The new iMac Pro able to handle 8K files with a breeze?

[AndreeMarkefors]

I just got off the phone with Apple Pro Apps team.

Several good tips above. Just to clarify:

If you're using FCPX, I'd go with the built in 'proxy' workflow. It's very easy to use and can be portable too: if you keep the original files external to the library and then generate proxy files and set your project to 'Proxy' in FCPX, these 2k ProRes files become the new "master files" as long as you're in proxy mode. You could duplicate that library and easily bring and edit on a Laptop (lightweight, but still good looking ProRes Proxy files). Then at some point reconnect the drive with original media and switch back out of proxy mode for export.

In my post #8 above I was thinking more about DaVinci Resolve. Since Resolve is resolution independent, you can work in a 2k DCI timeline (including windows and tracking) and then switch to a 8k timeline before exporting. Even if you only want let's say 2k or 4k output you should still switch the timeline to max source resolution, as your timeline will serve as base for what's exported. <----- this is a bit of a gotcha in Resolve since there is talk about how Resolve always references your highest resolution footage...

Example: 4k source ---> 2k timeline ---> 2k export will not look as good as 4k source ----> 4k timeline ----> 2k export

FCPX is not resolution independent. If you import 4k or 8k source material and create a 2k project that contains windows and tracked keyframes, those won't scale correctly when changing your project settings later. Here it's better (and very easy) to just use the FCPX proxy workflow.

EDIT: as a test I just took 40.64GB worth of a few 4k files and created a new library set to 'proxy'. It was about 2.66GB after proxy generation.