will the iMac 5K Retina’s AMD Radeon graphics card be a problem for Premiere Pro CC and AE???

[Erik Lindahl]

Apple / OSX handles high-dpi screens quite intelligently. You can have parts of the interface be scaled 200% or have twice the resolution where others are 1:1 pixelmapped.

– 4K video you’d view at 1:1
– 1080p video you’d view at 200% scaling

AE, PP, FCPX and a lot of other apps are “retina” or “high dpi aware” and solves this for you more or less.

[Mar Clear]

I found some benchmark data that compares the m290 and m295.
I put it here:
https://www.clearybros.com/news/compare-imac-5k-graphics-cards/

[Rob Nairn]

Hi Nicholas,

Have you been able to test Premiere on the new imac yet? I’m on the verge of buying one also, but very interested to know if the software runs ok and how the gpu acceleration is?

I’m also planning to run a second 2560×1440 monitor off it as well. Anyone got any thoughts if that’ll go ok or just be folly?

Cheers,
Rob

[Nicholas Natteau]

Hi Rob,

It arrived a few days ago but haven’t had time to set it up yet. I went with the upgraded 295X AMD graphics card, the i7, SSD drive, and 32GB of RAM from OWC. Will be testing Premiere, AE, and other programs later this week and let you know.

So far, some on youtube are posting very positive reviews of the iMac 5K Retina being put through it’s paces:

[Rob Nairn]

Thanks for the video, he’s got some good comments.

Also found this:
https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/27/7068363/apple-imac-with-retina-5k-display-review
with some positive premiere specific comments.

Looking like it’ll do the the job….

[Nicholas Natteau]

Hello everyone,

I just finished setting up my new iMac Retina and immediately downloaded and started running Premiere Pro. Delighted to confirm no problems whatever. And the blue text (though I prefer the legacy yellow hot text) is considerably easier to read on the retina iMac than on my older (2012) iMac. No crashes or glitches yet. Fingers crossed.

Though for some reason the Premiere Pro CC interface on the iMac Retina 5K is noticeably less dark (less black and more grey) than on a regular iMac. Not sure why that would be the case. But I discovered that if you into System Preferences to Display Settings – Color, and select “Apple RGB” instead of “iMac”, you will get a darker interface which is what i selected.

Has anyone else with an iMac retina noticed the Premiere interface being more grey than it is on a regular iMac???

[Masashi Sato]

Hi, Nicholas
Can you select Open-CL mercury engine in PremierePro? or not?

[Nicholas Natteau]

Good news!!! Yes! I was so relieved upon opening Premiere Pro CC to discover that indeed you do have the choice!

[Walter Soyka]

[Nicholas Natteau] “Though for some reason the Premiere Pro CC interface on the iMac Retina 5K is noticeably less dark (less black and more grey) than on a regular iMac. Not sure why that would be the case. But I discovered that if you into System Preferences to Display Settings – Color, and select “Apple RGB” instead of “iMac”, you will get a darker interface which is what i selected. Has anyone else with an iMac retina noticed the Premiere interface being more grey than it is on a regular iMac???”

There is an brightness preference in Premiere that governs how light or dark the gray is. The new default is quite dark, but you can adjust it in Premiere with a slider.

Changing the profile of your monitor will affect the representation of all other colors, too, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Nicholas Natteau]

Hi Walter,

I know, thank you, I already have the slider set all the way to the left – darkest. But it is a little strange that the interface looks brighter on the iMac Retina than on a non-retina. I wonder what could be causing that.