MP 7,1 Afterburner Card Detailed Review

[MaxYuryev]

I finally finished my afterburner testing and have a lot of info on it for those that have been waiting. If you have any more questions please ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

UPDATE: Resolve is already supporting Afterburner and it works just as well as in FCX. The numbers line up the same!

 

[gerrard0804]

I finally finished my afterburner testing and have a lot of info on it for those that have been waiting. If you have any more questions please ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

hello , Max,, have been following your youtube recent years, it's been awesome. Could you do gaming test on the xdr display please?

 

[chfilm]

Woaahhh Max you’re my favorite youtuber right now! Seriously, thanks a lot, it’s beyond me why nobody else has done this. I’m out on the subway (on the way to the 🍎 store again to look at nano vs glossy display again 😅) so bad reception but can’t wait to watch it! I hope you tested it with premiere as well 😇

 

[firewire9000]

I will never buy a Mac Pro because I don’t need it but as a tech enthusiast I enjoy your videos a lot. Thanks.

 

[bxs]

I finally finished my afterburner testing and have a lot of info on it for those that have been waiting. If you have any more questions please ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

Max: I haven't yet reviewed your AB testing, but wanted to say upfront.... a BIG THANK YOU 👍 ...... now I will review your testing.

 

[chfilm]

Great video, answers some questions for sure... only BIG one left- what about premiere?? Does it help there as well? Or do we need to wait for adobe to patch it?

 

[bxs]

I finally finished my afterburner testing and have a lot of info on it for those that have been waiting. If you have any more questions please ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

Max:

We are an exclusive Adobe shop. With this in mind....

We could use the Apple comparable programs to see how fast they are against Adobe. For example Apple makes Compressor which is the same as Adobe Encoder. They both make proxies so would be a good comparison test. Do you agree with this approach ?

We do have a 16-core with AB included in our order.... waiting for its delivery.

 

[H. Flower]

Incredible work, max. Major kudos.

No transcoding or background rendering is major disappointment.

And one big question remains: is adobe tapping into that video toolkit ?I don’t think so, at least not yet, as they told me they’re “looking into” the card.

I don’t do a lot of multicam stuff, and any fx work that involves layers and layers of 4k video I’d do in after effects anyways. And prores raw is nowhere near an industry standard. Not sure if this is worth the 2k.

 

[kid2010]

Great review Max! Since you have tried to use it with Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis, will you be interested in patching a file and see if we can get it to work?

Here are the instructions:

Make sure you have macOS 10.15.2

1. Disable System Integrity Protection

Since we are modifying system file, we need to disable SIP. Full instruction can be found at here.

1) Boot to Recovery OS by pressing Command and R keys at start up.

2) Open Terminal, and run

csrutil disable

(If the Mac you are trying to patch is equipped with T2 coprocessor, you may need to set the mode to "No Security" by following the instruction at here.)

2. Reboot to macOS

3. Mount Root Partition Read/Write

You can do so by running the following in terminal.

sudo mount -uw /

4. Backup file we are going to patch

cp /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAfterburner.kext/Contents/Info.plist ~/Desktop/AppleAfterburner.plist

5. Patch file

Here we are adding IOPCITunnelCompatible key to the driver so macOS will try to load the extension for PCIe devices connected via Thunderbolt (detail).

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :IOKitPersonalities:AfterburnerUserClient:IOPCITunnelCompatible bool true" /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAfterburner.kext/Contents/Info.plist

6. Reboot and try connect Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis with Afterburner Card to your Mac.

It would be really neat if this works. Having a portable Mac being able to decode multiple 8K streams would be interesting...

To remove the patch, you can do the following:
1. Mount Root Partition RW: sudo mount -uw /
2. Restore patched file: sudo cp ~/Desktop/AppleAfterburner.plist /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAfterburner.kext/Contents/Info.plist
3. Reboot to Recovery OS, re-enable SIP: csrutil enable

 

[bxs]

Can Apple’s Compressor be used alongside using Adobe rather than having to use the Adobe Encoder ? If so, and the Compressor does a better/faster job than the Adobe Encoder, then the Afterburner will be put to good use in a seamless way and not interfere with the Adobe editing workflow.

Again, I'm no expert using film editing, but simply looking for alternative uses of the Afterburner without waiting and hoping Adobe develops software that uses the Afterburner.

Ref: https://larryjordan.com/articles/vi...ssor-vs-adobe-media-encoder-vs-ffworksffmpeg/

"What makes these results even more significant is that Compressor is the underlying compression technology for Apple Final Cut Pro X, just as Adobe Media Encoder is the underlying compression foundation for Adobe Premiere Pro CC"

Ref: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/mac-pro-afterburner-card-explained/

"Specifically, the company lists Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Compressor and QuickTime Player as compatible apps..."

 

[gazwas]

Wow, amazing bit of kit and Max’s CPU numbers speak for themselves when the Afterburner is installed.

Such a shame its got such a limited use and it can’t be used to wider effect.

 

[MaxYuryev]

Hey guys! Adobe is not yet supporting Afterburner which is a shame because the latest version of DaVinci Resolve is! Works just as well as in FCX.

I hope they aren’t just “looking into it” but working on support with all those people (including myself) paying them $600 yearly where FCX and Resolve are one time $299 purchases, and Resolve even has a free version with most of the features.

I don’t think you can use compressor with Premiere in the same way. You can definitely export to a master format and then bring it into compressor to do the web version but even though compressor is faster it will still likely take more time.

As for the scripts, maybe I’ll be willing to try it next week once I’m back in the office. I’m sure I can pull it off but it’s always a bit scary doing stuff like that on a brand new $12,000 Mac.

 

[Digital_Sousaphone]

PCIE 3.0 is your bottle neck broski.

 

[bxs]

Hey guys! Adobe is not yet supporting Afterburner which is a shame because the latest version of DaVinci Resolve is! Works just as well as in FCX.

I hope they aren’t just “looking into it” but working on support with all those people (including myself) paying them $600 yearly where FCX and Resolve are one time $299 purchases, and Resolve even has a free version with most of the features.

I don’t think you can use compressor with Premiere in the same way. You can definitely export to a master format and then bring it into compressor to do the web version but even though compressor is faster it will still likely take more time.

As for the scripts, maybe I’ll be willing to try it next week once I’m back in the office. I’m sure I can pull it off but it’s always a bit scary doing stuff like that on a brand new $12,000 Mac.

Thanks Max:

Sigh..... so it seems my business freelancers will need to brush up on their FCPX skills/use in order to benefit from the Afterburner. I've chatted with them and with a small push&shove I think I can motivate them if indeed they can get their work done in same way as they do using Adobe. We have a fully paid up FCPX onboard so that not a cost to bear, and yes, we pay something like some $360 annually for our Adobe subscription (a lot less than your $600 ).

As an aside, what kind of announcement from Adobe would convince you they are seriously looking at supporting the Afterburner hardware for their paying customers ? Of course, actually seeing it actually embedded in the Adobe software would the ultimate 'message' of good faith.

 

[jasonmvp]

As an aside, what kind of announcement from Adobe would convince you they are seriously looking at supporting the Afterburner hardware for their paying customers ?

Adobe, like most other corporations, aren't in the habit of making official announcements of things that they're "seriously looking into". Those sorts of things move stock prices, and that's no bueno. Specially if they do look into it and for some reason decide the don't want to do it.

Ultimately what's going to come from Adobe is either A)nothing, or B)surprise! We brought Afterburner support to the newest version of Pr! That's how it'll likely go.

 

[chfilm]

Adobe, like most other corporations, aren't in the habit of making official announcements of things that they're "seriously looking into". Those sorts of things move stock prices, and that's no bueno. Specially if they do look into it and for some reason decide the don't want to do it.

Ultimately what's going to come from Adobe is either A)nothing, or B)surprise! We brought Afterburner support to the newest version of Pr! That's how it'll likely go.

Agree.
We can hope it’ll be patched in by a match/April update maybe, or in a worst case only in CC21 in October.......
but if it’s as easy as it sounds with Apple already providing most of the groundwork I expect support to arrive earlier. Give them a few months. And all of you, please move over Here and Start annoying them:

Adobe Community

Come for help, be inspired. The Adobe Community is the place to ask questions, find answers, learn from experts and share your knowledge. We have everything to help you get started, learn how to's, tips and tricks, and unlock your creativity.

adobe-video.uservoice.com

 

[bxs]

Agree.
We can hope it’ll be patched in by a match/April update maybe, or in a worst case only in CC21 in October.......
but if it’s as easy as it sounds with Apple already providing most of the groundwork I expect support to arrive earlier. Give them a few months. And all of you, please move over Here and Start annoying them:

Adobe Community

Come for help, be inspired. The Adobe Community is the place to ask questions, find answers, learn from experts and share your knowledge. We have everything to help you get started, learn how to's, tips and tricks, and unlock your creativity.

adobe-video.uservoice.com

Have added my support as you requested.

 

[chfilm]

Have added my support as you requested.

Perfect- yea we need to get some momentum behind this, there are requests with thousands of votes and this has only three so far...

 

[jasonmvp]

Perfect- yea we need to get some momentum behind this, there are requests with thousands of votes and this has only three so far...

To set your expectations accordingly: The majority of the Pr customers are PC users, not Mac users. And of those Mac users, there's a teeny percentage of us that are using Mac Pros. With an even smaller percentage again with AB cards. So do the math in your head and ask yourself if the ROI is even there? Would Abode bring in a bunch more users of their software if they added support? Or conversely, would they risk losing a ton of users if they don't?

Unfortunately, I expect the answer to both of those is: "no". I've added my vote, but again: set your expectations realistically. They've got a lot of much bigger fish to fry right now when it comes to Pr and its general robustness.

 

[chfilm]

To set your expectations accordingly: The majority of the Pr customers are PC users, not Mac users. And of those Mac users, there's a teeny percentage of us that are using Mac Pros. With an even smaller percentage again with AB cards. So do the math in your head and ask yourself if the ROI is even there? Would Abode bring in a bunch more users of their software if they added support? Or conversely, would they risk losing a ton of users if they don't?

Unfortunately, I expect the answer to both of those is: "no". I've added my vote, but again: set your expectations realistically. They've got a lot of much bigger fish to fry right now when it comes to Pr and its general robustness.

Agree, but we can dream
I think it’ll come!
Don’t underestimate the Mac user base that uses premiere. Of all the productions and post houses where I was editing last year, I’d say 90% was premiere on a Mac Pro trashcan.
the absolute minority used windows, actually only two places where I’ve been. And none of the Mac shops had an iMac pro or something.

But that’s just my personal experience, doesn’t say anything about the user base as a whole of course.
Actually I want to install premiere under boot camp just to see if the UI is equally laggy under windows or if that’s actually a Mac OS premiere thing.

 

[Grumply]

Super helpful breakdown and review Max. Much appreciated! 🙏

 

[jasonmvp]

Actually I want to install premiere under boot camp just to see if the UI is equally laggy under windows or if that’s actually a Mac OS premiere thing.

It's... consistent.

 

[bxs]

To set your expectations accordingly: The majority of the Pr customers are PC users, not Mac users. And of those Mac users, there's a teeny percentage of us that are using Mac Pros. With an even smaller percentage again with AB cards. So do the math in your head and ask yourself if the ROI is even there? Would Abode bring in a bunch more users of their software if they added support? Or conversely, would they risk losing a ton of users if they don't?

Unfortunately, I expect the answer to both of those is: "no". I've added my vote, but again: set your expectations realistically. They've got a lot of much bigger fish to fry right now when it comes to Pr and its general robustness.

I completely understand your advice on "setting expectations". The way I see it is, if we say nothing we get nothing, whereas, if we do say something there's at least some hope we do get something.

Word and mouth can end up being very damaging to a company's reputation regardless of it coming from a small group.

For my shop we will be brushing up on the FCPX use/skills to ensure we do get benefit for investing in the Afterburner.

 

[avkills]

Adobe has their own video transport technology called Mercury. Since it is run cross platform, it is seriously doubtful that Adobe is using the Apple libraries for video handling; about the only thing it is using is Metal, CUDA or OpenCL.

Let's hope that changes. Also what would be interesting is whether the AfterBurner card would work on a PC rig, I know Apple will not make drivers, but it would be an interesting experiment.