RED + NVIDIA Update

[Daniel Bichler]

What editing software has already implemented the „new“ R3D SDK for accelerated R3D decode and debayering on NVIDIA CUDA platforms? Still Windows only? No chance for Hackintosh?

 

[Phil Holland]

None of the big ones yet, which is painfully frustrating as the performance boost is very real for playback and could impact editing and color sessions in positive ways.

But we know it's being worked on by the big two, Adobe and Blackmagic Design. It's not easy code for them to implement however and speed of implementation hasn't been great in both camps as of late.

I've been told that Assimilate Scratch supports it, but Scratch hasn't been part of my workflow for a fair bit. REDCINE-X Pro obviously does support it.

I think in terms of CUDA Support, specifically future CUDA Support, on Mac OS via Nvidia you are out of luck as of last week:
https://gizmodo.com/apple-and-nvidia-are-over-1840015246

That said, expect some sort of Metal support coming down the path.

Very far down the line I'd expect Apple to not rely on AMD even for GPU related things, but for the next few years to come it is what it is.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

None of the big ones yet, which is painfully frustrating as the performance boost is very real for playback and could impact editing and color sessions in positive ways.

But we know it's being worked on by the big two, Adobe and Blackmagic Design. It's not easy code for them to implement however and speed of implementation hasn't been great in both camps as of late.

I've been told that Assimilate Scratch supports it, but Scratch hasn't been part of my workflow for a fair bit. REDCINE-X Pro obviously does support it.

I think in terms of CUDA Support, specifically future CUDA Support, on Mac OS via Nvidia you are out of luck as of last week:
https://gizmodo.com/apple-and-nvidia-are-over-1840015246

That said, expect some sort of Metal support coming down the path.

Very far down the line I'd expect Apple to not rely on AMD even for GPU related things, but for the next few years to come it is what it is.

If Apple doesn't announce support for a fully-optimized R3D workflow on MacPro+AMD+Afterburner that's competitive AT LAUNCH with what RCX can do on nVidia since early this year, I'm done with them.

 

[jake blackstone]

If Apple doesn't announce support for a fully-optimized R3D workflow on MacPro plus AMD that's competitive AT LAUNCH with what RCX can do on nVidia since early this year, I'm done with them.

Your statement implies that you had missed the Apple Afterburner card announcement...

 

[Phil Holland]

We'll have to see what Metal goodies come for the Apple side of things.

I suspect decent support/performance is on the horizon. Just don't know if that's a tomorrow or like Spring/Fall/Winter 2020 thing.

 

[Misha Engel]

Your statement implies that you had missed the Apple Afterburner card announcement...

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Cut to even more creativity.

Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card built with an FPGA, or programmable ASIC. With over a million logic cells, it can process up to 6.3 billion pixels per second and is capable of handling up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW or 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW. This means you can free up your cores to enable even more creative effects and processing.

Up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps

Not a word on R3D performance.

 

[David Rasberry]

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Cut to even more creativity.

Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card built with an FPGA, or programmable ASIC. With over a million logic cells, it can process up to 6.3 billion pixels per second and is capable of handling up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW or 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW. This means you can free up your cores to enable even more creative effects and processing.

Up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps

Not a word on R3D performance.

Short of Red rewriting RCX for it I doubt it will support R3D or any other raw format except Prores.

 

[Misha Engel]

Short of Red rewriting RCX for it I doubt it will support R3D or any other raw format except Prores.

Just use brute force with the upcomming 3990x and by the way, ProRes RAW is the lighter codec compared to ProRes RAW HQ.

 

[Phil Holland]

Short of Red rewriting RCX for it I doubt it will support R3D or any other raw format except Prores.

I wouldn't speak so soon on any of that.

The general concept of the Afterburner card isn't too dissimilar from a RED Rocket-X.

It is very literally the earliest of days. Though there's been a lot of medium level chaos (or more accurately perceived chaos), RED will do what they can to help support Apple based workflows.

Don't be shocked if "somewhere/somehow" R3D gets some love in there.

 

[jake blackstone]

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Cut to even more creativity.

Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card built with an FPGA, or programmable ASIC. With over a million logic cells, it can process up to 6.3 billion pixels per second and is capable of handling up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW or 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW. This means you can free up your cores to enable even more creative effects and processing.

Up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps
Up to 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps

Not a word on R3D performance.

Your statement implies that you missed the word "FPGA".
Jarred's recent statement on a new Red-Apple détente is a good indicator of things to come...

 

[Misha Engel]

Your statement implies that you missed the word "FPGA".
Jarred's recent statement on a new Red-Apple détente is a good indicator of things to come...

Someone still has to program that FPGA, when that goes at the same speed as the NLE's supporting the RED + NVidia thing, well we have to wait and see.
With render speed, Apple claims that ProRes RAW renders 4 times faster than R3D 5:1 at the same resolution(on a MacPro 18 core).

I have no knowledge about Jarred's recent statement (afaik they where talking about Metal, hence GPU acc.).

 

[jake blackstone]

Someone still has to program that FPGA, when that goes at the same speed as the NLE's supporting the RED + NVidia thing, well we have to wait and see.
With render speed, Apple claims that ProRes RAW renders 4 times faster than R3D 5:1 at the same resolution(on a MacPro 18 core).

I have no knowledge about Jarred's recent statement (afaik they where talking about Metal, hence GPU acc.).

This statement made by Jarred about Apple and Red working together:

"To be clear, as I mentioned before, this never really was Apple vs. RED. It has always been APPLE + RED, and this was all part of the process defining how we work together in the future.
We are very excited for the new Mac Pro and the new XDR pro display and the power they bring to the entire RED workflow"
Using Metal, I'm sure, will be great, using both Metal and Afterburner together may be even greater:001_smile:

 

[Misha Engel]

This statement made by Jarred about Apple and Red working together:

"To be clear, as I mentioned before, this never really was Apple vs. RED. It has always been APPLE + RED, and this was all part of the process defining how we work together in the future.
We are very excited for the new Mac Pro and the new XDR pro display and the power they bring to the entire RED workflow"
Using Metal, I'm sure, will be great, using both Metal and Afterburner together may be even greater:001_smile:

Well the new 28 core in the MacPro is faster than the current 18 core iMacPro.
I see no promises in Jarred's statements and also don't get how the XDR pro display is going to contribute to the power of the entire RED workflow (power usage maybe).

The RED+NVidia stuff also sounded great a year ago...
For the Apple+RED users I hope it's blazing fast.

 

[Daniel Jocher]

Really hoping all Metal Macs will benefit from whatever will come and not only the MacPro Afterburner users..