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  • Report on the 2019 Mac Pro

    Posted by Herb Sevush on February 18, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Early report on the 2019 Mac Pro from a PPro user.

    After finally resolving the many installation problems caused, not by the computer, but by the Catalina OS that comes with it, and which can’t readily be changed because of security features in the new Mac, I thought I would post my initial impressions for those who might be interested.

    First off, after much research, I bought the 16 core, basic 580X GPU, 1 Gig system drive, and minimum 32 Gig memory from Apple, then added 64 gig of memory, a 2 Gig PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD drive, and a Radeon VII GPU. Total cost was a little under 11K with tax and shipping. Installation of upgrades was the easiest I’ve ever done with a computer, the internal layout of the 2019MP is the cleanest and easiest to work with I’ve ever seen.

    First off, me being me, I’ll start with some minor complaints.:

    This is a large and heavy system, not ideal for Desktop use, but rather for under desktop installation. However to open the case you must unlock from the top and pull straight up, making it necessary to drag the case out from under the desk to work on. Further, the way the case is designed you have to remove all cables to remove the outer case, and you can’t power up the system with the case off.

    This means any work on the computer requires you to remove it from it’s working environment, remove all cables, do your work on the system, close the case, re-attach the cables and then turn on to test if everything is working correctly.

    Compare that to the ease of working with the older 2010 system, where the side lid of the case slipped off and you could test your work without needing to remove cables or close the lid.

    This is an ergonomic disaster, modified by the fact that it’s so easy to install new items correctly. Once again Apple has designed for no editor that I can imagine.

    In addition there are only 2 i/o ports (both Thblt 3) built into the system, both on the top of the case. The 2019MP does come with an additional i/o PCIe card with 4 ports (2 Thblt 3, 2 USB 3.1) that you can reach from the back, but even with this the i/o is paltry and you’ve used up one of the pci slots.

    I can understand the concept that with all the changes coming in i/o, leaving most of it up to the PCI slots is a way to keep things flexible for the future, but still there should have been more slots built in, at least some with older USB connectors.

    The system is advertised as being very quiet, which is true, except for when you first turn it on, when the fan noise is the loudest I’ve heard outside an airport runway. This only last a couple of seconds, but it does take a little getting used to.

    Now for the good news:

    It works. Everything works. Ppro finally works as intended. Things that used to cause sluggishness or crashes simply work. Having Audition, RX-7, AE, Photoshop and Ppro open at the same time – no problem. 6 camera Multicams with a mix of HD and 4k, no problems. Warp stabilizer at warp speeds, no amount of CC or blur effects will cause sluggishness or latency in timeline playing at Full resolution.

    I haven’t done tests between the old and new systems to figure out just how much faster everything exports, but I’m guessing it’s about a 50% improvement. Renders seem even faster, especially Warp Stabilizer on 4K.

    All my plug-ins eventually were installed, the computer simply works and everything gets out of my way.

    It’s loverly.

    It’s still too expensive, I could get the same results for 60% of the cost in the Windows world, but if your stuck in OSX it’s a nice way to go.

    Herb Sevush
    Zebra Productions
    —————————
    nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
    \”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

    Eric Santiago replied 4 years, 11 months ago 10 Members · 27 Replies
  • 27 Replies
  • Eric Santiago

    February 18, 2020 at 2:31 pm

    Thanks for the update.
    We are waiting to order two workstations and one is exact to your base.
    On another note, we had to update a 2013 D700 to Catalina and the user is finding it much slower.
    Hope all these Catalina bugs go away soon./

  • Tom Sefton

    February 18, 2020 at 4:20 pm

    Just received our 16 core today. 192GB of RAM, an afterburner and a Radeon Pro II module is in ours. I’ve added a Radeon VII too, and will also add a m2 RAID, with perhaps a new Blackmagic PCIe I/o.

    Luckily for us, we had Catalina on other iMac Pro models so the setup was incredibly quick and easy.

    It is a beast in size and weight – so having it a place that allows quick access is crucial. Perhaps think we should have considered the rack mount version too……

    With FCPX, it absolutely flies. Even with 8K red footage.

    Co-owner at Pollen Studio
    http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk

  • Michael Hadley

    February 20, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    Thanks for the update. Curious as to why you went with the AMD Radeon VII GPU. I have one, bought as a pre-order before it dropped, and I use it in an eGPU with a full spec iMac. It seems “okay,” aside from the whirring fans when the machine sleeps.

    It’s never been an officially supported card for any mac. How is it working for you?

    Thanks.

  • Herb Sevush

    February 20, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    [Michael Hadley] “Curious as to why you went with the AMD Radeon VII GPU”

    There was an article that said that the VII was actually one of Radeon’s more expensive server GPU’s that Radeon hurriedly renamed and released it to compete with Nvidia cards before Radeon had their latest Vega and Navi based graphics cards ready. As such it was actually a loss leader, being sold for less than it cost to build, and then discontinued once they had their cheaper cards ready for release. As such it’s supposed to be very good for GPU calculations and when twinned with the cheap 580X that comes standard with the Mac Pro it becomes very efficient: The 580X is used for sending video to the monitors, which it is very capable of handling, and the Radeon VII is used solely for computations.

    This was the theory anyhow. It’s $1800 cheaper than going with the Duo Vega card and PPro uses the CPU more than the GPU so it seemed a good idea. As for how it’s working – it’s working fine, it’s immediately recognized by OS X Catalina and so far it seems like a good deal.

    Herb Sevush
    Zebra Productions
    —————————
    nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
    \”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

  • Michael Hadley

    February 20, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    Glad the Radeon VII is working for you. Me too–I think? Performance gets cut in an external GPU. And thanks for the interesting context/history. That said, wonder why it’s not been a commercial success and not officially on the list of approved cards.

  • Eric Santiago

    February 20, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    Pulled the trigger on an 8-Core (R580X) and 12-Core (VII).
    Base 32GB RAM and 1TB drives.
    Will do the rest of RAM third-party and add the NVMe goodies later.
    Crossing fingers Catalina plays nice by the time these drop.

  • Herb Sevush

    February 20, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    [Michael Hadley] “wonder why it’s not been a commercial success and not officially on the list of approved cards.”

    The Radeon VII already been discontinued. AMD created it purely for PR reasons as a placeholder till their line of Navi cards (5800X) were ready and were actually happy that it didn’t sell much as they were losing money on every card they sold.

    Herb Sevush
    Zebra Productions
    —————————
    nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
    \”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

  • Erik Lindahl

    February 20, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    One note is most apps don’t use additional cards than the one connected to your display. Some outlier are there – Resolve for example or Premiere when rendering (but not during playback oddly enough). It’s also in general best practice to match cards. As and example someone on LGG used a Radeon VII Duo + a W7100 or something for Resolve where the W-card was used for GUI and the VII’s for compute. Removing the W-card and using one of the VII’s for both GUI and compute actually improved performance in Resolve.

  • Eric Santiago

    February 20, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    [Erik Lindahl] “using one of the VII’s for both GUI and compute actually improved performance in Resolve.”

    This is what I’m wondering about.
    I only ordered a single VII with the 12-Core.
    Was I wrong on this order or should I opt for a 16-Core and settle for the Pro 580X for now?
    Get a GPU later of course.
    Also, is the VII worth it?

  • Erik Lindahl

    February 21, 2020 at 9:17 am

    12-core with Vega II vs 16-core with R580X is very work-depending.

    In general if I had to choose I’d go 12-Core Vega II.

    On the other hand you could use an off-the-shelf 5700X for 1/5 of the Vega II price in the R580X machine. I’d there recommend using the 5700X as your main display, really making the R580X a glorified Thunderbolt 3 controller.

    One downside is the consumer cards have very little VRAM relatively speaking. I’d like 12GB minimum.

    TBH I think the coming X5700 Pro from Apple will be best features / price / performance. With 16 GB of VRAM that’s also relatively future proof.

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