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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 :)

REDalert transcoding performance on i7 975 3,33Ghz and OC at 4Ghz...!

Evangelos Achillopoulos

Evangelos Achillopoulos

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I'm experimenting on my test system that I have build for the portable DIT companion MacPro class workstation (CinePack is the name of the machine) that I'm designing...

The system is dual boot XP and Mac OSX...

Since I don’t have great experience on the performance of the trascoding on other systems please tell me your opinion...

All numbers are on MacOSX 10.5.7, REDalert 20.1.8, FCS3 and it has two Samsung SSD's...

The source R3D is a 4K @24fps 1 minute

CPU at normal speed 3,33Ghz

Prores 444, Half standard, 1080 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 3' 52"
Prores 422, Half standard, 1080 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 3' 38"
Prores 422 proxy, Quarter, 1080 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 1' 51"
Prores 422 proxy, Quarter, 720 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 1' 22"
DVCpro720 (HD), Quarter, 720 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 1' 16"
AVID DNx 90/110Mbit 8bit 720p , Quarter, 720 24p, Fit V Lanzcos >> 1' 14"

I have over clocked the i7 975 since it has unlocked multiplier for that purpose...

Its working stable like a rock the last two weeks in 4Ghz (3.990)...

So the above numbers are looking like this...

Prores 444, Half standard, 1080 24p, Lanzcos >> 3' 13"
Prores 422, Half standard, 1080 24p, Lanzcos >> 3' 01"
Prores 422 proxy, Quarter, 1080 24p, Lanzcos >> 1' 32"
Prores 422 proxy, Quarter, 720 24p, Lanzcos >> 1' 08"
DVCpro720 (HD), Quarter, 720 24p, Lanzcos >> 1' 03"
AVID DNx 90/110Mbit 8bit 720p , Quarter, 720 24p, Lanzcos >> 1' 01"

All the above are with NO RedRocket, RR is coming next week for testing...

I know same of you don't think OC as a proper thing to do... I have a different POV, since I design the cooling system and I testing them intentionally with ambient temperature of 45C, and it runs more stable than all my PC's together, there is no problem to just do it... If for any reason want to lower it... it's just a selection on the bios...

So how do they look?

What is your preferred format? What is the most common output?
 
Our common outputs are:

Prores SQ 1920x1080 1/2 normal CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps
Prores SQ 1280x720 1/4 CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps

Our 8 core mac (Early 2008) does 5-6 fps (i.e. in your test about 5 mins for a 1 min input) for the first one, and I haven't benched the second one as we haven't used it in months.

I'd like to try one of the new Hyperthread 8 cores, as theoretically they'd run twice as fast...
 
Cail Young said:
Prores SQ 1920x1080 1/2 normal CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps
Prores SQ 1280x720 1/4 CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps
Click to expand...

Prores SQ is the Prores 422 (without HQ at the end)?

Cail Young said:
Our 8 core mac (Early 2008) does 5-6 fps (i.e. in your test about 5 mins for a 1 min input) for the first one, and I haven't benched the second one as we haven't used it in months.
Click to expand...

The first one you mean the "Prores SQ 1920x1080 1/2 normal CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps"? which is equivalent to mine "Prores 422, Half standard, 1080 24p, Fit V Lanzcos", right?

And what is the "CatMulRom"?

I suppose the "1/2 normal" is the "Half standard"...

Cail Young said:
I'd like to try one of the new Hyperthread 8 cores, as theoretically they'd run twice as fast...
Click to expand...

This is a quad core with HT, so there are 4 real cores and 4 virtual cores... the CPU monitor is full in all eight while it renders...

So If your 8 real cores are delivering 1 minute to 5 minute then this new i7 is delivering 1 to 3.4 and on 4Ghz OC is 1 to 3...

Thats almost 3.2 times faster when you compare real core to real core...
 
I forgot to mention that in Color it has 29 Fps with all in full... for a timeline that is five minutes...

This alone is amazing...

The card that I use is a Green Edition (low power = slow card) nvidia 9800 GT 512Mb...
 
Evangelos Achillopoulos said:
Prores SQ is the Prores 422 (without HQ at the end)?

The first one you mean the "Prores SQ 1920x1080 1/2 normal CatMulRom TC Burn 25fps"? which is equivalent to mine "Prores 422, Half standard, 1080 24p, Fit V Lanzcos", right?

And what is the "CatMulRom"?

I suppose the "1/2 normal" is the "Half standard"...
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes, CatMulRom is the default redline scaling algorithm (Vs your Lanczos) and yes.

What's really amazing is that you get decent Nvidia performance at all in Color. Is that floating point?
 
Guys I did some extensive tests after that observation...

Its an X58 motherboard, Samsung memory 3 x 2Gbyte 1333, i7 975 @ 3.33G, nvidia 9800GT 512Mhz Green edition (very slow)

Color 1.5, latest RED plugin, 10.5.7

it has a Log print LUT loaded,

Three shots RC36 4K 16:9 1 minute each.

primary in with curve
1 secondary with a vignette
Color FX sharpness
Geometry to scale it to 1080p

Video output disabled, playback on the main monitor in the small window, (I haven't yet solved the problem with not working secondary but I'm close)

Maintain fps to off, sync refresh off.

1920 x1080 8bit

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy Quarter
59 Fps

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy half
26 Fps

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy Full
25 Fps

1920 x1080 Float

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth float
Playback proxy Quarter
59 Fps

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth float
Playback proxy half
19 Fps

Project settings 1920 x 1080 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth full
Playback proxy full
17 Fps

4096 x 2304 8bit

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy Quarter
60 Fps

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy half
26 Fps

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth 8bit
Playback proxy Full
24 Fps

4096 x 2304 float

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth float
Playback proxy quarter
59 Fps

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth float
Playback proxy half
19 Fps

Project settings 4096 x 2304 @ 25Fps
Internal pixel depth float
Playback proxy full
17 Fps

When I overclock to 4G all numbers go up by 20%...!!! so you get 23fps in Full, 4K, float...! and this NOT a big 9800 it is the smallest one... When I go higher like 4.7G I get 29fps all full but its not stable... I guess, if at the end I have same spare power from the Lion batteries subsystem, I will try to go to a higher nvidia like GTX... I thing there we will see much bigger numbers...!

This is my experimental machine that I prepare for my portable data wrangler MacPro class system... with 3x PCIe x16 and two more x1 x 4...
 
Can you give more details about your Cinepack machine? I've been thinking of building a similar type of portable workstation. Is it a lunchbox type of workstation? any issues you had with it? are you running each OS on a separate SSD? What kind of cooling system are you using for that kind of OC? water? You're running it on Li-ion battery?? Must be a hefty battery. Must pull over 100W on idle, over 300W at load, no? Does power management still work or are you always overclocked even at idle? Turbo boost work?

Very nice to see it can compete with older architecture 8core machines.

Can I ask what it cost you to build that? thats not a cheap CPU :) at that price you mightve been able to put two lower clock xeon nehalem cpus in it for 8cores and 16 threads. Then again that would have been a much bigger pain to OC and hackintosh (if not impossible).
 
Noah Yuan-Vogel said:
Can you give more details about your Cinepack machine? I've been thinking of building a similar type of portable workstation. Is it a lunchbox type of workstation? any issues you had with it? are you running each OS on a separate SSD? What kind of cooling system are you using for that kind of OC? water? You're running it on Li-ion battery?? Must be a hefty battery. Must pull over 100W on idle, over 300W at load, no? Does power management still work or are you always overclocked even at idle? Turbo boost work?

Very nice to see it can compete with older architecture 8core machines.

Can I ask what it cost you to build that? thats not a cheap CPU :) at that price you mightve been able to put two lower clock xeon nehalem cpus in it for 8cores and 16 threads. Then again that would have been a much bigger pain to OC and hackintosh (if not impossible).
Click to expand...

At first its not a hackintosh since I don't "hack" anything... I just bought the retail leopard box and install it to my system using of coarse a bootloader like Apples bootcamp... In the leopard box was also an Apple sticker which I stick it on the experimental box to be Apple labeled...! to comply with EULA... (Hi Hi Hi...)

Seriously, there are a lot of ways to do it...

The system is going to be in this form factor:

FP_generic.jpg


This is the FiberPack which is to be working together as an 6Tb fiber expansion... this is using 380Wh Li-ion batteries and lasts for 4hours and its IATA compliant...

The CinePack would have 680Wh and is expected to run for 3-4 hours with a an average usage... the cooling is only air... very well designed... power management is always on... the parts are selected one by one to have the less possible consumption...

It won't be a cheap system... it will sell in the 8K$ to 10k$ range... just to have an understanding of the costs involved, just the Li-ion triple charger/solar/grid-connected is costing more than 3K$ with the batteries...

I'm going to take few preorders to cover the developing costs with a 30% discount... if interested just send email...

One hind, this machine would not need a cart to operate...
 
ah interesting. I thought about that but pelican case doesnt leave a ton of options for fan vents or external i/o ports. is there an lcd or is it just basically a regular computer with a battery in a pelican case with wheels?
 
Noah Yuan-Vogel said:
ah interesting. I thought about that but pelican case doesnt leave a ton of options for fan vents or external i/o ports. is there an lcd or is it just basically a regular computer with a battery in a pelican case with wheels?
Click to expand...

It will have a LED back lit 10.7" 1280 x 768 300Cd display plus a back lit keyboard/track pad both IP67 (basically weatherproof). I had to use tunneling technics and special blowers with sound traps... a small slot that blows out lots of heat... Yehh its tough to design with so condensed front panel...

Its what ever you have on a cart... inside that box with just a power cable to connect (when is necessary...) no cables, no firewire disks no card readers... everything that you wanted its going to be there...

2 x CF card readers with one SATA connection each.
2 x removable 2x2.5" disk packs either JBod or Raid-0 or Raid-1 (a total of 4 disks in two packs) performance of each is 180mb/sec in Raid-0
1 x Express card slot
2 x DVI for external VGA
2 x USB
1 x FW400
4 x BNC
2 x XLR
1 x DVI for rocket (or more if needed)
2 x 1G Ethernet
1 x 4G Fiber
Antennas for the integrated WiFi router

Internal space for two system SSDs and a Raid of 4 SSDs... all 2.5"
The problem as you understand is the front panel real estate...

I can't change the bag because its IATA that dictates the dimensions...

It seems that I will have different front panels for different applications...

I'm trying to have one solution that fits all... but it seems to be difficult...

Remember that I work as a DIT/DI supervisor the last five years... so I know exactly what we need... apart to the point that I'm an electronic engineer...
 
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