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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Does anyone know if I can even use my current Mac Pro to edit Scarlet Footage?

D

Damien Collier

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Hello,
I am about to pull the trigger on a Scarlet purchase. It's gonna take everything I can right now to make that purchase happen, so I'm hesitant to do much else (financially right now). Will my computer even handle it or will it suck so bad it's not worth it?
Could I get by using Premiere 5.5 with this computer configuration? (10 year FCP user :sad:)
I would prefer to wait for a new Thunderbolt equipped machine and get the latest architecture later. But..........if there was one or two things that I could do to this machine to make it actually work well......what would they be? If not, then I would like to know that too. Thanks in advance!

This is my machine:
Mac Pro Early 2008
Processor: 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 10 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
Blackmagic Intensity Card
Seagate Cheetah SATA drives (additional internal)
G Tech (basic-non RAID ) external
 
Don't expect too much performance. Unfortunantly these modells don't run with a Cuda card. And the inbuilt ATI does not really supports the graphic well. We have 2 of these Macs too and we try to implemate two hacked Cuda cards. I let you know if it works. We're still experimenting. But I'm looking forward to the next Mac Pros. Our dealer said they should have a great perormance - let's see.

Cheers
Thomas.
 
You will be just fine! I used a single original model Mac Pro (single quad) to edit 50 major Multicam Red 1 projects for 2 years before upgrading.

Trust me, it's all about workflow.

Plan your time wisely and it will serve you perfecctly.

The key is transcoding to ProRes for editing. You can always go back to the R3Ds later if needed.

I originally saw transcoding time as film processing. That put me in the right mindset.

After your shoot, go home and copy your footage to a couple of drives for safety. Then open your clips in Red Cine X Pro (free) and get them looking close to how you want. This should only take a few minutes. You can copy looks to all takes, save preset looks, it's very fast.

Then start all your clips transcoding to ProRes and go do something else. Depending on how much footage you shot it could take a couple of hours or could be the next morning but BAM, you are now ready to edit and it will be just as fast as editing anything else because it's in ProRes.

I used to come home with 7 hours worth of 4K Red files from a live show (6 Reds) and even I would be editing within a couple of days.

Think about the process and the best way to utilize your time and you'll be fine.
 
Thank you for your thoughts. It does make the most sense (given what I have) to take the time hit on transcoding, knowing the machine can handle it once it is done. I would prefer to stay in an FCP environment anyway, given all my plugins will still work too!
 
Will be just fine for 3K Scarlet. In fact, you can edit 4K and 5K on this system if you're set up right. CUDA acceleration can help some things, primarily transitions, scaling and certain FX, it does not accelerate the decompression or de-bayer processing of R3D.

With the 2008 Mac Pro system, the biggest bottleneck is the memory speed. RAM only operates at 800MHz and it is a terrible bottleneck to the CPUs for any memory-intensive tasks.

I wouldn't dump too much money into the system, but from what you have listed, there are two things you could do to boost performance. First would be to increase the RAM. 10GB suggests that you may have an odd number of DIMMs or improperly matched DIMMs, which could be hampering performance. On the 2008 Mac Pro, it's best to populate all DIMM sockets on both RAM cards with identical modules. For an 8-core system running CS5.5 to its fullest, you should have 16GB RAM or more. The next thing to address would be your graphics card. People often assume that CUDA acceleration is where Premiere CS5.5 gets most of its acceleration. That's actually not true. However, it does help and if you can find a decent deal on GTX285 Mac Edition card, it would be a nice upgrade for Premiere and will give you a noticeable performance boost for many operations. Most noticeably for any effects that are labeled as being GPU-accelerated. Failing that, your next best GPU option is actually a re-flashed GTX285 to have the Apple EFI. Be sure you don't fall victim to the numerous scammers out there selling lesser GTX260 or 270 cards claiming they're the 285. There's another thread on that around here somewhere, recent in the past few days, and even has some info on where you might obtain a card that will work.
 
Jeff's advice is always the best! My DaVinci system is running like a dream following his tips.

If you're staying in FCP and not likely to go Adobe, the CUDA boost may not be necessary.

For me the Red Rocket changed everything, but it costs more than a new Mac, and really only if you have dozens of hours of footage you need to get through quickly.
Did my first year on the 1st gen Mac Pro without it and got along fine, as long as I kept my expectations in check.
 
Thomas Pohl said:
Hi Jeff,
are you sure that the GTX285 runs on an early 2008 Modell? That's not what I've heard before.
Click to expand...

As long as it really is a 2008 Mac Pro, you're fine. So, I guess what do you mean by "early 2008 model"? The specs in Damien's original post line-up with an '08 Mac Pro, he should be fine. There is only one revision or model of the '08 Mac Pro. Various CPU and HDD options aside....

The GTX285 is incompatible with the 2006/2007 Mac Pro system. If I recall, the '08 Mac Pro doesn't show the post screen with the GTX285, so you don't see anything on your Mac until the GTX is initialized by the OS. I don't believe drivers for the card were rolled into OSX until 10.6.3. Before that, you had to do the OSX install to the drive from another system or install another graphics card (like the one that came with the Mac Pro) to do the install, then reboot and install the proper GTX drivers first.

http://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/GTX285_MacPro_EN.pdf
 
I'm walking on thin ice now (my hardware knowledge is not good) but:
Mac 2008 modells up Vers. 2.1 have PCIe slots Vers. 1.1. Mac Pros use PCIe slots Vers. 2.0 from Mac Pros 3.1 which are necessary for the powerfull graphic card. And you can't change the slots on a Mac.
I wish I was wrong - but that's what I read in a german forum.

Cheers
Thomas.
 
My Mac Pro 2x2.8ghz Quad-Core 5400 Xeon machine is 3.1 and works with CUDA cards. Everything else Jeff says is true about the machine. Make sure to have the 16GB RAM in proper configuration. I was just playing back some R3Ds in PP CS5.5.1 in Kona Sequence playing out Kona 3G HD-SDI to TV Logic monitor and I'll be damned it was playing back smoothly at 1/2 res. I have an ATI 3870 and a Red Rocket in the machine. Oh yeah and the Kona isn't supposed to play nice with Rocket. YMMV :-)
 
Mac Pro 2008 has 2 x PCIe v2.0 slots; both 16-lane as slots 1 & 2. The other two slots, 3 & 4, are PCIe v1.1 and are 4-lanes. In the '09/'10 Mac Pro (essentially the same logic board), there are still 2 at X16 and 2 at X4, but all slots are PCIe v2.0.

For a performance graphics card on the Mac, the GTX285 is probably the best bet for the 2008 Mac Pro (Mac Pro 3.1). The Quadro 4000 card is a better overall choice these days for current systems, however it requires a full 64bit EFI and is only compatible with the 2009 (4.1) and 2010 models.

The old 2006~2007 Mac Pro system had only PCIe v1.1 slots and lanes were assignable via a slot configuration utility.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Mac Pro 2008 has 2 x PCIe v2.0 slots; both 16-lane as slots 1 & 2. The other two slots, 3 & 4, are PCIe v1.1 and are 4-lanes. In the '09/'10 Mac Pro (essentially the same logic board), there are still 2 at X16 and 2 at X4, but all slots are PCIe v2.0.

For a performance graphics card on the Mac, the GTX285 is probably the best bet for the 2008 Mac Pro (Mac Pro 3.1). The Quadro 4000 card is a better overall choice these days for current systems, however it requires a full 64bit EFI and is only compatible with the 2009 (4.1) and 2010 models.

The old 2006~2007 Mac Pro system had only PCIe v1.1 slots and lanes were assignable via a slot configuration utility.
Click to expand...

Jeff, the 4000 should be compatible with the Mac Pro 2008 V3.1 machines like mine. http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-quadro-4000-mac-us.html


Mac Pro Requirements: >>To find out if you are running the correct Mac Pro, go to About This Mac to find out what system you are running. You can find this by doing the following:

Go to • About This Mac
Click on the • More Info button
Select • Hardware
The model identifier should be MacPro3,1 or MacPro4,1 (2008 or 2009) or later
Note: MacPro1,1 and MacPro2,1 are not compatible.
 
You're right. That will teach me to post tech specs at 2:30 in the morning. I gotta go shut down for a bit.
 
Does anyone know if I can even use my current Mac Pro to edit Scarlet Footage?
Click to expand...

Going back to the question.

I have a MacPro 2,1 2008

I am running RCXP no problem and I am editing RED EPIC files no problem.

Scarlet footage would be a lot less I think.

I think you have more than you need for Scarlet, you might want to RAID your internal Drives for speed.

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP21.007F.B06
SMC Version (system): 1.15f3
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
You're right. That will teach me to post tech specs at 2:30 in the morning. I gotta go shut down for a bit.
Click to expand...
It's okay because that may be the first and only time I'll have some info you didn't already have when it comes to computers, IT, etc. Your knowledge is deep sir.
 
Fabian Benninghoven said:
@ Jeff:

Do you know if the Mac GTX285 will work in a 2.1 MacPro ?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that it won't work in a Mac Pro 2,1. I have never personally tried it, but both the GTX285 users guide, and everything else I have seen about it, says the card requires a Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) model or newer.
 
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