Need to buy a Resolve Computer for Dailies

[Chris Kenny]

Either the Mac Pro with an aftermarket graphics card or the 27″ iMac with the GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5 upgrade. The latter is what I’d do if I had to buy right now. (Otherwise I’d wait for the new Mac Pro.)

The other systems you mention have Intel GPUs which Resolve can’t use. Mavericks adds OpenCL support for Intel GPUs, which might make them usable eventually (they still don’t work at present, apparently), but I wouldn’t bet on good performance from them.

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.

[Paul Provost]

Current iMac
That Mac Pro is too old

http://www.4Kfinish.com | owner-colorist | Hollywood, CA
http://www.facebook.com/4kFinish
Twitter 4kfinish

[Kevin Cannon]

Agree with Paul – even if you find GPU and CPU performance is acceptable on the old mac pro, you’ll have to use PCI slots for e-sata and USB3, and really having no option for thunderbolt drives – we’re starting to see a majority of USB3/thunderbolt only drives come in. An iMac (plus the cheap TB>Firewire800 and USB3>e-sata adapters) should give you all the fast connections you need. Same should be true of the new mac pro.

Cheers,

KC

Prehistoric Digital

[Eric Chase]

Thanks for your responses. For a rebuttal, this is dailies only, so a cuda GFX card isn’t necessary (as my understanding.)

I have an esata card for the old mac pro option. And If I get an iMac, it is 250% more for a newer one than an old mac pro.

I see you’re point.

If I bought the new mac book pro, then I guess its a no brainer, huh?

[Paul Provost]

Red already has open cl debayer and going cuda soon for multiple gpu r3d transcode. You’re going to want that. Bus speed on that old Mac Pro is slowwww. Don’t get that.
There’s a good thread on a reasonable hackintosh render box over on liftgammagain.com by Jason Myres
That might actually be your best option

http://www.4Kfinish.com | owner-colorist | Hollywood, CA
http://www.facebook.com/4kFinish
Twitter 4kfinish

[Gerry Curtis]

It’s hard to answer which computer without knowing the prices and what kind of footage you’re working with but if the MacPro is a good price relative to the others I wouldn’t dismiss that as an option.
You can RAID 0 the non OS internal drives, which are relatively cheap and update the GPU if need be and it can still be pretty fast machine. It’s all about finding the best price vs performance.

Cheers,

Gerry

http://www.digitalkilnstudios.com
http://www.savasanafilm.com

[Eric Hansen]

the 2009 or 2010 Mac Pro has a significantly faster bus and much cheaper RAM than the 2008 for very little extra money.

e

Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv