Help with *my* specific workflow

[Arthur Woo]

Hi everyone,

New Scarlet user here! I've spent the last couple of hours reading through the forums on workflow and would like some advice regarding settling on a workflow for my situation. I'm currently running this setup:

2009 Mac Pro
8-core
8 GB RAM (expandable to 32)
Nvidia GTX285 video card
Editing in Premiere CS5.5, planning on upgrading to CS6 within the next 3 months

Previously shooting / editing dslr footage and it has been fine so far the past couple of years. Red footage is a completely different beast so I am looking to upgrade where applicable.

My main goal is to be able to edit in Premiere's timeline as close to full resolution as possible (will take suggestions for as low as 1/2 resolution if it is significantly less expensive). Exporting time isn't crucial at the moment but the faster the better. I don't use Red CineX Pro at all (should I be?) since I work directly in Premiere. Note I am still working on my first project so I don't have a workflow yet for Red specific footage. Will be shooting both in 4K and 3K.

As far as I can tell (let me know if I am mistaken) the Red Rocket should help tremendously for playback in Premiere but upgrading to a higher video card wouldn't necessarily improve performance without a Red Rocket.

What I am trying to figure out is what is the priority as far as my needs; if it's a combination of more RAM, a Red Rocket, new video card, etc? Thanks!!

 

[Matthew B]

If you prefer the premiere editing paradigm I would say some comparisons of a macvidcards gtx570 over the 285 would be worth seeing for MPE - and in the next few months we should have some idea what "apple blessed" GPUs might be down the pike. You are correct in that a GPU won't help with decoding the r3d, a red rocket would help offload CPU decompression quite a bit.

For reference from the FCP side - The FCP X r3d workflow is pretty awesome, and I get realtime playback of 1/4 debayer in 1080p projects for 3-4 streams on a 2008 8 core with a 5870. Haven't tested 4k projects yet, but I assume it to be very similar.

 

[Arthur Woo]

If you prefer the premiere editing paradigm I would say some comparisons of a macvidcards gtx570 over the 285 would be worth seeing for MPE - and in the next few months we should have some idea what "apple blessed" GPUs might be down the pike. You are correct in that a GPU won't help with decoding the r3d, a red rocket would help offload CPU decompression quite a bit.

For reference from the FCP side - The FCP X r3d workflow is pretty awesome, and I get realtime playback of 1/4 debayer in 1080p projects for 3-4 streams on a 2008 8 core with a 5870. Haven't tested 4k projects yet, but I assume it to be very similar.

Thanks Matthew! I have a ton of projects over the past couple of years on Premiere and also use after effects and photoshop for other work, so I prefer to live in the Adobe realm.

Will the Red Rocket assist in exporting projects, or just playback/editing in the timeline?