This one’s for Craig

[Craig Seeman]

I’m impressed with its performance all things considered.

I’m not what this has to do with anything I’ve posted. I said Apple will be making 8, 12, poss 16 core box with 2 PCIe slots for a GPU and another card which may be a second GPU. That’s basically a MacPro sans extra PCIe slots or extra internal hard drive. This, just like the MacPro, is not something many editors need

In fact you might note how well the iMac performs in those tests but that’s only i7 quad core. Step that up to 6 or 8 cores and you MacPro capabilities but no easy way to upgrade the GPU. It has two Thunderbolt ports though.

[Frank Gothmann]

That was a Macpro with one cpu. Throw a dual-cpu machine into the ring and use apps that can access all cores and things look different. I wouldn’t be happy with an iMac at all performance wise. MVC encoding of 90 minutes of HD takes already approx 22 hours on a dual-core Macpro via Bootcamp.
You can add another 10 hours minimum if you are using an iMac.

[Craig Seeman]

To paraphrase from the movie “The Graduate” I have one word for you.

CLUSTERS.

I do think something will replace the MacPro though and it will range from 8 to 16 cores. I’ve posted that already so I won’t repeat it. It’ll also have the GPU power for those who do motion graphics and related work (but still no nVidia though).

Please note I do a lot of compression work so I’m quite familiar with render time. Specific to H.264, Matrox MXO2 with MAX is very impressive.

[Frank Gothmann]

Hi Craig,

unfortunately, the Matrox product produces h264 files that cannot be used for Blu-ray replication because the resulting files don’t pass verification.
And Compressor doesn’t do segment-based encoding on Blu-ray files, only on .movs with h264 so that also won’t work so clustering is also not an option. The only thing that does it is one fast powerhouse or an 60.000 dollar encoder from Cinemacraft.

[Craig Seeman]

[Frank Gothmann] “h264 files that cannot be used for Blu-ray replication because the resulting files don’t pass verification.”

They do have Blu-ray presets in Compressor. Have you tested these specifically. Please do tell me about the verification tests because AFAIK there are people using the encodes whose settings are targeted for Blu-ray. Keep in mind that you have to update MXO2 firmware which also impacts MAX.

[Frank Gothmann]

You can use them for burning our own discs but not for replication, they won’t pass Eclipse verification. You can find the relevant info on the Matrox website and also other websites dealing with Blu-ray encoders.

[Darren Kelly]

“I’m not what this has to do with anything I’ve posted. I said Apple will be making 8, 12, poss 16 core box with 2 PCIe slots for a GPU and another card which may be a second GPU.”

On multiple posts you have suggested a Mac Mini to replace the MacPro. Now, albeit, some super duper one that Apple have never expressed as a possibility. Why would they consider building something that has 12 or 16 cores shoe horned into that form factor?

All I’m showing you is what the current crop of Mac Mini’s can do. Remember, they have no optical drive anymore.

[Craig Seeman]

[Darren Kelly] “On multiple posts you have suggested a Mac Mini to replace the MacPro. “

Absolutely NOT! I’ve said it would be MacMini form factor in a rack mount (e.g. 19″) size. Yes I’ve said THAT on multiple post.

In fact, the stackable/mountable box could be clustered for more cores. Compressor/QMaster is designed for clustering for example. It would mean a lower price point of entry, opening it to more people and if you needed more CPU power you’d cluster by purchasing another box.