DRAGON 12 Core Mac Pro Transcode speed test vs MBP Retina.

[BigLu]

NASA footage transcode tests.

Ive had this Beautiful MAC PRO 12Core new computer to test out and here are my results.

Journey to Space 3D in IMAX is shooting a very cool piece on Dragon Cameras celebrating the achievements of the Space Shuttle program, while looking toward the future of human space flight.
I was lucky to Transcode 832GB of Dragon footage for them.

This gave me a perfect reason to test out the iTrashcan New MACPRO, AKA Apple R2D2, Nuclear fusion can reactor, call it whatever you may its the NEW revolutionary Desktop Professional Computer by Apple and Its a sweet break threw in design along with size.
I love the way it looks, feels and sits on any desktop or table.


This particular model was the
NEW MAC PRO 12 Core 2.7 GHz
64GB Memory
Graphics Cards AMD FirePro D700
Running OSX 10.9.1

Thunderbolt connected
LACIE Hard drive 832gb of Dragon 6K 2to1 footage. RedCode compression 5to1 took me 2hrs 45minutes to Transcode to ProRes422HQ 1/2 Debayer good in RCX.
Im not exactly sure how i got such fast times out of that transcode but Thats what I feel I got.
( Its possible im off on that timing and i apologize it was a rush job.)


DISCLAIMER and Edit Everything below this was done on RCX VER 23 Beta I shouldn't have used that due to its not taking advantage of the dual graphics cards i believe
anyhow my results below are not useful
I will not erase them but its not worth getting into them

SORRY
Luis
Since then I've done some more tests on transcoding Dragon footage and here are some of my results.
This time around I took my time and took clear notes.
Nothing official about this its just my experience in transcoding with what I have to work with at this time.

TESTS
All of the following Export results are based on a
1GB File size EPIC Dragon 6K 2to1 Resolution REDCode of 10 to 1
Stop watch used iPhone 5S I give my numbers a 1.5 second window of accuracy to be fair and I rounded all numbers to the nearest second.
All done in REDCINE X ver Beta 23

Hard drive Seagate 4TB drive
USB 3.0 to its own drive USB3.0 took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
USB 3.0 to its own drive USB3.0 took 4min 57 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at Full Debayer setting.

SSD internally in Mac Pro to Seagate 3.0USB drive took 1min 13 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
SSD internally in Mac Pro to itself on the desk top took 1min 12 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.

Thunderbolt 1 Seagate Drive to its self. Took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt external Seagate drive took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.

MBP laptop took 1min 06seconds the first attempt Thunerbolt to itself TB Segate drive 3GB.
This blew me away so I had to do the exact same transcode test to verify what da heck.
2nd time it took 1min 07 seconds. So i figure i give myself a 1.5 second room of finger error in stop watch.
This blew me away.
So then I went Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 and it was again 1min 07 seconds.
USB3.0 to its self is 1 min 13 seconds Go FIGURE
Based on a 1TB footage of Transfer thats close to 100minutes more spent

On 12core Mac Tower
Did a single clip
4.33R3D R3D Dragon file
4min 04 sec to transcode which is a a 44sec clip

Then I did a 5 clip test
1st 4.33GB
2nd 3.75GB
3rd 3.39GB
4th 1.44GB
5th 4.67GB This clip transcoded in 4.37min

all 5 clips added up to 17.58GB Transcoded in 17min 17 seconds for all 5 clips in 1 batch.

Then I went to my
MBP
OSX 10.8.3
Processor 2.8GHz Intel Core i7
16GB memory Ram
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024MB

1st clip 4min 06seconds

5th clip 4min 31 seconds
All 5 clips done on MBP came out to 17min 01 seconds This is baffling.

My MAC BOOK PRO is giving me better transcode times than this 12Core MAC Pro new computer.

Why im not sure.

Hopefully this helps someone down the line.


In short my final feeling is
I LOVE and will keep using my MBP Retnia laptop for Dragon footage
I do not need a 12core or new MAC PRO tower at this time.
If anything I hear AWESOME things about the RED ROCKET X
I hope to test one of those out one day.
And hope I can buy one one day.

Thanks
Luis

 

[Bob Gundu]

Thanks Lu. BTW, no need to use your stopwatch. Each transcode has a log file which gives you the elapsed transcode time.vthe logs can be easily accessed by right mouse clicking on the completed file in the render queue.

 

[David Battistella]

Thanks for doing these tests bug Lu,

if anything, that is well. Shocking.

I suppose it's because the nMP isn't using both GPUs, or they are not turned on in RCX, that would be a shame to leave all that computing power on the table.

What about if you import those r3ds into FCPX on both systems and render proxies? Maybe FcPx would use both GPUs on for the renders through the QT plugin.

id like to see the results of that test.

Thanks for sharing.

battistella

 

[Bob Gundu]

Btw, my quick test indicates 6k transcodes at 71 percent realtime with 8 core 64GB dual d700.

 

[David Battistella]

Btw, my quick test indicates 6k transcodes at 71 percent realtime with 8 core 64GB dual d700.

fcp x transcodes or RCX transcodes?

Have ver you created any dailies through resolve 10? How's that leveraging the dual GPUs for dragon renders?

 

[Bob Gundu]

David, that was using RCX. Davinci testing will be done this week. Btw, rcx will have the CPU activity monitors full tilt. Fcpx only uses half of he power on every other CPU.

 

[David Battistella]

Yeah,

I'm really curious to see what happens when the GPU gets leveraged as well.


Battistella

 

[joe hedge]

"LACIE Hard drive 832gb of Dragon 6K 2to1 footage. RedCode compression 5to1 took me 2hrs 45minutes to Transcode to ProRes422HQ 1/2 Debayer good in RCX."


Thanks for posting these results but it'd be really good to know what the actual transcode time ratios were - in other words, how many hours and minutes of footage was the 832 GB's of 6K 2:1 raw files in the first place.

Unless I missed that part...


Also, transcode times are dependent on how much motion there is in the frame. Ever transcode close-ups of someone swimming in a pool? I was getting 5 frames a second on those shots where I was getting 15 on the non-swimming footage, with the same settings.

 

[Mark Toia]

NASA footage transcode tests.

Ive had this Beautiful MAC PRO 12Core new computer to test out and here are my results.

Journey to Space 3D in IMAX is shooting a very cool piece on Dragon Cameras celebrating the achievements of the Space Shuttle program, while looking toward the future of human space flight.
I was lucky to Transcode 832GB of Dragon footage for them.

This gave me a perfect reason to test out the iTrashcan New MACPRO, AKA Apple R2D2, Nuclear fusion can reactor, call it whatever you may its the NEW revolutionary Desktop Professional Computer by Apple and Its a sweet break threw in design along with size.
I love the way it looks, feels and sits on any desktop or table.


This particular model was the
NEW MAC PRO 12 Core 2.7 GHz
64GB Memory
Graphics Cards AMD FirePro D700
Running OSX 10.9.1

Thunderbolt connected
LACIE Hard drive 832gb of Dragon 6K 2to1 footage. RedCode compression 5to1 took me 2hrs 45minutes to Transcode to ProRes422HQ 1/2 Debayer good in RCX.
Im not exactly sure how i got such fast times out of that transcode but Thats what I feel I got.
( Its possible im off on that timing and i apologize it was a rush job.)

Since then I've done some more tests on transcoding Dragon footage and here are some of my results.
This time around I took my time and took clear notes.
Nothing official about this its just my experience in transcoding with what I have to work with at this time.

TESTS
All of the following Export results are based on a
1GB File size EPIC Dragon 6K 2to1 Resolution REDCode of 10 to 1
Stop watch used iPhone 5S I give my numbers a 1.5 second window of accuracy to be fair and I rounded all numbers to the nearest second.
All done in REDCINE X ver Beta 23

Hard drive Seagate 4TB drive
USB 3.0 to its own drive USB3.0 took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
USB 3.0 to its own drive USB3.0 took 4min 57 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at Full Debayer setting.

SSD internally in Mac Pro to Seagate 3.0USB drive took 1min 13 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
SSD internally in Mac Pro to itself on the desk top took 1min 12 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.

Thunderbolt 1 Seagate Drive to its self. Took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.
USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt external Seagate drive took 1min 10 seconds to create a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file at 1/2 Debayer good setting.

MBP laptop took 1min 06seconds the first attempt Thunerbolt to itself TB Segate drive 3GB.
This blew me away so I had to do the exact same transcode test to verify what da heck.
2nd time it took 1min 07 seconds. So i figure i give myself a 1.5 second room of finger error in stop watch.
This blew me away.
So then I went Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 and it was again 1min 07 seconds.
USB3.0 to its self is 1 min 13 seconds Go FIGURE
Based on a 1TB footage of Transfer thats close to 100minutes more spent

On 12core Mac Tower
Did a single clip
4.33R3D R3D Dragon file
4min 04 sec to transcode which is a a 44sec clip

Then I did a 5 clip test
1st 4.33GB
2nd 3.75GB
3rd 3.39GB
4th 1.44GB
5th 4.67GB This clip transcoded in 4.37min

all 5 clips added up to 17.58GB Transcoded in 17min 17 seconds for all 5 clips in 1 batch.

Then I went to my
MBP
OSX 10.8.3
Processor 2.8GHz Intel Core i7
16GB memory Ram
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024MB

1st clip 4min 06seconds

5th clip 4min 31 seconds
All 5 clips done on MBP came out to 17min 01 seconds This is baffling.

My MAC BOOK PRO is giving me better transcode times than this 12Core MAC Pro new computer.

Why im not sure.

Hopefully this helps someone down the line.


In short my final feeling is
I LOVE and will keep using my MBP Retnia laptop for Dragon footage
I do not need a 12core or new MAC PRO tower at this time.
If anything I hear AWESOME things about the RED ROCKET X
I hope to test one of those out one day.
And hope I can buy one one day.

Thanks
Luis

F----------------K me dead.

You have officially made me stop my order dead in its tracks.

LAPTOP , ROCKET X - DONE...

Thanks Big Lu.

Well done.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

interesting indeed. So Jeff K, whats up with this?

 

[joe hedge]

OK, found this in your post:

"4min 04 sec to transcode which is a 44sec clip "

Meaning 5.5:1 transcode time ratio - in other words, 10 minutes of footage takes about an hour to transcode w/o RR-X, plus you'd probably burn your laptop out over a few months (no cooling)

 

[Bob Gundu]

Obviously not the render times I'm getting. Lu, what build were you on when you did these tests?
I just did a test and a 25 second 6K clip took 35 seconds to transcode.

 

[Darrel Maloney]

Isn't ver 23 beta Cuda only so the graphics cards would not be used on the new mac pro since OpenCL is disabled? But would be used on the Retina MBP since it has a nvidia card?

 

[joe hedge]

Obviously not the render times I'm getting. Lu, what build were you on when you did these tests?
I just did a test and a 25 second 6K clip took 35 seconds to transcode.

The in-camera compression settings make a huge difference - his footage was 5:1, what was yours shot at?

 

[Bob Gundu]

My Machine: 8 Core, 64GB Ram, Dual D700

All test were done on RCX Build 22.3.31869, Mac 10.9.1

1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at full debayer quality took 1:42.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/2 Premium quality took 1:43.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/2 Good quality took 1:09.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/4 quality took 35 sec. (from 6K this looks impressive. More than enough for dailies)

EDIT: I had to update these numbers a little. My timeline had a couple of clips that were 12:1 compression.All the clips in the figures above are now with 9:1 compression.

 

[joe hedge]

My Machine: 8 Core, 64GB Ram, Dual D700

All test were done on RCX Build 22.3.31869, Mac 10.9.1

1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at full debayer quality took 1:29.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/2 Premium quality took 1:28.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/2 Premium quality took 57 sec.
1 minute 6KHD footage at 9:1 compression transcoded to 1080 at 1/4 quality took 27 sec. (from 6K this looks impressive. More than enough for dailies)

Thanks. How big (file-size) is the 1 minute raw clip?

 

[Bob Gundu]

I just noticed Lu is using Beta 23 which:
"Note: CUDA Beta Release. OpenCL temporarily disabled"

This explains his slow transcodes.

 

[Isaac Marchionna]

I just noticed Lu is using Beta 23 which:
"Note: CUDA Beta Release. OpenCL temporarily disabled"

This explains his slow transcodes.

Whomp whomp! So far I'm getting much faster decodes than what are posted on my 8 core Mac Pro, but as Jeff has pointed out RCX only utilizes ONE graphics card so far.

 

[Manfred Lopez]

F----------------K me dead.

You have officially made me stop my order dead in its tracks.

LAPTOP , ROCKET X - DONE...

Thanks Big Lu.

Well done.

I just noticed Lu is using Beta 23 which:
"Note: CUDA Beta Release. OpenCL temporarily disabled"

This explains his slow transcodes.

Hi Mark. It seems you should't be too quick to cancel your order. I think more time is needed for everyone to sort all this out and optimize things. I somehow doubt Apple would bet the farm on a new radical design if it somehow ended up worse than their previous generation machines.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Thanks. How big (file-size) is the 1 minute raw clip?

I repeated the 100 frame clip in the RCX timeline which was about 346MB. So I would guess if it was 1 minute long it would around 4.8GB.