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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 :)

iMac and my plan

R

Ryan Flesher

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So I bought a Scarlet and have been tinkering around with RedCine X on my older MacBook Pro (2008) and it works but is slow even at 1/16 rez

I'm sticking with Apple but ditched FCP (after 10 years of use) and bought Premiere Pro (which I love already).
Here's my plan:

New Apple iMac 27 inch i7 3.4ghz
32 GB Ram
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
30 inch Apple Cinema Display (already have)
Several thunderbolt Raid drives

Then Maybe a thunderbolt pcie card for a Red Rocket for my feature I'm gonna shoot early 2013.

My only hesitation is the graphic card and the fact that I can't take advantage of the Premiere Pro Mercury graphics engine.

1) How much of a difference does the Nvidia cards that are optimized for the Mercury engine?
2) Will this system allow me to handle rd3 in premiere at 1/2 rez?
3) Will this system handle Divinci Resolve well?
4) Once the thunderbolt pcie expansion chasis come to market can I add another graphics card to take advantage of Mercury?


I kbow I can wait until June for the new iMac or maybe a New Mac Pro but really need a new system now.

Thanks.

Ryan

vanishingoath.com
Scarlet-X SO # 51134
 
In short, buy a system with an NVIDIA GPU. Makes a difference in both Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve. Ironically, it is FCP X which works better with an AMD GPU. If you must use a Mac, go for an entry-level Mac Pro and add a Quadro 4000 to it.

As for a Thunderbolt expansion chassis - judging by the Vaio Z's external GPU performance, all but mid-range laptop GPUs will be bottlenecked.
 
I've heard some rumours that the new 2011 iMacs will be going back to nVidia cards again so it may be worth waiting (or, alternatively, waiting to see if a new Mac Pro is released) if you are going to be using CS 5.5.

I currently use a MacBook Pro from early 2010 and, while I love it and will continue to use it a lot for day-to-day computing and some light editing, I wanted a new rig to to do Premiere and After Effects work with so I went with a PC. It was a choice between waiting around to see if a new MacPro is released and then deciding whether to go Mac or PC (still wasn't totally convinced I'd choose Mac even in the event that a new Pro got released) so I went with a PC now instead.
 
If you have to buy now, I suggest upgrading the MacBook Pro to a new model. (And selling the current one to help cut the costs!)

The current (late 2011) 17" is FAST. Its as fast as the 2010 six core single processor Mac Pro.

With both Thunderbolt and PC Expresscard it can be configured formidably.

FCP X keeps getting better. (Yeah, I know heresy. It does keep getting better though.) It uses whatever GPU you have.

Premiere Pro CS 5.5 is fast even without an Nvidia GPU ... same for Resolve.

I do counsel waiting ... its seems like too many things are "almost" ready for you. By summer you'll have lots of acceptable choices.

(For example Resolve and Premiere on Windows 8 ... though I remain hesitant to go back to Windows.)
 
Knowledge of the past helps you figure out the future:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

If you don't feel like clicking, the iMacs are usually updated around every 280 days. It has been 224 days since the last update. My advice to you is the same as the advice I just gave a friend looking into iMacs: wait about 2 months, and then make your decision as soon as they update them.

Side benefit: within that time, new high-end Intel CPUs will be out, and historically that corresponds with new Mac Pros, so we should know by then if the Mac Pros are getting updated, or going the way of the Dodo (or iPod classic, if you want to give it an Apple metaphor).

Right now, iMac versus Mac Pro is a tossup, for the reasons of Thunderbolt, internal hard-drive expandability, etc. In 2 months? May still be a tossup, but you'll have a better lifetime of the machine, whichever way you go.
 
yea the new imac is about to drop, bad timing to buy the current one...

i would go with a 2011 macbook pro...

4 cores, upgrade the ram to the max at owc... get an ssd if u want overkill... worry about the external gpu later...

desktops are a drag for mobile gigs, mbps with the same specs are unbeatable any day of the week.
 
Brian Merlen said:
yea the new imac is about to drop, bad timing to buy the current one...
Click to expand...

Yep, I would expect the new one within the next 45 days. ...Which hurts because I did just buy a new one. But I didn't have much choice, our "family" computer -- the one the wife and kids use, is in dire need of an upgrade, so I stuffed a new iMac under the tree. On the bright side I won't be using it much and with the quad-core i7 CPU and me stuffing 16GB of RAM in there I ordered separately, it will last them a few years. If it were for me and something I was going to be pounding on every day, I would try to tough it out and wait another month or two.

i would go with a 2011 macbook pro...
Click to expand...

I dunno. They're due for an update as well and the Ivy Bridge mobile platform is shipping to OEMs as we speak. Looks like double-density displays for the MBP are rolling out from component vendors too. I bet we see new MBP's by the end of February.

The Mac Pro update is imminent as well and could hit anywhere from mid-January to mid-March, I think. I'm guessing that whatever it will be is ready to go and we're just waiting on Intel to ship the goods.


All that is fine and great, but if you need a system now, then you just need one now. See my iMac situation above. If I waited for the next model, then I miss Christmas and have to put up with another 2+ months of fighting the family for time on my Mac Pro or the new PC I just built (which I'm not letting them touch!). An iMac 27" is not a bad purchase now. Yes, the updated model will be about 10~15% faster in performance applications and will most likely have a better GPU. It should have USB3 as Intel is now rolling it into their latest chipsets. Other than that it will be the same. Probably still have the same storage options, and the same two Thunderbolt ports. Personally, the only reason I will be upset about a new iMac within the next couple months is if Apple ships it with a high-density display. And I think there's a good chance that the next iMac will have just that. However, if they do go with a new display like that, it could push the release date to later into next year. Of course it's all speculative. Apple likes to pull rabbits out of hats from time to time and stir the pot.
 
Yea unless that Scarlet is in his hands already I would also agree with waiting for Ivy Bridge entirely...


That is what I intend to do, hell I might even stick it out for Haswell if I can manage, but that's going to drive me bonkers!
 
According to Intel's own official roadmaps, Ivy Bridge releases in April. (here's the complete desktop roadmap, the parts of laptop one are also on the internet)

Since traditionally Apple is a few months behind, a significantly updated (read: Ivy Bridge) iMac could be a summer 2012 thing... The January update is probably just a minor refresh, like the Macbook Pro refresh a couple of months back. No point waiting for that one if you need a machine now. New Macbook Pros could release in May.
 
I too am wondering if i buy the scarlet x will my 27in i7 iMac be able to handle the processing of what i am shooting, sounds like I need to sell it and buy the 2011 iMac?
 
I just bought the current top spec iMac and added 16GB RAM... I needed it now, and the speed improvement on my old system has been great for photo editing, and just started to play around with Resolve, which seemed pretty quick to me.

What I really am waiting for is an updated Rocket in a Thunderbolt enclosure. A new, smaller, faster, cheaper Rocket.

With the Scarlet on the way, this is really needed to gain traction with post houses and clients.
 
Subhadip Sen said:
In short, buy a system with an NVIDIA GPU. Makes a difference in both Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve. Ironically, it is FCP X which works better with an AMD GPU. If you must use a Mac, go for an entry-level Mac Pro and add a Quadro 4000 to it.

As for a Thunderbolt expansion chassis - judging by the Vaio Z's external GPU performance, all but mid-range laptop GPUs will be bottlenecked.
Click to expand...

Can you use bootcamp to run Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with and Premier Pro 5.5?
 
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