What should I expect?

[Walter Biscardi]

[Mark Franklin] “I have a MacPro (8 core) with 10 gigs RAM but not a very good video card, an ATI Radeon HD 2600. I’m using Adobe CS5, OSX 10.6.8.”

I hate to be like this, but CS5 is like using ancient technology compared to CS6 or CC. You’re not going to get very much realtime performance with that system.

You didn’t mention your media array. That’s even more important when you switch to HD to have high data rates from the media playback.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Mark Franklin]

Thanks Walter,

I have a 4TB RAID, I don’t think throughput is the issue.

I don’t believe I can just upgrade to CS6 and I have no interest in CC, I’m not interested in a subscription based model…

What have they done to make Premiere CS6 handle HD better that CS5? Is there really that much difference?

Best wishes,

Mark Franklin

[Steve Brame]

[Mark Franklin] ” Is there really that much difference?”

Yes, there was, and even more so going to CC. If you stay with CS5, you seriously need to think about transcoding your clips to an intermediate. Since we were on Windows, Cineform was our choice back then. I would imagine that ProRes will be yours.

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 RAID5 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * Creative Cloud
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

[Mark Franklin]

Thanks, so if I understand you correctly it is the software that has issues working with HD files, not the hardware that I’m using?

Both Adobe CS6, (NVIDIA Quadro 4000 for Mac) and FCPX (OpenCL-capable graphics card) require me to upgrade my video card so I’m looking at $2000 to upgrade to CS6, (card and upgrade cost for CS6 Master Suite) and $1300 to change over to FCPX.

I think that I will buy the Quadro 4000 and trial FCPX to see how that performs…

Might be the wrong forum but any idea if FCPX handles multiple HD files better than Premiere with the same hardware? Is there a shootout somewhere online?

Best wishes and thank you for the help/advice.

Mark Franklin

[Walter Soyka]

[Mark Franklin] “I don’t believe I can just upgrade to CS6 and I have no interest in CC, I’m not interested in a subscription based model…”

Adobe still sells CS6.

Go to Adobe.com, type “Premiere Pro CS6” in the search box at the top-right. Do not press enter. When Premiere Pro CS6 pops up right below the search box, click Buy Now.

That will take you to the “Creative Suite CS6” Products page. Locate Premiere Pro CS6, then click Buy. Change “I want to buy” from “Full” to “Upgrade” then fill in what product you own.

I respect the opinions of those who don’t want to go on subscription, but CC has been a good move for my business, and I’m very happy with it.

Walter 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
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[Mark Franklin]

Thanks Walter,

I did find CS6 on the Adobe site, and can still upgrade but that just seems to put off the decision for a while, and I don’t think that upgrading the software alone will solve my problem, from what I’ve read the video card seems to be an issue also?

My problem is that I’ve not been actively working with video for a couple of years and everything has changed while my back was turned :-). I recently bought a new camera with HD capabilities and now find that my setup which worked well in the past is choking on anything more than simple playback.

I do video for fun, not profit and therefore find it difficult to commit to a subscription based model. I prefer to spend a fixed sum and not have to keep paying on a regular basis if I decide not to do something for 6 months or so…

Mark Franklin

[Steve Brame]

[Mark Franklin] “so if I understand you correctly it is the software that has issues working with HD files, not the hardware that I’m using?”

See my specs below. We had quite a hard time with AVCHD footage on CS5, which eventually necessitated our going with an intermediate transcode.

Asus P6X58D Premium
Core i7 950
24GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 4000
Windows 7 Premium 64bit
System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB SATA
2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive(600GB)
Media Drive – 2TB RAID0 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive)
Matrox MX02 Mini
CS6.x Creative Cloud

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 * Creative Cloud
——————————————-
“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions

[Vince Becquiot]

Your card first: ANY CUDA based card will be an improvement over the ATI. You don’t have to go to the Quadro to see vast improvements.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Media

Indigo Live
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Mark Franklin]

Thanks Vince,

I have decided to buy a new video card, I’ll be looking for openCL that will work on a 2008 Mac Pro.

Regards,

Mark Franklin

[Mark Franklin]

This looks good, seems to work on 2008 Mac Pro…

EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition

Thanks everyone, I’ll see how the performance changes with this upgrade.

Regards,

Mark Franklin