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So what hardware?
I know not strictly techniques but..
So here’s my problem: I’ve got a Mid 2010 Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM and an 2.8GHz i7.
I’m a one man shop and general editing is fine on the machine in both FCP 7 and X, but:
1) One client in particular does a lot that is chromakey – and they moaned about how long some simple changes took last time.
2) Most of my work goes out to web or to broadcasters as h264 via FTP and ranges in time from 2 mins to 30 mins so encoding time is usually quite long and is a bottleneck.
3) I’d also like a machine that is strictly for editing – no mail, background apps etc
I’m sticking with FCP X as my main edit s/w so do I:
A) Get an new MacPro with the top graphics card and max processor or
B) Get a top of the range 27″ iMac?Any thoughts would be deeply appreciated.
Am I going to notice much difference between the two? Logical says’ yes but..
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor -
9 Replies
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The following:
https://www.barefeats.com/fcpx01.html
suggests that FCPX runs better on the newest iMac than the last gen Mac Pro (in 6-core form). The new Mac Pros are much the same – although I suppose the 12-core machines with your own gfx upgrade might be quicker.
Most people believe the current Mac Pros are overpriced and out of date – and the iMac is a great machine for FCPX – you could have two of them for less money (and use one as a second screen for the other!). The Mac Pro will either be replaced with something else within the next 12 months, or end of lined. Either way, it’s not a good purchase.
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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I think Ben lays it out pretty well. I’d say go w/ the iMac unless you have specific needs that only the MacPro can provide (such as handling PCIe cards you may already own, need for greater than 16GB RAM, uber video cards, disdain for external RAIDs, etc.)
For h.264 files you might consider purchasing a thunderbolt Matrox unit w/ their MAX processor. or Handbrake. What’s your current conversion/FTP workflow?
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You may want to find out what the specs are on the new Macbook Pros. The new nvidia card could make a big difference. It’s possible that would give you better performance–and more of a foothold in the future. What do the experts think?
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If that nVidia card completely supports CS6 across the board (After Effects AND Premiere) then it’s a great deal.
So not sure if CS6 is in your workflow of if it ever will be, but that’s what is really killing me with the iMac. Premiere runs fine without the GPU acceleration. I can hack it to work with the GPU, but get lots of kernel panics and things actually get sluggish. And there isn’t any GPU enhanced ray tracing for After Effects. PLUS, if you do the raytracing 3D mode, you also lose multiprocessor rendering.
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Michael, the MacBook Pro Retina includes the NVIDIA 650M which supports CUDA. That could be a strong selling point for the new laptop for creatives. Will be very interesting to see how well DaVinci Resolve works with the MBPR’s new NVIDIA graphics capabilities.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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[nick ring] “For h.264 files you might consider purchasing a thunderbolt Matrox unit w/ their MAX processor. or Handbrake. What’s your current conversion/FTP workflow?”
Hi Nick and thanks all so far.
Basically I tend to export either to Vimeo using the FCP X presets, WMV’s for some corporate clients with Flip4mac and some compressor presets.
Most of my broadcast work is cutting news for foreign broadcasters and FTPing HQ 264’s made using MPEG streamclip (their choice not mine) and then filezilla.
The big issue is the chromakey stuff. For this client, we tend to shoot 1920x1080p with Canon XF305’s (so effectively XDcamHD 422). Its usually a 8 – 10 min piece and a good 6 mins is keyed, with a foreground, background and often a mid ground of animating graphics. A small change often takes a quarter of an hour to render and its that I’d like to eliminate.
The problem with the bearfeats is they seem to use very short burst of material – i’d like to see tests with longer material to see how the different machines fair.
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor -
The Keyer in FCPX is AMAZING! It’s lightening fast and very clean. I used to hate Chroma Keying using AdvantEdge software from Ultimatte. It keyed well, but was glacially slow. With the Keyer in FCPX, I drop it on the clip and the green screen is gone…immediately. Using the sliders I will touch up a bit and I’m ready to go…and I can do this on a 2.3Ghz Core i7 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM. Background rendering is fairly fast and I can continue editing immediately. For the keyer alone, FCPX is worth the price.
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Hi Greg,
I use FCP x all the time and i agree the keyer is amazing – but on my machine it’s not lighting fast which is why I posed the question of what new hardware to buy.
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor -
Thanks to the Guys at Media Pro’s in London’s Whitfield St I got to play on a powerful last gen Mac Pro 2.9Ghz (I think) today with a Quadra FX 4800.
What can I say but wow its fast. Export was very nice.
I then went to play on a Retina MacBook Pro which has the FCP X demo footage on it. Its fast but I still think the Mac Pro is faster.
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor
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