Editing R3D Raw on Mac Studio

[Geno Marx]

Does anyone have experience with the new Mac Studio M1 Max or Ultra. I'm curious if either is powerful enough to handle R3D raw 6K. Obviously if the base model is sufficient then that would be great. I prefer Adobe Premiere over Resolve too. Thanks

 

[Brian Timmons]

From my my experience the base level Mac Studio M1 Max (24 core) 32GB ram can handle 6K Komodo R3D quite well at full resolution in RCX.

8K V-Raptor footage in LQ full res playback seems to also play fine though it does start maxing out the GPU. 8K V-Raptor at MQ Full res playback starts to stutter
but half res is fine.

I edit primarily in FCP and the performance seems similar to the RCX performance though I have a feeling RCX may be a little better.
Not sure how well Premiere may perform. Have yet to test Resolve but I think it will likely playback quite well.

Compared to a 32 core MacBook Pro Max there seems to be a 10-15% difference in GPU usage but the performance feels about the same.

Hope this helps.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA

 

[Geno Marx]

From my my experience the base level Mac Studio M1 Max (24 core) 32GB ram can handle 6K Komodo R3D quite well at full resolution in RCX.

8K V-Raptor footage in LQ full res playback seems to also play fine though it does start maxing out the GPU. 8K V-Raptor at MQ Full res playback starts to stutter
but half res is fine.

I edit primarily in FCP and the performance seems similar to the RCX performance though I have a feeling RCX may be a little better.
Not sure how well Premiere may perform. Have yet to test Resolve but I think it will likely playback quite well.

Compared to a 32 core MacBook Pro Max there seems to be a 10-15% difference in GPU usage but the performance feels about the same.

Hope this helps.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA

Thanks for sharing that info. Reassuring that the Mac Studio is a good option. I like having the flexibility of using whichever NLE I choose for projects including FCPX and Resolve though Premiere is usually my default. I haven't tried using RCX but I might give it a go. The system I am considering purchasing is the M1 Max 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64GB ram and 1TB SSD.

 

[Brian Timmons]

Thanks for sharing that info. Reassuring that the Mac Studio is a good option. I like having the flexibility of using whichever NLE I choose for projects including FCPX and Resolve though Premiere is usually my default. I haven't tried using RCX but I might give it a go. The system I am considering purchasing is the M1 Max 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64GB ram and 1TB SSD.

Glad I could help Geno.
Testing would be the best bet but I do think it should playback 6K Komodo quite well.
Bear in mind that all the edit systems seem to still be fine tuning Metal and M1 support for R3D.

I also notice that there are some performance differences with the different flavors of R3D as it relates to Wavelet based compression
(used in earlier DSMC 1&2 RED cameras) and the DCT compression (used in the current DSMC 3 camers) where DCT based compression yields better performance.

While M1 Max can play 8K V-Raptor well it does not handle 8K Monstro quite as well.
8K Monstro stutters much more at Full Res requiring one to go down to half res for decent playback.
This opposed to 8K V-Raptor which can play nicely at Full Res in LQ mode and pretty well in MQ mode.

I've only performed limited testing but these are my observations.
There are some tests on YouTube that you might be able to find that tests some of this as well.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA

 

[Geno Marx]

Since I'm new to RED, I've been doing some tests myself on my other machine (Alienware with Adobe Premiere). My Mac 2013 trashcan is just too slow even with 4K ProRes. It's definitely time to replace it. On my Alienware R12, I was able to work fine with 6K raw in the timeline. 3 cam setup. It all seemed fairly smooth with playback and scrubbing the timeline but I think I had the resolution set to 1/2. I'm going to be shooting more test footage this weekend and do further testing. I also want to figure out the proxy workflow since that seems to be standard for a lot of people.

 

[Brian Timmons]

Since I'm new to RED, I've been doing some tests myself on my other machine (Alienware with Adobe Premiere). My Mac 2013 trashcan is just too slow even with 4K ProRes. It's definitely time to replace it. On my Alienware R12, I was able to work fine with 6K raw in the timeline. 3 cam setup. It all seemed fairly smooth with playback and scrubbing the timeline but I think I had the resolution set to 1/2. I'm going to be shooting more test footage this weekend and do further testing. I also want to figure out the proxy workflow since that seems to be standard for a lot of people.

Cool- would be interested to hear your findings.
One thing that puts things into perspective is the base model Mac Studio markedly outperforms a base Mac Pro at a 1/3 of the price.
Granted the Mac Pro is much more expandable but the stock Mac Studio covers a good majority of what most pro editors would need.

In fact one can argue that the price/performance difference is even more if you factor in the Prores acceleration that is built into the M1 Max
which actually outperforms the $2k Afterburner card that offers similar functionality in the Mac Pro.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA

 

[JimOwen]

Does anyone have experience with the new Mac Studio M1 Max or Ultra. I'm curious if either is powerful enough to handle R3D raw 6K. Obviously if the base model is sufficient then that would be great. I prefer Adobe Premiere over Resolve too. Thanks

Yes I've been using Premiere on my M1 Max with 64GB and it's been good. I've mainly used R3D LQ on simple timelines, but it's been fine and no crashes.

 

[Thomas Buchan]

Apple M1 Max / 64GB here. Komodo 6K LQ plays at 1/2 Res in PPRO no problem. Monstro stutters in Davinci. If you're doing really CPU intensive work might be worth going Ultra.