Nick Mcmahon
Forum Replies Created
-
Hey John… yes indeed you are absolutely right, converting a single to a dual is not the most efficient way to go, however, getting a dual quad core 5,1 and then upgrading with a pair of 6 core processors is doable and a third of the cost of swapping out the single core tray.
That said you need the nerves and hands of a surgeon to perform the changeover…. I watched a guy film himself do it for the first time and it really does look like a challenge… and challenges I like… but… I’ve also found someone here in the UK that does exactly that as a business and has performed this surgery over 100 times with total success. He would be happy to do it for me if I chicken out.
So… for now I’m gonna chase one of these 8 core machines at the right price (£1000 would be a good deal) and settle into using it and maybe experiment with the power of the right GPU combo happy in the knowledge that if I reach the point where I need 12 cores because the software I’m using can use all 12 then I can swap out the dual 4 core chips for 2 x 6 core.
This website I’m sure you’ve read up on being a Mac Pro owner and I found very enlightening :
https://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-MacProWestmere-CoresExplained.htmlNick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Hey Issac…
Have you never sent a video file over the air before…?
I’ve used https://www.wetransfer.com/ for quite a while now… free for anything up to 2GB file size. If someone comes on here and is happy to show you how to do some color correction to you clip you can simply upload to that server with the recipient’s email address for them to receive a download link.
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Thanks John… do I get a sense that you’re suggesting I’d probably be better with FCPX…?
so here is my idea for Hardware.
The budget I’m currently working with means I can get this combo I’ve come up with and offline edit for now if the system struggles with 4k but means I can also buy the 4k monitor I’d like to get straight away
2010 Mac Pro 5,1
1x 6 core 3.33GHz
24 gb DDR3 RAM @ 1333mhz
1x ATI R9 280X GPU 3GB
1x 2TB HDDTotal price £1150 ($1725)
then down the track I can add in:
1x 120 gb PCI flash with partition for OS and Vegas/project media £ 178 ($268)
3x 1TB WD HDD’s with software RAID 5 for DATA £150 approx ($225)The 6 core is upgradeable at some point if I swap out the tray for a dual and then use 2 x 6 cores.
Oh… and as per my other thread suggesting I’d looked at the AMD FirePro… they are only PC configured so gone with the R9 280x
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Hmmm… well I missed that one too… but i think I’m now beginning to understand what the various combinations of spec will ultimately go for so I can adjust my bid accordingly next time.
Been looking at the AMD FirePro W5100 today… https://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-3d/5100
£277.87
Product DescriptionAMD FirePro W5100 graphics card – FirePro W5100 – 4 GB
Device TypeGraphics card
Bus TypePCI Express 3.0 x16
Graphics EngineAMD FirePro W5100
Memory4 GB – GDDR5
Stream Processors768
Memory Interface128-bit
Max Resolution4096 x 2160
Max Resolution DetailsDVI (Single-Link): 1920 x 1200 / DVI (Dual-Link): 2560 x 1600 / DisplayPort: 4096 x 2160
Max Monitors Supported4
Interfaces4 x DisplayPort , 2 x DVI – with adapter
API SupportedOpenCL 1.2, DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.4, DirectX 12, OpenCL 2.0
Package TypeRetail
Manufacturer Warranty3 years warrantyInterestingly are the benchmark tests using this GPU with Adobe PP and Open CL…
https://www.fireprographics.com/ws/mae/adobe/index.asp
Seems like it would be a good GPU at the price if it gives the same performance with SVP…?
My question is will SVP utilise the same kind of performance increase with this GPU…? The W9100 is perfect… but costs silly money for the average guy at US$3.5k !!
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
[John Rofrano] “One thing to watch out for with non-Mac Edition graphics cards is that they do not have EFI boot screen support. So if something goes wrong or you want to multi-disk boot, you can’t with those cards. You will only get a black screen with no boot information until you see the desktop. I’ve not purchased one because of this limitation”
I was also told that today by the incredibly knowledgeable guy at Create.pro…
So… armed with your answers and going with the 2.93 CPU & AMD GPU I’m bidding on this which ends in about 12 hours.
Mac Pro 2009 5.1 – This was a 2009 4.1 Mac Pro that has been professionally upgraded by a trained technician to a Mac Pro 5.1
CPU: 2 x 2.93GHz 6 core processors
(Geekbench over 27500)
GPU: nVidia GTX 680 2GB
RAM: 32GB DDR3 ECC (8 x 4GB Modules) running at 1333MHz
STORAGE: 1TB 7200RPM HDD
STORAGE: 1TB 7200RPM HDDDISK DRIVE: Superdrive DVDRW
PORTS: 5 x USB 2.0
4 x Firewire 800
2 x Gigabit Ethernet
Audio In/Out
2 x DVI
1 x HDMI
1 x Displayport
Wi-Fi 802.11n / Bluetooth Installed
OS X: 10.10 YosemitePending my winning the bid [c’mon universe… 🙂 ] I can upgrade stuff which I won’t hesitate to do for the GPU at this listed price for thr R9 280x!!!…. surely that has to be a miss print…? Does a buisness have to honour such a miss print..? I think I’ll buy several
Upgrade options:
Graphics Card
GTX 680 – Included
R9 280X – £50
GTX 780 – £349
An additional power supply is recomeneded or the CPU and GPU will run slower. Available for £59Hard Drive
In addition to the standard configuration:
128GB SSD – £70
240GB SSD – £135
512GB SSD – £165
1TB SSD – £340And I’ll add a 512gb SSD and run the included HDD’s with a software RAID 0 for now until I get some more money and then set up a RAID controller with flash memory
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Thanx John… I’ve been trying to work out which of the 2.66,2.93,3.06 and 3.46 was all round best value versus performance… so now I have to wonder if the universe knew that and made sure I didn’t win that bid…lol
Then again if I can buy a system cheaply enough with 2.66 then upgrade to a 2.93 for the right price then that will work just as well.
Just chatting with a Mac Pro geek who works here in London at Create.Pro and he suggests that their testing has shown the R9 280x runs at a more stable temp than the 290 inside a Mac so they don’t sell the 290.The R9 allows for 3 generic screens to be added whereas the Mac Pro standard 5770 and even 5870 is rigged to work with 3 but 2 of them have to be Apple monitors.
Do you know… Will the R9 280x offer Open CL and will it increase render performance with Sony AVC codec…? (having read your comments on your website about no Main Concept AVC support with the R9 290)
Post edit :What are your thoughts on using the nVidia 780 with VP12 which offers Open CL and CUDA and apparently works well inside a Mac Pro..?
It also will work decently with FCP, tho not as good as the R9 280x, but my thinking here is the nVidia 780 will be a good compromise when I will no doubt want to begin playing with FCP over on the other side.
So I guess all in all I’d like to find the best value compromise GPU that will work for both VP12 [with render support using CUDA..? (for Main Concept AVC… and Sony AVC?)] AND FCP inside a Mac Pro AND allow at least 3 generic screens to plug in, one of which will be 4k res
cheers
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Cheers John… yes I figured ‘try before you buy’ on any new machine is a must do, but was interested to hear from the likes of yourself who have high spec hardware and experience with VP13.
BTW… I just missed getting this by £29… it went for £1390 (US$2085) Was used by a cinema 4d graphics business. It woulda needed a stripe RAID 0 and some tweaking … That’ll teach me for trying to get it too cheaply when I shoulda decided on a maximum price and bid that with 5 seconds to go. This same set-up here in the UK from the seller refurbishers are £1895.
MODEL: Mac Pro Mid 2010
CPU: Dual 2.66Ghz 6 Core Intel Xeon Processors
RAM: 24GB DDR3 ECC (6 x 4GB Modules)
GPU1:ATI Radeon HD 5770 1Gb
GPU2: Nvidia GeForce GT 120STORAGE1: Corsair 32Gb SATA Solid State – System Drive
STORAGE2: 620Gb SATA – Application Drive
STORAGE3: 2Tb Western Digital Green 64Mb Cache – Data Drive1
STORAGE3: 2Tb Western Digital Green 64Mb Cache – Data Drive2
DISK DRIVE: Superdrive DVDRWNick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Thanks very much as always for the explanation… now I properly understand that project properties are primarily intended for how the timeline preview is displayed so we can see what the delivery will look like.
here’s where my misunderstanding came from…. because when you try to customise a render template there are several tabs at the bottom one of which is marked ‘project’
Stupidly I didn’t clock the ‘Rendering Quality’ refers to only that specific choice which can be set in the PP’s and of course you can drop the menu down in the template which then gives you the same choices for rendering quality as in the PP’s
I thought it was using ALL the PP settings…. DOH !! That’ll teach me for fishing around and looking at stuff without properly understanding it. Comes back to the point that Sony doesn’t offer a tutorial explanation on the customisation of templates and what effect each setting will have… at least I haven’t found one yet.
So that now makes sense about the use of the UpRez plug-in too tho I need to read up on how to use the settings to get the best overall quality increase in a clip… it really only has any noticeable effect on SD to HD because as you say Vegas does a good job of resizing 720 to 1080.
On a completely different note while I think of it… the 3.06GHz 12 core Mac Pro I sent you the link to went for US$1995… bargain if they go for 3000+ in the states… hopefully I can get one for a similar price when I’ve saved enough
cheers
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
Brilliant… I’ll get the BCC UpRez plug-in out of the box and have a play… how did I not clock that when I went thru the CC package… DOH !!
So… my project has begun with a whole load of 720 footage but will end with a montage of footage shot in Dubai at the competition where it’s required to submit 1080 for judges to view.
So I’ve clocked from your explanation how Vegas resizes on-the-fly in the timeline and not left until the render process… makes sense now… thanks
Would I in fact be better off changing my project properties to 1080 and have the 720 resized…? will the end result be better if it’s viewed on a 1080 capable monitor?
In other words should you always set the properties to that of the highest res footage you are using when there are varying sizes of clips being used in a project..?
And perhaps utilize the ‘UpRez’ plug-in on the 720 footage also…?
One more question: This 720 x 576 footage is shot at 25fps… so would it be better to change the project to 24p as surely leaving it at 30p will mean 5 frames have to be manufactured every second of this footage…?
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
-
That’s an interesting point I hadn’t considered and worth me researching… ‘Fair use’
It would seem perfectly logical and totally ‘fair’ to allow people to produce a composition that includes a snippet of an original work, for instance when composing a short parody such as the one I’ve done.
It has a few seconds of ‘brains’ from a Thunderbirds episode with completely different audio dubbed to make it look like he’s saying something that is taken from an unrelated audio recording. The 2 parts are married up to form the parody and as they both now form something that is totally different from the original, my naturally bias but logical thought process sees that as perfectly ‘fair use’.
As I’ve been told already by a chap from Sony/ATV, because my project is not for commercial gain whatsoever, then a sync licence should be easily obtained. I hope he’s right.
cheers
Nick… BASE1268
3…2…1…C ya
