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Quad Core iMacs. “Mac Pro who?”
With the new quad core iMacs there’s almost no reason to use a Mac Pro for Final Cut Pro anymore. We keep saying that the render speeds are always faster on a Mac Pro, but the iMacs are getting very close. We’ve already been using iMacs for four years here in our shop for both long form and short form editing on our ethernet SAN. These new machines are just bad fast.
About the only stumbling block is the 16GB RAM limit. Once they get the RAM small enough so they can get 32 or more, then the sky really will be the limit. And if someone can come up with a Thunderbolt based Expansion Chassis, all that hardware so many of us have already invested in will still be fully functional.
Mac Pros are still faster (for the moment) but these are great editing machines, particularly with the Thunderbolt I/O devices coming on line. Especially the 27″ model.
https://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
25 Replies
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[Devin Crane] “I have an editor that uses an iMac over ethernet and had him switch over to a Mac Pro and asked him if he saw any difference in performance. Answer, Nope.”
For editing, nope.
For rendering lots of filters. Yes.
That and the RAM are really the big difference. Also the ability to add all those third party cards that can really make your workflow more efficient for certain tasks like working with RED and Resolve among others.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
I have an editor that uses an iMac over ethernet and had him switch over to a Mac Pro and asked him if he saw any difference in performance. Answer, Nope.
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Pro will win out at GPU accelerated tasks, the iMac GPUs are all slower mobile versions.
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There are Thunderbolt to fibre channel adapters available now. That’s the last roadblock removed for us to consider using iMacs for some of our edit suites in a SAN environment. We’ll keep MacPros in the online suites for doing the heavy lifting, but iMacs for editorial could be perfect.
Now we need to see more Thunderbolt add-ons. (We prefer to call it T-bolt, who’s got all that extra time to say thunderbolt?)
Cheers
John
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For anyone considering an upgrade from older Mac Pros:
We used a 2008 8-Core 3.0Hhz Mac Pro alongside a 2010 quad core 2.97 i7 (or was it i9) iMac last year, and the iMac was 10-20% faster on renders.
I’m guessing the newer iMacs would smoke all but the newest Mac Pros.
As soon as I have my Matrox thunderbolt cable, I’m travelling with an iMac.
Ben
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producerhttps://www.blackmagic-design.com/community/communitydetails/?UserStoryId=8757
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The new imacs make the existing Mac Pros look sooo bloody expensive as well. It’d be hard to justify buying one now until the refresh comes out — and when, can I ask, might that be?? I’m reading rumors of a new macbook air, a new macbook pro even, but how bout the biggest, baddest of the bunch?
chris
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Sonnet has a whole lineup of Thunderbolt add ons planned included Ethernet, Firewire and even Expansion Chassis for PCI cards all via Thunderbolt adapters.
https://www.sonnettech.com/news/nab2011/index.html
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
“About the only stumbling block is the 16GB RAM limit.”
What about processors? Do you feel that it will be worth it to give up the dual Xeon configuration of the Mac Pro?
Shawn
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[Shawn Miller] “What about processors? Do you feel that it will be worth it to give up the dual Xeon configuration of the Mac Pro?”
Except for the very top of the line Mac Pros, I’m not sure you’re going to miss them. If the PCI Expansion chassis via Thunderbolt take off, then you’ll have all the expandability that has been missing from laptops and iMacs all these years.
This will be a major shift in the “status quo”. The standard desktop will no longer be necessary for the most flexibility
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
Just to temper the discussion (and based on very little info about FCP X) I’d note that Thunderbolt is not yet ready for high end gfx expansion – it only amounts to around 4xPCI lanes – not the 16 that something like a Fermi-touting card needs, so this might be a factor in GPGPU intensive software, which FCP X ought to be, as well as CS5.5 Cuda support.
However – I recall Philip Hodgetts (I think) saying he heard that FCP X ran amazingly well on a Macbook AIR. If so, an iMac should smoke it…
For editorial use though, forgeddaboutit.
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producerhttps://www.blackmagic-design.com/community/communitydetails/?UserStoryId=8757
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