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TotalBenchmark Challenge… for Macbook Pro, etc
This is my first post, so go easy on me… I got into After Effects CS3 quite by accident after stumbling across Andrew Kramer’s site. Since then, I’ve realized that my Macbook is obviously not the ideal machine for AE, and I’d like to upgrade to a Macbook Pro. I am not a professional, so I don’t make my living at this. I understand that a Mac Pro or dedicated desktop is superior to the Macbook Pro. However, I need mobility with my job, so that’s what I’m looking at.
I recently ran the TotalBenchmark_AE6 test used by Barefeats.com. ( https://www.media-motion.tv/aebenchmarks.html ). My 2ghz Macbook completed both renders in 16:38 total. If I’m reading the Barefeats data correctly, the Macbook Pro completed the tasks in 695 seconds or 11:35. This is only a 30% improvement over my 2 year old Macbook which has no graphics card.
Can this be right? I would have expected a much much better performance increase. The Macbook Pro they used = MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz with 3GB of RAM. The test was done in April 07, so it’s last year’s model as well.
The model I’m looking at upgrading to is the 2.6 Ghz Intel Core Duo with 4 GB ram and the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB. I’m also wondering if I should get the 7200 rpm 200 GB drive or the 5400 rpm 250.
Thoughts? Input?
Also, I would love it if someone with a Macbook Pro and/or other computers could run the Totalbenchmark test and let me know their results. Before I shell out 3k for a new computer, I’d love to know what I’m getting.
Thanks!
David Stem
da************@***il.com -
2 Replies
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I forgot to mention, my current Macbook has 2 GB ram. When I run the test, it says 47% Ram used. Does this mean I have more than I need?
Also, I found another Barefeats tests, which is on a later model Macbook Pro (though not the current one).
https://www.barefeats.com/imacal4.html
The performance improved to 602 seconds in the Aug 2007 test.
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rendering speed in ae is pretty much determined by the processor speed and the number of processors you have….
so if macbook1 has 2ghz cpu and macbook2 has a 2.6ghz cpu, macbook2 would render 30% faster… now if macbook2 has more cores, then the increase will be greater (if you have multiprocessing enabled).
other things that will aid in render speed… faster ram, more ram and a faster hard drive. but these will not have as large of an effect on rendering as the core speed.
video card gpu speed will not have an effect on final renders, and i would recommend disabling opengl for preview renders in favor of multiprocessing (you can’t use them both). to disable opengl, goto preferences>preivews and uncheck the ‘use opengl acceleration’ option. then enable multiprocessing, goto preferences>multiprocessing and check the option for ‘render multiple frames simultaneously’.
i would do much tinkering with the memory and cache settings, but you may want to enable the disk cache (2000 mb should be fine for sd).
as to the 47% ram usage, that just means you didn’t need all your ram cache for that particular render…. if you ram cache settings are the default, the max that that value will get to is 60% (it’s the max rm cache settings in the memory/cache pref). that cache value is directly related to the number of frames taht are cached (so ae won’t have to render the same frame twice, which is useful for things like motion blur). the rest of the ram in your system can be used by ae for image buffering… so don’t be concerned about the ram usage value, however it can be useful if ae crashes during a render to take note of the ram usage value… if ae consistently crashes at a certain value, it may be taht it is having issues clearing the ram cache, and there are ways to force it to clear the cache when that occurs.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
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