-
Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable. An iFixit Op-ed.
-
[Clint Wardlow] “I am curious, I have pretty much the same imac set-up which works fine with straight editing. However, since I have begun delving into AfterEffects over the last year I find it is often not enough machine when my effects start getting complicated. That is why I am looking to purchase more power.”
Barefeats regularly publishes benchmarks with Brian Maffitt’s unofficial AE performance test, Total Benchmark.
A top of the line 2011 iMac will trounce a 2008 8-core Mac Pro. The fastest 2008 8-core at 3.2 GHz runs Total Benchmark in 127 seconds. The fastest 2011 iMac runs it in 95.
The fastest 2010 Mac Pro (12-core 2.93 GHz) beats the fastest 2011 iMac by a mile, running Total Benchmark in 45 seconds.
The current speed champ, though, is a PC: a 2012 16-core ProMAX ONE workstation clocks in at only 24 seconds for Total Benchmark.
Relative to a top-of-the-line 2008 Mac Pro, the 2011 iMac is 1.33x faster, the 2010 Mac Pro is 2.82x faster, and a current top-of-the-line PC is 5.3x faster.
Relative to the top-of-the-line 2011 iMac, the 2008 Mac Pro runs 1.33x slower, the 2010 Mac Pro is 2.11x faster, and a current top-of-the-line PC is 3.95x faster.
In other news, we’re going to need a new standard AE benchmark soon.
Supporting links:
https://www.barefeats.com/harper.html
https://www.barefeats.com/imac11f.html
https://www.barefeats.com/wst10c.html
https://barefeats.com/sandy01.htmlWalter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Chris Harlan] “My point was in the rest of what I said.”
This, right?
[Chris Harlan] “Everybody should know what they’re getting in to. And, that’s all he’s really saying.”
Look at the last four paragraphs of the article. He is directly imploring the MacBook buying public to not reward Apple (and by association the Ultrabook PC makers) for making sealed devices. He’s playing soothsayer for the market. Most people don’t care to service their own laptop, so his appeal is sort of quixotic.
Best,
Andy -
[Clint Wardlow] “I am curious, I have pretty much the same imac set-up which works fine with straight editing. However, since I have begun delving into AfterEffects over the last year I find it is often not enough machine when my effects start getting complicated. That is why I am looking to purchase more power.
Do you do a lot of effects compositing? I admit I am kind of green at this and may be doing something wrong. However, I am longing for something that takes more advantage of cuda and the mercury engine.”
I do mostly simple editing but I do use AE and Motion for some compositing as well as Boris RED.
AE has always been my favourite and it still is. It has never been a real time full res tool for me, but I enjoy working in it anyway. It is very easy to use and powerful.
Photoshop, Illustrator and AE are essential tolls for me. I find they run faster on my new iMac than my 8core MP.
If I spent all day in AE with hundreds of layers or if I did a lot of 3D etc, then I would definitely be looking for a more powerful workstation and render farm. And I think if that is what you really need Macs probably are not in your future. But for me maybe 5% of what I do requires AE. I just like to tell stories and most of that is really just plain A/B cuts and audio editing.
We often use AE graphic packages from designers that we then use them in our projects compositing in AE. So for “light” AE I think the iMac is great.
When I first started authoring DVD’s back in the 90’s I bought 2 Windows systems for that and neither worked very well. I ended up coming back to the Mac and I have not used Windows since then for Video. I would buy whatever machine is necessary for my business I really don’t care about the brand. I am just much more comfortable with Macs, so as log as they do what I need I will buy them. And currently they work perfectly for me.
Olof Ekbergh
-
[Andrew Richards] “… it wouldn’t make a dent in Apple’s sales …”
Andrew,
The thing is, you’re essentially asking us to see it from Apple’s perspective. Craig (and others) often make the same argument here.
It’s not an argument without purpose, but my feeling has always been that I Apple can take care of its own perspective. What people come to the forums for is the perspective of editors and those in post – how changes in technology impact on us and the people we deal with.
The market will do what the market will do – I can get that perspective from the tech section in the daily paper.
It’s good to come here to see a more relevant perspective.
Franz.
-
[Jeremy Garchow] “In this thread, how many people own and operate Windows desktop machines for your video editing business?
How long have you been doing so?”
40 per cent on Win since 2007, 70 per cent since August last year. Hopefully at 90 per cent by Autumn this year.
But I am not really an editor, we do other post work.——
“You also agree that you will not use these products for… the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.”
iTunes End User Licence Agreement -
[Chris Harlan] “The issue is that if any part fails, the entire unit fails.”
Apple’s position may be that it’s easier to replace than repair.
That just as Apple hit the VARs with FCPX distribution, they may kill independent repairs.BTW this also why I say people have it wrong when they argue Apple has gone consumer over pro.
They’ve become commodity. Higher volume sales. Shorter life cycles. Replace rather than repair.I can’t help but think Apple mapped out the costs of service vs replacement vs system sales. Also the gains over supply when third party RAM suppliers or “system mod” companies like OWC can no longer sell some things to the public because everything goes through Apple.
-
I’m a bit sick, so just a few thoughts.
My guess: home user repair ability: 1
Apple service repair ability: 10CPU /chipset are probably maxed out at 16gb anyway
RAM unlikely to fail if good parts are usedSSD can very likely be changed in the near future
Environment: What did you do with replaced RAM / battery?
Where do you think refurbished stuff comes from?
I’ve never seen a company selling so much refurbished stuff and so many people recommend said stuff. -
[Franz Bieberkopf] “The thing is, you’re essentially asking us to see it from Apple’s perspective. Craig (and others) often make the same argument here.”
If you say so.
[Franz Bieberkopf] “What people come to the forums for is the perspective of editors and those in post – how changes in technology impact on us and the people we deal with.”
Allow me to make it more relevant then. Does anyone here service their own broadcast monitor? Mixer? Vectorscope? Camera? Lenses? VTR?
Or do you pay a qualified tech a few hundred bucks to fix them if they break?
Best,
Andy -
[Frank Gothmann] “With 256 GB storage in the base model I am damn sure you’ll do a hell of a lot of editing and projects with Prores or Uncompressed from internal storage. “
I personally haven’t stored a FCP-X project on my laptop’s internal drive in six months. I consider it dumb when the software works with inexpensive external storage so fluidly.
The real issue is that computers are clearly following same path as our cars.
When introduced, they were tinkerers devices. As they matured, less and less owner intervention was sensible. (you could no longer do repairs with the included toolkit and bailing wire!)
Today, unless you’ have a very unusual garage at home chock full of diagnostic computers – you can’t do much with the “guts” of your vehicle other than fluid replacement.
Computers are merely following the same path.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
-
I think it makes sense for the average consumer like my mom or brother who only use computers for surfing the internet, watching movies, and wordprocessing –their 4 year old machines can do everything they need just as good as new laptops Apple recently debuted. They also know absolutely nothing about the hardware they’re using and don’t care the learn so when something breaks, it’s not a simple 5 minute google search to figure out what the problem is and how to fix, they don’t even know the basics of where to start troubleshooting so it’s much easier for them to bring it to Apple or someone who know’s what they’re doing.
For professionals, it’s a completely different story. I’m on an Early 2008 MacPro and am working with terabytes of 1080p footage everyday, often creating motion graphics in AE and PS and generally pushing the processors and ram to their limits. That being the case, I recently upgraded the ram to 16GB and just yesterday purchased the nVIDIA Quadro 4000, I feel like I have a new computer and I didn’t have to drop nearly the amount of $ as I would have if I actually did.
I think the main thing to remember is there are really 2 camps of people, the decidedly smaller camp of professional who need to upgrade more often to keep up with new technology and the much larger camp of average users who don’t need to upgrade because their computers will be able to do everything they need it to up until the day it completely dies.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up