Steve Forde
Forum Replies Created
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Obviously we are pitching Nucleo, but the benchmarks in blue are “AE only” and will compare different workstations using different CPU configurations.
https://www.gridironxfactor.com/products/nucleo_benchmarks_tt.asp
Steve
GridIron Software Inc. -
When we got our G5 Quad to test Nucleo, it came with bad RAM. We had to replace the 1GB we ordered with it, then all was fine.
For some reason I think the supplier of factory RAM for this workstation (as opposed to other Apple workstations) may have dropped the ball somewhere. Have seen many other Quad owners have similar problems.
Check out – https://www.memtestosx.org/ – this may give you a clue, but be sure to follow instructions carefully.
If you are getting the dark screen asking you to power down by holding the power button (alot), or you get kernel panic (see alot of white text with black background just start scrolling across the screen), 9 times out of ten its bad RAM.
Also – if the RAM is bad – using AE will really bring that problem up. AE uses ALOT of RAM.
Steve
GridIron Software Inc. -
I posted this before, but just in case….
Not that I will comment on anything that AE 7 will or won’t do, it would seem a little odd that Adobe would endorse Nucleo if there were no gains to be seen with a future release so close according to their website.
From the Nucleo press release…
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Nucleo is designed specifically to use all CPU within your workstation. It will speed previews, and renders to either image sequence or movie. Performance gains can be quite dramatic, yet this is entirely dependent on the effects used within any composition.
X-Factor is designed to use machines other than your workstation for the horsepower. In fact, by default, X-Factor will not use your workstation at all for rendering.
That said, I would give Nucleo a go first. It will available on Thursday, and you can test for yourself the performance of the product.
On the other hand, X-Factor really doesn’t shine unless you have a fast network, large disks, fast processors and synchronization between all fonts, plugins and footage. Basically, unless you are going to throw alot of hardware at X-Factor, and have the expertise to properly set it all up – Nucleo is definitely the way to go.
We are going to be releasing a new version of X-Factor in the early part of the new year. The goal is to provide an easier, more stable and faster version than what is currently available. After giving Nucleo a run, and you still want to try using the other machines, I would suggest waiting for the next release of X-Factor based on the hardware you have to throw at it.
Lastly, Nucleo and X-Factor are designed to co-exist.
Steve
GridIron Software Inc. -
Ummm..yep. They were all done by yours truly here in our lab.
That said, not “every” project will perform like the ones currently posted. Some are better, some are worse.
As an example, using the primatte 3 plugin from Red Giant, a G5 Quad will reduce the time it takes to render a given project by over 70%. However, another project like “Nightflight” will see only a time reduction of only 15%.
Its the reason why we posted the “Averages” benchmarks. These charts for RAM Preview, Render to Image Sequence, and Render to Movie represent what you should see “on average” across multiple projects. The averages were calculated using over 50 projects, all at different resolutions, using different effects. There is also an average for each workstation type (G5 Quad, AMD Quad, Dual Intel, Single Intel, Dual G5, and Dual-Core).
Lastly, we provided all the benchmarks as “% Faster”, which is calculated by taking the Standalone AE time, minus the Nucleo time, and dividing by the Nucleo time or (AE – Nucleo) / Nucleo.
There is also a tab for “% Time Decrease” (my personal preference), which is calculated by taking the Standalone AE time, minus the Nucleo time and divided by the Standalone time or (AE – Nucleo) / AE. This number will tell you actually how much time is saved as a percentage by using Nucleo.
Check out the averages at: https://www.gridironxfactor.com/products/nucleo_benchmarks.asp
Steve
GridIron Software Inc. -
Thanks Ron.
I will say this. X-Factor is not for the faint at heart. Networking, Fonts, Plugins, Data Storage etc, across multiple machines, all have to be singing in tune to see X-Factor really perform. So unless you really know what you are doing on all these fronts, X-Factor may be a little overwhelming.
We are working on an upcoming release to make this more simple to use, and yes…there is a nasty bug that shows its head on very large networks when rendering projects with say 30000 frames in them at 8K resolutions. The next patch fixes these issues.
As for Nucleo, one of the reasons we created it was to provide benefit for “the rest of us”. Dual / Quad CPU machines are becoming the norm, and the performance we can achieve can be quite dramatic with Nucleo.
(Answering another post on this thread’s question)….
AE is a nicely threaded application in terms of multiple processors and rendering (kudos to Adobe), I think since 5.5. Its that most of the effects are not (including AE’s built in effects) . AE’s stellar native capabilities for multi-processing is really how Nucleo can exist. Nucleo focuses on getting all effects and layers etc to properly use all CPU regardless of its optimization level.
Also – a very common theme we heard from users of the free version of X-Factor that came with 6.5 pro, was “would love to try it on more computers, but I just have my workstation”. This is what lead to the creation of Nucleo.
Lastly, as opposed to running multiple instances of AE and using watch folder, Nucleo will optimize the render of movies, image sequences, multiple output modules (watchfolder will not do this in “skip existing frame” mode) and also do RAM, Shift-RAM and Spacebar Previews.
Steve
GridIron Software Inc. -
Not that I will comment on anything that AE 7 will or won’t do, it would seem a little odd that Adobe would endorse Nucleo if there were no gains to be seen with a future release so close according to their website.
From the Nucleo press release…