[Jak]

Yes. Good point Scott. I rarely have too many programs open when working in AE (generally, I do my work in PS or Illustrator or get the .movs from my partner – from FCP – AND then work in AE. Obviously, that’s not a hard and fast rule, as from time-to-time I forget or need to change an asset in PS or Illustrator. But, more of a generalization), but I may want 2.5GB to be safe.

Who do you recommend to buy RAM from?
(I’ve heard stories of people getting stuck with ‘bad’ RAM, and I just figured that Apple was the safe way to go.)

[Jak]

Thanks Ken and Scott. Good insight. And descriptive. I think you guys might be right. Go with the high end G5 2.7, the basic ATI 9650 and 2 GB of RAM…. buy the Radeon X800 XT to install and wait until AE can handle more than 2GB of RAM. Sounds good. Render times have always been a big issue (generally my comps are pretty big), so the faster processor (from the tests on the Apple site and what you guys are saying) is worth the money.

Thanks.

JAK

[Jak]

Also, I just did some research on the graphics cards. Seems like the Nvidia 6800 Ultra and the ATI X800 XT are pretty close. Although in the gaming world it seems like the ATI card is better. (check: https://barefeats.com/radx800.html)

Anyone want to throw their opinon in on this?

[Jak]

Hey Steve. Thanks for your 2 cents.

Regarding the RAM. I heard somewhere that AE can only use a max of 2GB of RAM and that’s why I was going to start off with that (with the idea that I could add more later to be able to have more apps running at the same time).

Another thought I had. If I do end up saving $$$ and going with the 2.0GHz G5 would I be able to add another G5 (like a 2 computer render farm) to harness more power than if I went with the 2.7GHz G5 now?

[Jak]

Greg,

I haven’t heard that PCs running AE are faster…. but, I have heard that previously about using 3D programs. I believe that most use PCs in the 3D world. However, we are now talking DUAL which would be like having 2 PCs linked together I think.

Here is where I got my info on the Apple site about performance: https://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/
It appears in the tests they did that the Dual Macs are faster than the PCs.

Steve, what are the specs of your mac systems?

I’ve used my friends Dual 1.8 G5 and it’s faster than my G4 (too be sure), but I’m wondering in AE if I’m going to see a huge difference between the 2.0GHz and the 2.7GHz processors (also the difference between the 2 graphics cards Nvidia 6800 and Radeon 9650). We’re talking a difference of several $1000. Am I REALLY going to see that difference? or is just having a DUAL 2GHz going to be pretty amazing without going up to the 2.7GHz.

The price difference (in Canada) is $1300 from the Dual 2 to the Dual 2.7 (with the 2.3 in the middle)
And the upgrade to the Nvidia 6800 is $600 more.
For what I’m predominately doing, worth the extra $$$$?

[Jak]

We ended up shooting it in a black box…. way easier. It took an hour…. verses the 3 I spent yesterday trying to imitate smoke in Particular. 🙂 Some things still are better to shoot LIVE. I’ll mark “cigarette smoke” (detail) as one of them.

[Jak]

Yeah. Kinda like that. But, WAYYYYY slower. It needs to build over 2 minutes… then suck back in 2 seconds. Also, the fractals (?) need to be WAYYY more subtle. Kinda like this slow building thing that you don’t really notice until 1 minutes in… it’s getting “foggier” and wafting…. like cigarette smoke. Any ideas?

Did you use Particule Illusion for this?
(btw, it looks excellent for chimney smoke…. like really good!)

JAK

[Jak]

Thank you for your response. I agree. I will try Particle Illusion… not enough time to learn a 3D program for this project… if that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to shoot the smoke billowing on black…. and pray.

Cheers,
JAK

[Jak]

Thank you for your response. I agree. I will try Particle Illusion… not enough time to learn a 3D program for this project… if that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to shoot the smoke billowing on black…. and pray.

Cheers,
JAK

[Jak]

Exactly!

Thank you so much…. pretty easy. But, it does the trick. I appreciate you responding so quickly. Thanks.