Mac Pro Compatibility?

[Liam O'Prey]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if the new Mac Pro with it's current two Graphics cards and processing speed will be able to handle editing footage shot with the 3k Scarlet using FCE?

Thanks

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I should hope so. I can edit 4K 16:9 just fine on a current Mac Pro... As for Final Cut Express (I assume that's what you mean with FCE), that remains to be seen if Apple and RED provide support. It would be nice if they would because Scarlet will be aimed at the prosumer crowd in many ways. Currently, FCE and even iMovie and any other application on the Mac that can edit QuickTime files will edit the RED QT proxy files.

 

[Dominic Jones]

I don't know much about FCE, but presuming that it were used for indie stuff where high-end conforms and the like were not necessary, I would guess it would be possible to transcode the clips to ProRes422 HQ 1080p files and work with them in FCE?

That would seem (at present) to be the best route for indie productions, no?

 

[james Mallon]

Do you mean Mac book pro maybe?

Seems strange to me to to have a 3,000+ dollar computer and use 150 dollar editing program. Anyway as far as I know Final Cut Express dosen't edit 24p, its a shame but I think its a way for apple to protect the full Final Cut as otherwise FCE is really all most or at least a lot of people need to edit.

 

[Stephen Gentle]

I should hope so. I can edit 4K 16:9 just fine on a current Mac Pro... As for Final Cut Express (I assume that's what you mean with FCE), that remains to be seen if Apple and RED provide support. It would be nice if they would because Scarlet will be aimed at the prosumer crowd in many ways. Currently, FCE and even iMovie and any other application on the Mac that can edit QuickTime files will edit the RED QT proxy files.

But doesn't iMovie only work with 1080i (like 1440x1080 or something) max?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

iMovie actually supports all kinds of stuff, surprisingly... What I posted above was theory, as in it theoretically should. But I felt I should just try it since we're now discussing it. I can bring the M proxies of 4K RedCode right into iMovie and they actually work great! This is iMovie '09 on my new Mac Pro. I don't have much of a clue as to how to use iMovie, but it seems pretty simple.

...Loading a H proxy of another clip into iMovie. There, done. Looks and works great. Actually, it's kinda cool. Not sure why I would ever want to do this, but it does work.

Truth be told, I've loaded the M proxies into iDVD once before at a client location to burn them a "dailies" DVD. Worked just fine, although I think I spent more time fumbling around trying to make iDVD do it's thing since I had never used it before. Heh.

I can't tell for sure, but it does look like iMovie is topping out at 1080p. I can't see any difference between the H and M proxies after loading them, other than the M proxy is obviously being up-rez'd a bit.

 

[Kevin Liu]

He's definitely talking about the Macbook Pro...the Mac Pro doesn't ship with two graphics cards, the Macbook Pro does (that is unless there's something I'm missing here.)

Also, Liam, keep in mind that although the Macbook Pro has two graphics cards, only one is ever in use at the same time. The reason it has two is so the integrated one can be used for low-GPU power activities in order to conserve battery life.

 

[Jay Voutour]

He's definitely talking about the Macbook Pro...the Mac Pro doesn't ship with two graphics cards, the Macbook Pro does (that is unless there's something I'm missing here.)

He could also be talking about the two choices for GFX cards (GT 120 or RADEON 4870) that you get when you go to the BTO Mac Pro page on the Apple store site.

Maybe the new GTX 285 would be the better card choice now that some new drivers (that supposedly improves "gaming" performance) have been released.

Jeff, IIRC, you have that new card in at least one of your MPs. Any general comments on the 285's performance with the pro apps with the new drivers?
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Oxygen Vaporizer

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Jeff, IIRC, you have that new card in at least one of your MPs. Any general comments on the 285's performance with the pro apps with the new drivers?

The pro apps don't make enough use of GPU functions to matter... In other words, even if this card were performing 100%, the pro apps wouldn't benefit anymore than they would from an ATI 3870 or GT160 card.

FWIW, the drivers are still buggy. There's only been one update since the card's release and that update is over a month old now. With the buggy drivers, this card performs no better than an ATI 4870 (which this '09 Mac Pro shipped with), except for in a few select applications like Maya and Modo. Honestly, I would pull this card from this system and put the 4870 back in if I didn't have the need to run dual 30" displays on this system. Which is not possible on the 4870 because one of the outputs is mini-displayport and Apple is the only one who makes a displayport to dual-link DVI converter at the moment, that I'm aware of anyway. Unfortunately, it's a joke and doesn't work right and won't even operate their own 30" cinema display at 2560x1600, let alone my 30" Dell displays...

Some apps with the GTX 285 do seem to get a kick from it. Motion3, which I hardly use anyway, does get a speed boost vs. with the 4870. However, performance is smoother in Motion3 with the ATI card and that provides a more pleasant experience.

The most annoying issue I have with the GTX card is the occasional screen flash or flicker. But this is an ongoing issue with OSX nVidia drivers when powering 30" displays, typically with two displays. The 8800GT would do it occasionally and so would my old G5 with Quadro card, although neither as much as with this new card. It's an EFI and/or Mac driver issue... The card doesn't do this when I boot the system into Windows, where the card performs noticeably faster and smoother.

 

[Liam O'Prey]

He's definitely talking about the Macbook Pro...the Mac Pro doesn't ship with two graphics cards, the Macbook Pro does (that is unless there's something I'm missing here.)

Also, Liam, keep in mind that although the Macbook Pro has two graphics cards, only one is ever in use at the same time. The reason it has two is so the integrated one can be used for low-GPU power activities in order to conserve battery life.

Sorry, yes, I was talking about the Macbook Pro. And I didn't know that the other card on this machine was only used for low-GPU work. So the general consensus is the main graphics card is powerful enough to work with 3k (Scarlet).

Thanks guys.

 

[Kevin Liu]

Sorry, yes, I was talking about the Macbook Pro. And I didn't know that the other card on this machine was only used for low-GPU work. So the general consensus is the main graphics card is powerful enough to work with 3k (Scarlet).

Thanks guys.

I'm not sure if I'd say that a Macbook Pro would be capable of editing in 3K. My older generation one has some issues with Final Cut Studio...it's about two generations behind the new one though.

 

[Jay Voutour]

The pro apps don't make enough use of GPU functions to matter... In other words, even if this card were performing 100%, the pro apps wouldn't benefit anymore than they would from an ATI 3870 or GT160 card.

FWIW, the drivers are still buggy. There's only been one update since the card's release and that update is over a month old now. With the buggy drivers, this card performs no better than an ATI 4870 (which this '09 Mac Pro shipped with), except for in a few select applications like Maya and Modo. Honestly, I would pull this card from this system and put the 4870 back in if I didn't have the need to run dual 30" displays on this system. Which is not possible on the 4870 because one of the outputs is mini-displayport and Apple is the only one who makes a displayport to dual-link DVI converter at the moment, that I'm aware of anyway. Unfortunately, it's a joke and doesn't work right and won't even operate their own 30" cinema display at 2560x1600, let alone my 30" Dell displays...

Some apps with the GTX 285 do seem to get a kick from it. Motion3, which I hardly use anyway, does get a speed boost vs. with the 4870. However, performance is smoother in Motion3 with the ATI card and that provides a more pleasant experience.

The most annoying issue I have with the GTX card is the occasional screen flash or flicker. But this is an ongoing issue with OSX nVidia drivers when powering 30" displays, typically with two displays. The 8800GT would do it occasionally and so would my old G5 with Quadro card, although neither as much as with this new card. It's an EFI and/or Mac driver issue... The card doesn't do this when I boot the system into Windows, where the card performs noticeably faster and smoother.

Thanks for the info, Jeff. :beer:
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Blonde fucked