord or a grey one?

I’ve heard that the back ones get way too hot and the quad core really slow down…

[Sean Oneil]

[JackNastowski] “Hello,

I’m a final cut edito and I’m thinking of upgrading to a MacPro Quad Core or Dual Core. I’ve worked on a Quad Core and I haven’t noticed any significant difference in render speeds compared to my MacG5.

I use the iStat widget and i can see that the MacPro is never using all the cores. I have 9 gigs of memory and I can see that 6 gigs of it are inactive.

Are the 8 cores only useful for QMaster?

Is anybody experiencing performance increases that justify the upgrade?

I appreciate any information or direction on where I can go to get a clear answer.”

I’m glad someone spoke up about this. I just got a quad Mac Pro. Huge disappointment.

Its bad enough that I worry something is wrong with it. But what can I do? If I take it to the genius cafe, what the hell do I tell them? It’s too slow?

I think Leopard will really make the thing shine, but until then it’s really sad. A dual G5 seems almost as fast.

Sean

[Mark Maness]

Again…

The problems that people are seeing are completely related to memory (RAM). Mac Pro systems are a completely difference platform for Apple. Please remember this!

The manufacturer, the sizes and placement of RAM are extremely crucial in Mac Pro using Final Cut Studio. I, too, had this issue when I first purchased my Mac Pro BUT contacting the vendor I bought the computer from (ProMax) and they too discovered this issue. ProMax completely replaced my memory with Kensington memory and I have had no issues with memory since.

Please read this paper from Apple on this…

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Sean Oneil]

I’m sure you’re right for his case. But I have four 1-gig modules of properly placed Crucial RAM and I’m having performance issues.

I occasionally get dropped frames when using ETT with ProRes. And render times are only modestly faster than my dual 2.5ghz G5.

This is from barefeats.com:

TIGER IS “CHASING ITS TAIL”
“Yes, the memory bus is weak, but the biggest problem is that OS 10.4 (Tiger) does not know how to deal with so many cores. Perhaps 10.5 (Leopard) will. the problem is that the OS does not know that it should keep a thread on the SAME core instead of swapping it around to any one of the 8-cores. When a thread moves to a different core-group, the cache has to be reloaded on the new core. Since Intel quad-cores are two Core 2 Duos “duct-taped” together, the problem is worse than it would otherwise have been. When this thread/core shift happens repeatedly, it makes the cache ineffective and floods the memory bus with activity.” (Though put forth by an anonymous BF reader, this analysis has been confirmed by Lloyd Chambers where he discussed “core swapping” on his latest blog entries regarding the 8-core Mac Pro.)