Switching to Adobe CC. Windows or Mac?

[Steve Brame]

You might find this interesting…

https://youtu.be/Hi5Qh1UgUik

Asus P6X58D Premium * Core i7 950 * 24GB RAM * nVidia Quadro 4000 * Windows 7 Premium 64bit * System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB * 2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive 600GB * Media Drive – 2TB RAID0 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * Adobe CC
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Tim Jones]

While I totally agree that the HP Z820 is a killer solution, the pricing for the machine he describes is over $10K so he must have picked it up from a reseller that discounts (conjecture here, but I know what I paid). You can build it for less if you’re a DIY kind of user, but Apple’s pricing for a fully loaded Mac Pro is right on line with the Z820.

I also use both and I use PP / AE on both. PP and AE are much more responsive thanks to the Nvidia Kepler infrastructure (the PP / AE products don’t support Apple’s ATI GPUs – yet), so I will definitely give the nod to the HP and Windows 8.1 for now.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

[Ericbowen]

The Pricing on the nMPro’s for the better configurations, allow Dual Xeon Windows based systems so even when the prices are comparable the performance is far higher on the Windows systems because of the hardware options. That obviously doesn’t mean the workflow and media requires that type of workstation. The single CPU workstations are cheaper which gives better configuration options. Right now OSX and Windows has the same performance so the hardware and application performance decides the best solution.

Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Vishal Pulikottil] “Anyone with any experience using Adobe products on Windows 8.1? How stable is it, compared to a Mac?”

Just as if not more stable. If the PC is stable, so will be Adobe products. Note though that Ryan in the (very entertaining – and poignant) video Steve referred to, uses an HP top shelf workstation. I am not sure how he got it for less money than a nMP – a fully decked out one can cost more money, while having more juice. The real value compared to nMP are single CPU (HP Z420, DIY/custom Intel Haswell i7-4700 systems).

[Vishal Pulikottil] “Is there any good reason why we shouldn’t switch?”

If your workflow is all about ProRes, for instance, with deliverables in ProRes as well. If there’s not much in your workflow that is Mac-specific, then probably no.

— Alex Gerulaitis | Systems Engineer | DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Tim Jones]

[EricBowen] “… so even when the prices are comparable the performance is far higher on the Windows systems because of the hardware options.”
While I do love my Z820, when I run Windows in Boot Camp on my nMP, the numbers for non-Adobe stuff tell a dramatically different story. One real tell is in the way Sony Vegas responds. Since it’s GPU-agnostic, I feel that it’s a good example. The same clips in Vegas on the nMP under Windows 7 are processed much faster than the same clips in the same Vegas on the HP under Windows 7.

It also handles a couple of the deep 3D games I play more smoothly at very high settings.

Those ATI GPUs are amazing when they are utilized properly.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Tim Jones] “the numbers for non-Adobe stuff tell a dramatically different story”

The question is perhaps, are these numbers indicative of anything beyond isolated incidents and configurations? (Not to my knowledge, and Eric is 100% on that nMP is limited performance-wise, and that the vast majority of apps can’t use what it sells efficiently: dual GPUs.)

nMP has two things going for it, performance-wise: a ridiculously fast NVMe SSD, and dual GPUs. Both can be added to an HP system, too. A fast SSD is nice; dual GPUs may be something my apps can’t use efficiently (yet) and thus nMP becomes too expensive too fast.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Also, it might help to post benchmarks with detailed specs of each configuration, in addition to “seat of pants” impressions (nothing wrong with those). There’s always a possibility of bottlenecks and configuration problems when the numbers don’t add up.

Also, check this out. Eric has been vocal on that thread, for a good reason:

New Mac Pro 8-core / D700 not much faster than an iMac… in PPro CC.

[Morten]

We stick to Mac for the Adobe products on account of more user friendliness ( we use PC’s for 3D because of software limitations on Mac), but also Prores, ans its possibility to render into non-SMTE formats ( not possible with DnxHD)

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8…. and FCPX on trial

[Tim Jones]

[Alex Gerulaitis] “Also, check this out. Eric has been vocal on that thread, for a good reason:

New Mac Pro 8-core / D700 not much faster than an iMac… in PPro CC.”

This is what I was getting at with PP and AE not using the ATI GOUs currently. PP, AE, and ME are much faster on my Z820 than my nMP. But, Adobe have indicated that an upcoming CC update will include the ATI support on the Apple system, so this will need to be reevaluated once the Adobe update drops.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Or not… ATI cards and OpenCL are already supported in CC for GPU accel purposes, yet CUDA is faster AOTBE (all other things being equal) – it’s closer to the hardware than OpenCL is. Kinda like Assembler vs. C – properly written assembler code is always faster, often significantly, vs. any other language.