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5K iMac with external Video card...R/Rocket-X alternatives?

Adam Griffith

Adam Griffith

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Hi all,

I'm about to grab a new 5K iMac with the highest specifications (32gb ram,1tb SSD etc etc)
I have considered a RED Rocket-x Card in an external thunderbolt case however the card is somewhat out of my reach financially.

I'm wondering if anyone here can suggest an alternative to help me speed up my work flow (as my current 2013 mac struggles with 6k)
without blowing the budget through the roof?

Is there another card I can get and use externally to get close to a RR-X?

I understand the Rocket-x is specifically designed for R3D code and I probably wont be able to match it with an alternative however in the interest of not going bust its something I need to explore the option.
The Australian dollar is killing me at the moment a RR-X would be close to $10k new (foreign exchange+tax etc).

Thanks in Advance
 
Hey Adam

I bought a 5K Retina iMac earlier this year, to be honest, with a decent amount of RAM, SSD drive and like Bob said a fast external raid, the machine offers a pretty damn decent performance and allows you to edit in 6K natively without any headaches.
 
To save a few bucks, order the IMac with 8gb ram and then get the 64gb aftermarket.
 
Dominik Muench said:
Hey Adam

I bought a 5K Retina iMac earlier this year, to be honest, with a decent amount of RAM, SSD drive and like Bob said a fast external raid, the machine offers a pretty damn decent performance and allows you to edit in 6K natively without any headaches.
Click to expand...


Great to know. Did you get 32GB RAM? I read the first 5K iMacs are capped at 32GB (model #15.1) and the late 2015 models (#17.1) are good for 64GB. However the apple store online doesn't even have 64GB as an option? I suspect they're rolling out old stock still here in Australia. I will go in store and check for sure.

The 32GB option through Apple is $960AUD and the 64GB OWC option works out to be around $1115AUD after exchange and tax.

I use a Lacie 5Big 20TB thunderbolt II external drive setup in RAID 6 so it passes a reasonable amount of data. If I need to re-config the RAID for more speed then i have that option.
I use a Samsung 1TB SSD with the macbook pro when on the road and it seems to do better with 6K than my current iMac does.

What are you editing with Dominik? Premiere or FCPX? I'm reading FCPX is a more stable and faster option so I'm about to try it out, I've never used it before.

I got your PM also Dominik. Thanks, I appreciate it.
 
I bought the 16gb version and upgraded RAM myself with the OWC kit, dont ever by Apple RAM, its hopelessly overpriced and upgrading memory is super easy, takes 2 min. max.
I'm a FCPX guy and the 6K RED raw support works perfectly.
 
Go for 64gb ram for sure, it works on the most recently released Imac 5k.

I constantly run out of ram at with 32gb in my last gen imac 5k, although I am working on massive computer intensive projects right now. Still I think 64gb would help out all in all.

OWC has been nothing but solid for my ram needs: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/1867DDR3S64S/
 
It his very sad state of affairs, where best power Mac solution is still an old MacPro 5.1. Upgrade it with fastest CPUs, install GTX 980, get plenty of RAM and it will still run circles around current Trashcan with it's limited and very expensive expendability options and endless render glitches . I know this doesn't answer the OP question directly, but my answer, nevertheless, I'd sell Trashcan and get MacPro 5.1.
 
I'm sitting here surrounded by 4 old school Mac Pro towers and no trashcans - because I agree with Jake. Really hoping the next version of the cylinder MacPro changes that equation - so I could say goodbye to the noise, heat, power usage, lack of TB I/O, etc of the old towers.

With the performance of the current iMac models being so good, I wish they'd aim their next "Pro" offering only at real power users. Of course that might not be practical until more die shrunk components are available to fit the 450W envelope.

Cheers - #19
 
So then I guess none of you guys would be interested in the 8-core trash can I'm selling? :P. Really though, I do have one for sale and it's very nice for a lot of things. Not on the top of my list for R3D workflow lately though. Adobe, Apple and AMD are all equally liable in the current state of the GPUs -- render glitches, crappy drivers, lack of optimization or even general attention. Yeah. Apple really needs to get serious about this whole GPU thing. Especially if they're going to make a serious push for VR anytime soon.
 
So you can definitely upgrade the current iMac 5K to 64GB of RAM? I'm ordering mine tomorrow morning, and was about to buy 32GB from B&H. Apple's online literature lists the iMac 5K with a max of 32GB.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
So then I guess none of you guys would be interested in the 8-core trash can I'm selling? :P. Really though, I do have one for sale and it's very nice for a lot of things. Not on the top of my list for R3D workflow lately though. Adobe, Apple and AMD are all equally liable in the current state of the GPUs -- render glitches, crappy drivers, lack of optimization or even general attention. Yeah. Apple really needs to get serious about this whole GPU thing. Especially if they're going to make a serious push for VR anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Filmlight's Daylight runs very well on a Trashcan. Because the Daylight tuned to run exclusively under just OpenCL, it runs much better on Trashcan, than on MacPro 5.1 with nVidia. But I can't justify buying a single purpose application computer. OpenCL is getting better, but the true power is still with CUDA. In my power computer I want nVidia GPUs and dual CPUs with the ability to expand over a truly high speed bus.
 
Hi Adam,

You may be interested in this.
Im pretty sure there are other brands out there that do the same.

https://bizon-tech.com/us/bizonbox2-egpu.html

External enclosure via Thunderbolt to mount different options of nVidia GPUs

I do not own one but i'm pretty sure that they work as they say they do. You can get an nVidia GTX 980 4GB and the enclosure for around 1300$
It seems to me a pretty fair price.

Here's a review of it working on a MacBook Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX8Y2NWs7vg

If you decide to get it i'll be glad to know how it works :)

You can do this with a Sonnet Express Echo-III as well but this is way more cheap
 
Does anyone have any experience with the Bizon Box option? Would love to know if it offers significant advantages over the stock 5k iMac GPU.

I currently have a Rocket-X in a Sonnett Echo enclosure and it really helps Red playback... can play 6k at 1/2 res in Premiere smoothly. I'm wondering if adding an additional GPU via Bizon would complement this setup, as I was under the impression the Rocket only accelerates Red footage... so an NVIDIA 980 in a Bizon may still help accelerate effects and any non-RED formats on the timeline such as GoPro, Drone, and Canon/Nikon timelapses. Any thoughts on whether this makes sense, or is another graphics card in addition to the Rocket-X redundant?

Ultimately I'm trying to get the absolute most performance out of this 5k iMac (already fully loaded with processor and memory). Anyone know of any other rabbit holes to go down to enhance performance in Premiere?
 
Ben Sturgulewski said:
Does anyone have any experience with the Bizon Box option? Would love to know if it offers significant advantages over the stock 5k iMac GPU.

I currently have a Rocket-X in a Sonnett Echo enclosure and it really helps Red playback... can play 6k at 1/2 res in Premiere smoothly. I'm wondering if adding an additional GPU via Bizon would complement this setup, as I was under the impression the Rocket only accelerates Red footage... so an NVIDIA 980 in a Bizon may still help accelerate effects and any non-RED formats on the timeline such as GoPro, Drone, and Canon/Nikon timelapses. Any thoughts on whether this makes sense, or is another graphics card in addition to the Rocket-X redundant?

Ultimately I'm trying to get the absolute most performance out of this 5k iMac (already fully loaded with processor and memory). Anyone know of any other rabbit holes to go down to enhance performance in Premiere?
Click to expand...


Im curious too. Whats up with the Bizon?
 
Even if you put a Titan in the external chassis you'd get little benefit. Meaningful support for external GPUs over TB2, even with ElCap, is still weak sauce. Next generation chipsets for TB3 (using USB-Type C connectors, BTW) are designed to support eGPU applications such as RedUsers require, but until they hit the marketplace I'd only pull the trigger if you are 100% sure your particular software and key tasks will be accelerated. YMMV.

Cheers - #19
 
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