NAB13- RED ROCKET-X

[DJ Meyer]

So does that mean that it will not work with any Mac Pro?

It should work in a PCI-E 2.0 X16 slot but may be bandwidth limited. No one knows if that will affect performance or not. It doesn't make much difference on GPU compute cards for instance.

 

[Maik Müller]

Definitely wait for Haswell processors.

There is nothing for highend on the horizon, those haswells that get released this year are only mid-range-stuff. Socket 1150 with 4 Cores and dual-channel DDR3. In comparison to Ivy Bridges they'll consume less power, have a better internal GPU and overclocking potential, thats it. I would still prefer a Socket 2011 system to have access to cpus with more cores and quad-channel ram. Even with a tighter budget a 6core-system is possible.

 

[Justin Quinn]

It should work in a PCI-E 2.0 X16 slot but may be bandwidth limited. No one knows if that will affect performance or not. It doesn't make much difference on GPU compute cards for instance.

The RRX should not bottleneck in a x16 PCIe 2.0... or even a x8 PCIe 2.0 for that matter. Performance will not be limited.

You'll only see a bottleneck in a TB expansion chassis. Even then, it won't be that bad.

 

[Charles_Z]

There is nothing for highend on the horizon, those haswells that get released this year are only mid-range-stuff. Socket 1150 with 4 Cores and dual-channel DDR3. In comparison to Ivy Bridges they'll consume less power, have a better internal GPU and overclocking potential, thats it. I would still prefer a Socket 2011 system to have access to cpus with more cores and quad-channel ram. Even with a tighter budget a 6core-system is possible.

Unless you plan on running a bunch of synthetic benchmarks, tri-channel or quad-channel RAM has only marginal improvements over dual channel RAM in the real world.

 

[Maik Müller]

Unless you plan on running a bunch of synthetic benchmarks, tri-channel or quad-channel RAM has only marginal improvements over dual channel RAM in the real world.

Agreed, choosing 2011 is definitively about using more cores than 4. The slightly faster RAM is a little bonus, which we might be able to use with "our stuff". Working with RED-files involves big caches here and there, so even 5-10% more speed could be usefull.

 

[Charles Bergquist]

It should work in a PCI-E 2.0 X16 slot but may be bandwidth limited. No one knows if that will affect performance or not. It doesn't make much difference on GPU compute cards for instance.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[Michael Lindsay]

AUDIO OUTPUT Embedded audio – 1BNC (via video out)

Will this work from the beginning?

Thanks

M

 

[Desmond Ford]

Has there been any update as to the release of the new RRX?

Also, is it a dual or single slot card?

Thanks.

 

[Stivan Widick]

From the photos in the store, it's a single-slot card.

http://www.red.com/store/products/red-rocket-x

 

[David WeiYu Chen]

Netstor provides both solutions for external PCIe expansion. The NA211A external PCIe for Mac Pro: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?OTc= ;
And the NA211TB is Thunderbolt interface for MBP and iMac series with Thunderbolt port: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTEy
Both chassis provide auxiliary 6-pin PCIe power cables, and can accommodate one PCIe x16 card. The NA211TB has been certified by Apple. We sincerely hope to be approved by RED. Could you let us know who we can contact for the certification?

 

[Bob Gundu]

I don't even think there is a certification program for these enclosures is there? In any case, you can contact RED from here:
http://www.red.com/contact_us

Netstor provides both solutions for external PCIe expansion. The NA211A external PCIe for Mac Pro: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?OTc= ;
And the NA211TB is Thunderbolt interface for MBP and iMac series with Thunderbolt port: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTEy
Both chassis provide auxiliary 6-pin PCIe power cables, and can accommodate one PCIe x16 card. The NA211TB has been certified by Apple. We sincerely hope to be approved by RED. Could you let us know who we can contact for the certification?

 

[Keegan@Netflix]

Hi David,

We have received your contact information, all focus is being put on the release of the product as soon as we get closer we will be in contact.

Netstor provides both solutions for external PCIe expansion. The NA211A external PCIe for Mac Pro: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?OTc= ;
And the NA211TB is Thunderbolt interface for MBP and iMac series with Thunderbolt port: http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTEy
Both chassis provide auxiliary 6-pin PCIe power cables, and can accommodate one PCIe x16 card. The NA211TB has been certified by Apple. We sincerely hope to be approved by RED. Could you let us know who we can contact for the certification?

 

[David WeiYu Chen]

Hi David,
We have received your contact information, all focus is being put on the release of the product as soon as we get closer we will be in contact.

We will wait for your contact.

Hope this can increase the application a lot.


-------------------------
Netstor Technology
www.netstor.com.tw

 

[Eric Santiago]

I cant wait for this product to drop.

Then we will see how low the original cards will go for in REDUSER.

Anyone have an opinion as to how much you would pay for a used ROCKET say over a year old?

Curious as to current pricing is a bit for some of us.

 

[Bob Gundu]

$2500-$3000 is my guess.

 

[Justin Quinn]

Any word on an approximate release date of the RRX? 3 months form now? 6 months from now? A year from now?

If it truly is 5x faster than the current RR, then this could be put to very good use today. There is no reason to wait for the release of Dragon...

 

[Paul Harb]

Im very curious how Red and everyone else feel about the Rocket X in the context of the new Mac Pro announcement. Are OSX/Red users going to purchase this VERY expensive card just to have it run slower in a Thunderbolt enclosure?

 

[Brendan Sandham]

Im very curious how Red and everyone else feel about the Rocket X in the context of the new Mac Pro announcement. Are OSX/Red users going to purchase this VERY expensive card just to have it run slower in a Thunderbolt enclosure?

A few people have proposed potential solutions...the most interesting to me is an external enclosure that is connected via two Thunderbolt ports. I'm not a computer expert by any means, but if I'm reading the posts correctly, a dual Thunderbolt connection would operate about as quickly as the internal card in all areas except for transcoding (where it would be slower).

Of course, no such external enclosure currently exists...but hopefully some enterprising company will develop one in the months ahead.

 

[Justin Quinn]

Im very curious how Red and everyone else feel about the Rocket X in the context of the new Mac Pro announcement. Are OSX/Red users going to purchase this VERY expensive card just to have it run slower in a Thunderbolt enclosure?

It's not yet certain that it will run slower via TB 2.0. Theoretically, it would seem so, but that is often not the case. Let's wait until both products come out and do a benchmark...

The reason I say this is because many people thought that TB 1.0 would bottleneck the current Red Rocket; however, that is not the case. You will get the same transcodes and playback from an external expansion chassis connected via TB 1.0 as you would if you installed the current Red Rocket in a PCIe x4, x8 or x16 slot in a Mac Pro or PC.

I do this everyday as a DIT and I cannot see any difference in transcode or playback.

I think that the reason some people experience bottlenecks is due to their storage, not the Red Rocket or TB... HDD are too slow to compete with RR or TB, you must be transfering to and from SSD in order to realize the full potential of RR and/or TB.


jq

 

[Justin Quinn]

A few people have proposed potential solutions...the most interesting to me is an external enclosure that is connected via two Thunderbolt ports. I'm not a computer expert by any means, but if I'm reading the posts correctly, a dual Thunderbolt connection would operate about as quickly as the internal card in all areas except for transcoding (where it would be slower).

Not exactly...

There is no way the current Red Rocket can saturate a Thunderbolt 1.0 connection, let alone Thunderbolt 2.0... if you don't believe me, ask anyone who owns a RR and a Thunderbolt External Expansion Chassis. I do and I use both tools on set as a DIT. Like so many other DITs, I no longer have to bring my Mac Pro Tower on set to do transcodes because I can do them just as fast, if not faster, with a laptop connected via Thunderbolt to an external expansion chassis.

That being said, Red states that the new Red Rocket X will be 5x faster than the current Red Rocket... hells yeah!!! This will probably oversaturate a Thunderbolt 1.0 connection, but I seriously doubt it will oversaturate a Thunderbolt 2.0 connection.

Please bear in mind, Thunderbolt 1.0 has a theoretical throughput of 1.25GBs (10Gbs).... That would mean that a Red Rocket would have to be able to transcode a 64GB card in just one minute... I doubt that even with the new Red Rocket X that is possible.

Of course, there is always overhead and latency, but that applies to the Red Rocket as well. So if Intel says is Thunderbolt 2.0 can do 2.5GBs (20Gbs), then your guess is as good as mine what the real world performance is, but it should be at the very least half of that (probably about 1.75GBs/15Gbs)...

Same goes the new Red Rocket, I'll be very surprised (not to mention overjoyed since I'm buying one) if RRX can really process 5x faster than the current version. In fact, I'd be happy with 3x faster...



jq