Will a “better” computer h*lp me?

[Walter Soyka]

[Bobby Kay] “I’d like to view it Full Res with a smooth RAM preview to see where it’s unclean, but I cannot. I end up with choppy playback”

RAM preview should always be smooth. Are you doing real RAM previews (Ctrl-0 on a MBP), or are you doing standard previews (spacebar)?

[Bobby Kay] “So my big question is, if I invest in a new computer like this, am I going to find huge relief in my workflow, or should my current computer be handling my work better and I would find similar frustration anyway? I imagine the faster and multiplied processors plus the hugely increased RAM would have to give me a boost, but I also don’t know how much AE can take advantage of it, and how much improvement I should realistically expect?”

You should expect quite a bit of improvement. You don’t really have enough RAM in your current computer to enable multiprocessing. With 32 GB in a new iMac, you can enable multiprocessing, which allows Ae to render multiple frames on those multiple cores at the same time.

[Bobby Kay] “And for fun, what would be considered an UNSTOPPABLE computer for AE. Is it even feasible to be able to load something FX-heavy QUICKLY into RAM and preview back smoothly when working on something big, or is it inevitable to be slowed down no matter what your computer?”

RAM preview playback should always be smooth, but rendering the RAM preview before playback can take a while, depending on the complexity of the comp.

Ae benefits from a balanced systems — imbalanced systems inevitably bottleneck somewhere, meaning there are system resources available that cannot be exploited. For example, a system with lots of processors but too little RAM will not be able to max out the CPU usage.

More specifically, Ae’s classic renderer benefits most from having multiple processors and enough RAM to keep them all busy. The new ray-tracing renderer benefits from a CUDA-enabled NVIDIA graphics card. CS6’s new global performance cache benefits a great deal from a fast storage system.

You can easily spend $10,000 to $15,000 on a high-end workstation for Ae.

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
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Bobby Kay]

I use Final Cut Pro, Premiere, Photoshop, Pro Tools, Compressor, MPEG Streamclip, Safari…off the top of my head, and other than maybe PS and AE, I rarely have any of these running simultaneously. The majority of what I shoot is on a 5D and a 7D. I convert to and edit mostly in AIC, although understand Pro Res is more widely used so will experiment with that some. And a lot of my output is to YouTube h264, mpeg4, or mpeg2.

Thanks for your help, eager to know what the root of the hold up is, and the best ways to overcome them!

[Tom Daigon]

[Walter Soyka] “You can easily spend $10,000 to $15,000 on a high-end workstation for Ae.”

Dont I know it 😀

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Bobby Kay]

Good thoughts on the potential software issues. I may just jump ship to premiere. I always consider it and then no project ever seems like a good one to ‘learn’ on. So would you think that the AIC format has anything to do with my issue or just my quality compromise. Also, is there a significant file size difference with 422? or same ballpark?

[Bobby Kay]

I manually click the RAM preview button to do it so I believe I am getting the desired function. RAM preview is not always smooth for me.. Sometimes it plays back and above the button it will tell me it is not playing back in real time, or it can only load very little into the preview which isn’t always enough. So if I had this quad core machine with faster processor and way more RAM, would I find a pretty smooth work environment for my level of work, or am I dreaming of the 10-15k machines you referenced and this iMac would only be a ‘less slow’ option to my current setup. I know it’s not a straight forward objective answer, but trying to guage if the investment is worth it!

[Walter Soyka]

[Bobby Kay] ” So if I had this quad core machine with faster processor and way more RAM, would I find a pretty smooth work environment for my level of work, or am I dreaming of the 10-15k machines you referenced and this iMac would only be a ‘less slow’ option to my current setup. I know it’s not a straight forward objective answer, but trying to guage if the investment is worth it!”

It is absolutely worth it.

A 2.66 GHZ i7 2010 MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM renders the Total Benchmark test in 243 seconds.

A 3.4 GHz i7 2012 27″ iMac with 16 GB of RAM renders it almost 3x faster, at 82 seconds. (Go for 32 GB anyway.)

https://www.barefeats.com/mbpp23.html
https://barefeats.com/imac12p2.html

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
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Bobby Kay] “So would you think that the AIC format has anything to do with my issue or just my quality compromise.”

I doubt that AIC is the source of your problem — but you should switch to ProRes anyway, because AIC is ghastly.

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
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Todd Kopriva]

In addition to the good advice that you’ve gotten so far, I recommend that you check out the following sets of resources:

See this page for resources about making After Effects work faster: https://adobe.ly/eV2zE7

See this page for information about hardware for After Effects: https://adobe.ly/pRYOuk

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
———————————————————————————————————

[Brent Dunn]

Yes, you need a better graphics card. As they say in video land, the more the better.

By the way, you have a quad core system, not a dual core. The i7 is a quad core chip. I’d recommend at least a gig video card. You also need more memory for Adobe’s software to take advantage of the processing.

Laptop’s are not really great at processing after effects projects. They fill the need when you are on the road, but not for your main editing machine.

So, it comes down to money. I love Mac’s, but you can get a great machine on the PC side for around half the price.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro
with Final Cut Studio Adobe CS6 Production