Wait for new Macbook Pro?

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

What Adobe did here is actually rather smart. There are just too many different Nvidia cards out there for Adobe to test them all, (when you add in the mobile cards which can have different specs depending on the manufacturer, there’s at least 100 different cards, if not more.) So they rigorously test a few and officially support just those. But since most Nvidia cards do work, they provide a very easy way to hack the program and make it work, without having to officially support any of those cards which would be near on impossible.

[Chris Harlan]

[Bobby Cullipher] “As for USB 3 vs esata… I’m lost. I’ve been reading these guys who post bench tests and they all say esata is the way to go. I have a couple external usb3 SSDs”

I really wouldn’t sweat over it. I’m guessing the XPS is at best SATA2 and not SATA3. If you have SSDs they’ll do better for you than the RAID I pointed you at.

[Bobby Cullipher]

Hi John,
I appreciate the assistance. I’m trying your steps now… but I do not see where I can “enable MPE hardware mode” – in Project > Project Setting > General – the only options in “Video Rendering” are:

Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (this is selected)
Mercury Playback Engine Software Only

Am I missing a step?

Bobby

FCP 6 | 6.0.6
Mac OS X 10.6.5
2X3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
4GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

“Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration” Is what you want. That’s what I meant by “MPE hardware mode” I just couldn’t remember what the menu called it.

Anyway, Point is, you are now using the GPU. Before you edited the text file, “Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration” would have been grayed out and software only would have been your only option.

[Bobby Cullipher]

ah ok.. great. I do appreciate your assistance, and to offer it so quickly! I will give it another try in a few. Much thanks!

Bobby

FCP 6 | 6.0.6
Mac OS X 10.6.5
2X3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
4GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

[Bobby Cullipher]

Just a follow up. After trying all suggestions, the performance was still too slow for us. I contacted Dell to arrange a return and the support person (very knowledgeable and understanding guy) said that all of the steps I took could help, but would not give the results I was expecting. Via remote access, he watched what I was experiencing. He said in order to get a laptop to perform as close to my desktop with real-time rendering/playback, I’d have to get:

Dell Precision or another manufacture:
Nvidia Quadro or ATI Firepro
I7 QM or XM 2800
Increase the RAM to 16GB
Small internal SSD for the media needed for the specific project… or a bigger SSD and store all of it… but it’s very $$$.

This configuration with Dell is about $2900… if I’m lucky.

Do you Macbook Pro users find that you need the same configuration for smooth editing? At this point, it’s all about price… and price is now dictating which editing software we use… not a good day.

[Chris Harlan]

[Bobby Cullipher] “Do you Macbook Pro users find that you need the same configuration for smooth editing? At this point, it’s all about price… and price is now dictating which editing software we use… not a good day.
“

Hey Bobby!

I have the newest 17″ Macbook Pro with the faster processor and 8 gigs. When I’m using it, my media usually resides on either an eSATA 2 platter RAID or a 2 TB Little Big Disk, all connected through thunderbolt. No SSDs. My source materials are mainly ProResHQ 1080, 23.98, 25, 60i. I find editing in FCS and Avid VERY smooth, and in many ways comparable or slightly better than my 2008 8 core. Where the 8 core still clearly wins, are big renders. I’ve played some with Premiere, and it seems okay too, though I’ve not used it enough to say definitively.

[Bobby Cullipher]

Thank you for sharing!

I will post feedback when/if I get another laptop with better specs. As of now, I can not drop the cash to make this dream of mobility come true… I’ll stay home with my MacPro DT.

[Bobby Cullipher]

Anyone using a laptop configured like this? If so, hows the performance?

15.4″ MacBook Pro
Quad-core Intel Core i7 2.2GHz
16GB RAM
750GB 7200-rpm SATA HDD
Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6750M
SuperDrive
Thunderbolt port
Aluminum unibody
Hi-Res Glossy Widescreen Display

My biggest concern is the video card… was told I needed an NVIDIA Quadro 2000 or better.

[Chris Harlan]

[Bobby Cullipher] “My biggest concern is the video card… was told I needed an NVIDIA Quadro 2000 or better.
“

You need that for what? The Quadro is just not an option on a Macbook Pro.