New iMac 27″ – Resolve 9.1 + Red Rocket + Sonnet Echo Express Pro

[Rick Lang]

If that’s all you want to do, you may not need the Pro model so you can save some money. Thunderbolt may be the constraint since my guess is you may not achieve realtime on the 4x lane capability of TB versus the minimum 8x lanes required by the card. Physically you have the 16x lanes available on the Sonnet, but you may not see the throughput. Looking at the Red site, I couldn’t see any power requirements to know how many watts it takes or if you need an additional power connector.

I would ask this question on Reduser. I’m sure someone there has all the answers rather than my speculation!

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

https://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?82584-Sonnet-Express-Pro-amp-Red-Rocket&highlight=rocket+sonnet+express

https://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?86602-Slow-Transcodes-with-Red-Rocket-Sonnet-Echo-Express-on-Retina-MBP-15-quot&highlight=rocket+sonnet+express

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

https://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?82584-Sonnet-Express-Pro-amp-Red-Rocket&highlight=rocket+sonnet+express

I did read that the Red Rocket draws its power from the PCIe bus so no problems for it re external power connector. The Sonnet supplies the power. But I still don’t know how many watts it draws however doubt that is an issue on the Pro model with 150 watts.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Craig Harris]

Thanks for doing all that digging around Rick!!!

I recently tried playing back RED using a MacBook Pro / iMac 27″ (2011) with the Echoexpress Pro and Red Rocket. I was able to get realtime playback through Redcine, but only 8-12 FPS playback through Davinci Resolve.

My hope is to hear from Blackmagic and whether or not they’ve tested and approved this configuration with the latest iMac.

[Rick Lang]

[Craig Harris] “My hope is to hear from Blackmagic and whether or not they’ve tested and approved this configuration with the latest iMac.”

Craig, Peter Chamberlain of BMD has posted elsewhere that the new 27″ iMac with 3.4 GHz i7 processor, 16 GB DDR3 system memory and GTX 680MX with 2 GB GDDR5 video memory has been successfully tested and will be added to the next release of the configuration manual. Resolve is happy with 16 GB system memory, but if you are pairing it with FCP X for example that loves memory and will use every resource you throw at it, then 32 GB system memory would be a better configuration choice given the budget for it is there.

I have not downloaded release 9.1 of DaVinci Resolve yet but I would think it is in the latest configuration guide now. I’ve heard of some problems with Resolve 9.1 so might be best to pass on that update until 9.1.1.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Craig Harris]

I’ve read that.
It doesn’t address the Red Rocket though via Thunderbolt.
Hoping they can either approve or disapprove that as an option.

[Craig Harris]

I spoke with Blackmagic tech support and at this point, they have not tested this setup and don’t plan to in the near future.