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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 :)

5k Retina iMac

Anything under PCI-E 2.0 8X will limit the video card performance especially with GPU acceleration. I have tested this even before Adobe's acceleration was as developed and expanded as it is now. There was a performance drop even then which means there definitely would be now.
 
Frank Glencairn said:
It depends on your needs and priorities.

The last generation i5 CPU, paired with a midrange mobile GPU from 2012, with just 2 Gig of RAM isn't gonna help.

The R9 M290X is a rebranded HD 8970M, which is a rebranded HD 7970M, which is functionally equivalent to a desktop Radeon HD 7870.
That means, the bandwidth is so limited, it can run your 5k display only at 30HZ - for 60HZ you have to lower the resolution.
Click to expand...

So if I buy the "Maxed out version" i7 with 4GB of GPU RAM I will get 60Hz at 5k but with the "entry level" i5 and 2GG of GPU RAM I will only get 30Hz at 5k?

Thanks for your input on this, Ad
 
So has it been agreed that editing original, RAW files isn't gonna happen on the 5K iMac? Even with 4.5K files? I personally like to stay RAW through the whole workflow.
 
Luke Kokinos said:
So has it been agreed that editing original, RAW files isn't gonna happen on the 5K iMac? Even with 4.5K files? I personally like to stay RAW through the whole workflow.
Click to expand...

Luke, I'm editing RAW on my one year old non-retina iMac just fine. If editing is the key task - you don't need to do it at 4K in full debayer. People have been editing with proxies for ages. But no need to generate proxies - you can stay RAW. Just set your timeline to half your finishing res (for easy scale-up at mastering stage) and you will be fine...

:sifone: Peter
 
Okay thanks. That's what I've been doing on my Hackintosh. I am curious if anyone has hit full-res debayer on the Retina model, though I have my doubts.
 
Adam Levins said:
So if I buy the "Maxed out version" i7 with 4GB of GPU RAM I will get 60Hz at 5k but with the "entry level" i5 and 2GG of GPU RAM I will only get 30Hz at 5k?
Click to expand...

Nope. Apple engineered new parts and a fatter pipe between the GPU and the display to make the 5K iMac happen. You get 60hz out of either of the GPU options, but the greater one is the logical pick from a performance standpoint.
 
I would also go with the 1TB Flash Drive.

I tend to use local on my nMP for speed I/O :)
 
Peter Majtan said:
Luke, I'm editing RAW on my one year old non-retina iMac just fine. If editing is the key task - you don't need to do it at 4K in full debayer. People have been editing with proxies for ages. But no need to generate proxies - you can stay RAW. Just set your timeline to half your finishing res (for easy scale-up at mastering stage) and you will be fine...

:sifone: Peter
Click to expand...

Hi Peter,

That's great to hear you've had success editing Raw R3Ds with your iMac. Would you mind sharing your setup for drives and editing system as I'm also at the stage of possibly upgrading to the new 5K iMac but am concerned that ultimately it may not be a powerful enough system.

I've been running FCPX on a mid 2010 i7 iMac for my Red footage for the last few years and have been using the proxy workflow with good results. R3D playback isn't brilliant in FCPX on my system, but I found that FCPX held up better than Adobe Premiere for playback, which failed to ever playback smoothly even at 1/8 res for 4K and 5K footage. The proxy workflow in FCPX has been good with the Red footage but I've been mixing GH4, DSLR and some GoPro footage into my documentary series and FCPX proxy quality isn't great with these more compressed formats. I would go with the optimised transcode option in FCPX but I have about 40TB of Red footage for this project so generating that much optimised media would cost a lot in storage, which I can't afford at this time.

I went into the Apple store today to test the new iMac in Glasgow, Scotland. Interestingly they don't have the i7 in store and they said it is an internet order only so there is no way of testing it before you buy! I had hoped to bring some R3Ds in and try them in FCPX. The guy in the Apple store said the only thing you can do is buy one and try it out at home and then you have 14 days to post it back to Apple if you find it is not up to the task. Depending on other people's experiences here, I may order one so I'd love to hear how other people get on.

I know ideally I'd go with a MacPro setup maxed out, but unfortunately I'm self-funding and blew all my money on the Epic and lenses so my post budget is very limited. I'd be really keen to hear if anyone has had success editing with relatively inexpensive drive setups too. I'm editing single layer natural history so it isn't complicated, mostly 5K originated. I just need to get smoother playback than I've had as JKL ing with the R3Ds sucks on my system!

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Pete
 
Also, forgot to say. I tried the new i5 5K Imac base model today in store. In fcpx they had some 4K 422 ProRes files, presumably living on the internal drive. Playback was a little sluggish. jKl stuttered a bit and there was a second long pause before files played back. Once it got going it was ok and I would say editing would be ok on a simple project at this Res but once you were dealing with R3D or 4444 Optimised media I suspect it would start struggling. Shame I couldn't get on an i7!

best

pete
 
I also noticed sluggish and jumping in the skateboarding holiday samples in imovie. I presume dine in a go pro like device or iPhone.
 
The retail version of the 5K iMac uses a standard 7200 RPM spindle hard drive, hence the pause/stuttering when starting playback. If you order it with the PCIe SSD instead, you'll see better performance even with the Core i5 model.
 
Nice reality check Jimmy. Reminds me of all the "fast" new external slim drives touting USB3 bandwidth, but neglecting to mention that the single 2.5" spinning drive inside is 5400RPM so you'll be lucky to get one fifth of the nominal USB3 spec.

If I wanted to get the max performance out of a 5K Retina iMac I would get at least 512GB of "flash" storage internal and then run a 4 drive or better RAID via one of the TB2 ports. My hope would be 1/4 res scrubbing from r3ds with decent JKL response. Anyone know if that's possible? If so, it's a viable creative editorial platform for native workflows in my book.

The 5K Retina iMac has some significant weaknesses when compared to a proper workstation, it's not a shredder. That said, with enough RAM and fast storage in the mix it ought to handle 1080 timelines that include r3ds decoded at 1/4 res. If not, then it's a lot less attractive to the RedUser community. I'd also be curious about where we are at with Yosemite, latest FCPX rev, latest RED Apple installer/tools and optimization of the use of GPU resources (particularly OpenCL performance).

Cheers - #19
 
If they did their job there is no need for it to jump (and I'm not talking about just the start of the video) on such low bit rate data This is MacOS we are talking about, not windows 95. That's reality.
 
Shipping times are down to around two weeks for a maxxed out configuration, if anyone wants to take a chance and order one.
 
I have a maxed out one coming in Monday, going to run some tests when it arrives and will post to this thread with my findings. I just tried playing back some 5k material my friends new 5k machine. Happy to report that 5k .r3d files were playing back smoothly and scrubbing fairly smoothly at 1/2 res in premiere, and thats off a usb3 drive and 8gb ram! I suspect that playback would not be smooth 1/2 with effects applied, but hopefully I am wrong.
 
I have had the Imac 5K for few weeks now.. it is running ok, a full HD window is very small. it can do dragon 6k in 1/4 full playback. what tests would you like?
here is my davinci test.

well in the standardcandle test my results are....
3 nodes 25 fps
6 nodes 20 fps
12 nodes 12 fps
18 nodes 8 fps
30 nodes 5 fps


Dragon 6k material in a 4k timeline=
12 fps @ full res premium
17 fps @ half res good
25 fps @ quater res good


4 fps @ quare res good with one temp noise reduction node...


25 fps @ qarter res good with one blur node..... and then I'm out of realtime...
 
Kristian,

Thankyou for your kind offer. I was wondering how many frames a second you can transcode out of RCX with 6kHD 5:1 compressed footage at Full Debayer going to say Apple Pro Res HQ?
 
I will do some testing later tonight.

#Jimmy
It is the top of iMac5k but only with 512 gb SSD.
5k screen ( 5120 X 2880 )
I7 4.0 ghz
R9 M295X with 4gb ram
32 GB 1600 MHz ram
 
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