[Craig Seeman]

I made clear the concrete technical differences in my first post.
The debate was over there was real world impact, as I see it.

For most people, maybe not.
The wall is real and there are some workflows that can hit it though, maybe not for editing though but that’s not the only video work I do.
So for editing, just sayin’
… but if you need live access to multiple devices on USB3, you can do things on MBPr that can’t be done on MacPro.

[Craig Seeman]

Target Roles while editing much as one would target a track.

Two timeline viewers to do shot to shot comparison while grading.

Multiple scopes open for each Viewer.

Two up when trimming using the keyboard rather than only with mouse.

“FCPX Theater” to AppleTV

Order from delivery.com, Seamless, GrubHub from pull down menu while editing. 😉

[Craig Seeman]

[Gary Huff] “So you’re not “just sayin'” then?”

My guess it would be rare for most people and for those who might bump into this there’d be easy solution by replacing USB3 with an equivalent Thunderbolt.

The limitation does seem to be real and while OWC didn’t give me the tech explanation they said I’d be better off with Thunderbolt 4 bay for JBOD use.

The difference between USB3 on MacPro and MacBook Pro is real and that’s certainly not “just sayin’ ”

[Craig Seeman]

It wouldn’t be uncommon on a small live streaming job to use two thunderbolt and one USB3 port for 3 HD camera in and then recording ProRes to an external USB3 drive.

There’s less necessity to do that on a MacPro, given the number Thunderbolt ports… but if you’re using the same peripherals and trying to use the MacPro, which may see more on location use given its small size, you could find a bottleneck if you’ve been using two high throughput USB3 devices. Easy to work around though.

[Gary Huff] “So you don’t really mean that?”

Basically it could happen unless one is aware of the limitation, hence, my reason for starting this thread.

[Craig Seeman]

Or another way to put it is that the MacPro, Thunderbolt PCIe had a higher priority given the greater potential utility and demands. Only so many lanes to go around.

[Craig Seeman]

So while doing a live stream one is recording ProRes 422 1080p29.97 on one drive, playing back a ProRes 422 clip on another, using a Magewell SDI to USB3 device for HD camera in doing a Picture in Picture with the clip. I think that might be pushing things far. Based on the above info that might be easier to do on a 15″ MBPRetina. Just saying…

[Craig Seeman]

Source video specs they gave you?
Version of FCP?
Sequence settings?

[Craig Seeman]

[Tom Sefton] “I’m not aware of any USB3.0 RAIDs that have more than 2 hard drives, “

Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 can do USB3 RAID.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Desktop/

Although I was thinking of using it just for JBOD purposes. OWC said Thunderbay IV would be more appropriate for JBOD use as well as JBOD and RAID combination.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/External-Drive/OWC/ThunderBay-IV

[Craig Seeman]

[Gary Huff] “Which is why there are only four.”

The issue is not that there are only four but that all for are on only one PCIe lane.
The MBP Retina only has two but each are one their own PCIe lane.

Two lanes on Retina
One lane on MacPro.
Retina will have better performance on USB3 RAIDs. Retina can use two devices on separate buses for maximum throughput.

[Craig Seeman]

Odd thing about “regional” aspect is that Tekserve and B&H are about a mile apart and Tekserve has the two “stock” models in stock and B&H has 4 to 6 weeks. Apple Stores in the same area are all “ship to store.”