The "I need a new PC to edit RED" Myth

[PatrickW]

Here is a screen shot of an 11 min 4k render in Adobe with my machine.

Again, I have the Intel Extreme 990x 6 core with HT tech., dual 1 gig video cards, ssd's, and other things as well.

To me this is not acceptable. I do not like when my CPU's are pegged out for 13 hours at a time, I don't know about you guys but I care about CPU longevity. I didn't spend $5000 just to run my pc with the petal to the metal all the time. I am building a new rig that will sustain my high end imaging for years to come.

provided you aren't increasing the voltage to the core while overclocking your CPU can run at 100% 365-24/7 and will be obsolete before you burn it out. Electronics do not degrade faster because they work harder, unlike mechanical devices like automobile engines.

 

[Paul Russell]

I upgrade my workstation every two years, and parts in between. Last week I dumped the 18month old Quadra 4800 and swapped in a Geforce 580 for instant real time playback of 5K Red files, even with Magic Bullet Looks running. It helps to have 16 cores, 24GB RAM and a 8TB Raid 1+0, but this system is now a year old, so next year my kid will get an Ace gaming machine while this particular mobo gets swapped out for something that can handle a Red Rocket, Raid Card, GeForce and PCIe RME interface at the same time.

But Jon is right, these bunnies get hot. So my unit sits in a sound proofed enclosure in the recording studio, with its own 1 horsepower air con unit keeping all cores at no more than 50 degrees Centigrade all the time.

 

[Jon Jones]

Why thats not true at all...

provided you aren't increasing the voltage to the core while overclocking your CPU can run at 100% 365-24/7 and will be obsolete before you burn it out. Electronics do not degrade faster because they work harder, unlike mechanical devices like automobile engines.

 

[PatrickW]

Why thats not true at all...

I did research a few years ago to find out if I was destroying my gear, and found nothing proving that running chips @ 100% would kill them early and my personal experience with multiple machines running 100% for years on end with 99.999% uptime has not shown any signs of early death.

If you have any facts you would like to share that would be interesting.

 

[Mads Drøschler]

Cpus does not die, i get my butter on the bread from torturing cpus, many of them. Many means 100s of cpus in many nodes.
Any vfx personel will say the exact same thing
Dont belive anything on this account if it doesnt come from a vfx person that can statisticly pull out numbers in much larger and agressive tests than a traditional experience

 

[Jon Jones]

Yes but I'm not talking about just the CPU... It's the entire system that is effected by the heat. The heat from the CPU's and the Video Cards, and the Memory, and the power supply and so on...

provided you aren't increasing the voltage to the core while overclocking your CPU can run at 100% 365-24/7 and will be obsolete before you burn it out. Electronics do not degrade faster because they work harder, unlike mechanical devices like automobile engines.

 

[PatrickW]

Yes but I'm not talking about just the CPU... It's the entire system that is effected by the heat. The heat from the CPU's and the Video Cards, and the Memory, and the power supply and so on...

Then inadequate thermal control is the issue.
But your not going to danger the longevity of your CPUs usable lifespan by running it at 100%.

 

[Will Keir]

I edit R1 files on my MacbookPro. If I want to hand off files to edit, I can get nearly realtime transcodes at 1/4 debayer and about 3x realtime at 1/2 good. Having Premiere Pro 5.5, I usually just edit from the original r3ds. I don't think you need some crazy powerful machine, or a rocket. These things are definitely helpful and worth considering if you have the budget for it. I just don't want anybody to be discouraged from shooting Red because they think they won't be able edit it without dropping another $10k on a new computer and a rocket.

This is exactly what happened to me years ago. Got the R1, started shooting the most beautiful stuff I could find, then bought a mac pro at $8k to edit the footage. Cheetah drives, Raid 5 config, awesome graphics card, the whole deal.

Couldn't edit or see the footage as I expected. $5k more for a rocket card and I would have been in business but my budget was used up, and I sold the computer and put the R1 in storage and set out the make some money.

Trading the R1 in for epic stage 3, and have investors + money in the bank for round 2. But this time, it looks like the days of buying mac pros are coming to an end. At one point, I honestly considered going with GoPro HD hero 2s. I've had successful films with less.

At some point, I am gonna get tired building houses, scrubbing toilets and digging ditches but if that's what I gotta do for now to get off the ground, so be it.

 

[Will Keir]

Are you guys all using Premier 5.5 to edit when purchasing PC rigs?

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Are you guys all using Premier 5.5 to edit when purchasing PC rigs?

I use Vegas Pro 11 myself. However, if you intend to finish off your NLE, Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the better option for RED footage. For everything else, I much prefer Vegas. But of course, some clients swear by FCP or Premiere Pro.

 

[Carter Cammack]

Is there any advantage to running dual midrange workstation cards instead of a single high-end?
I got to play around in Maya and Cinema4D on a friend's rig and I was impressed at the performance. The system is a year-old I7-960 with dual ATI FirePro 580s, not crossfired. The cards are $379 each, so the pair costs about the same as a single Quadro 4000.
It's possible it won't affect RED footage as much as 3D, as it is more demanding of CPU than GPU.
Anyone have any insight?

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Is there any advantage to running dual midrange workstation cards instead of a single high-end?
I got to play around in Maya and Cinema4D on a friend's rig and I was impressed at the performance. The system is a year-old I7-960 with dual ATI FirePro 580s, not crossfired. The cards are $379 each, so the pair costs about the same as a single Quadro 4000.
It's possible it won't affect RED footage as much as 3D, as it is more demanding of CPU than GPU.
Anyone have any insight?

It completely depends on the software you use. Some don't scale beyond a single GPU (Premiere Pro CS5.x) while some heavily utilize multiple GPUs (Davinci Resolve). As for RED footage - the debayer is completely CPU driven unless you use a Rocket. Again, depending on the software, some elements of the playback process may be GPU accelerated.