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Greyhound

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2017
6
1
Switzerland
Hey there

Im a absolute newbie, so excuse me if i doing something wrong o_O

At the Moment the Situation looks like this:

Mac Pro 5.1
2x Quad Core Xeon
3 Gigs of RAM

Wich configuration would you recommend to get this baby transformed in a heavy Video editing and render machine?

I searced a lot for the perfect configuration but its impossible to find some usefull reports...
So i thought better ask right at the source of mac gurus ;)

Post your perfect Mac Pro configuration below

Thxs for your advice
 

enka95

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2016
10
3
France
  • 3 Gigs of RAM is nothing. 12 Gb is the minimum for video editing. If you can, go to 48 Gb or more
  • SSD for OS, another one for medias
  • AMD Radeon RX480 if your editing software is FCPX, Nvidia GTX980 if you go to Adobe
  • CPU : you can change them to 2 X5690 => 12 cores (24 threads) at 3,46 Ghz
Thoses update will give you a very, very powerfull editing station
 

Greyhound

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2017
6
1
Switzerland
Of course 3 Gigs is way to less
at the moment the mac pro is in a nearly original delivery setting

I use the AdobeCC

My whole budget is arround 2000-3000$ but i also want one of the new generation 4k monitors (500-700$) and some other additional hardware (ca. 500$)
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,584
Hong Kong
So, the actual budget for this 5,1 internal upgrade can as low as $1000. I will personally looking for something like the following. It's sure not the best hardware, but should work very well with limited budget.

Dual X5680 (used), server pulled 48GB 1333MHz ECC RAM (6x8GB), 1TB 850 Evo (just plug that into the empty optical bay). If you don't mind to deal with the Nvidia web driver (possible black screen if you do something wrong), then GTX 980 is actually a good choice. If you want something that has good native support, R9 280X is a good option. If you can find a cheap used GTX680 4GB card, that will be a good choice as well (native support).
 

Lil Chillbil

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2012
1,323
99
California
I pretty much have the same advice for upgrading any computer to edit video
-16GB+ of the fastest ram possible
-Large SSD for working with large files
-4TB HDD for long term storage/backups (if possible get a raid 1 setup)
 

Greyhound

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2017
6
1
Switzerland
So, the actual budget for this 5,1 internal upgrade can as low as $1000. I will personally looking for something like the following. It's sure not the best hardware, but should work very well with limited budget.

Dual X5680 (used), server pulled 48GB 1333MHz ECC RAM (6x8GB), 1TB 850 Evo (just plug that into the empty optical bay). If you don't mind to deal with the Nvidia web driver (possible black screen if you do something wrong), then GTX 980 is actually a good choice. If you want something that has good native support, R9 280X is a good option. If you can find a cheap used GTX680 4GB card, that will be a good choice as well (native support).


thxs for your answer

why not take the X5690 Processor? (of course its more expensiv...)

what do you think about a PCI Express SSD ?

any details about the Nvidia web driver problem?

and at least a bit stupid question: what do you exactly understand with "good native support"
[doublepost=1485211221][/doublepost]
I pretty much have the same advice for upgrading any computer to edit video
-16GB+ of the fastest ram possible
-Large SSD for working with large files
-4TB HDD for long term storage/backups (if possible get a raid 1 setup)

-any recommends for "the fastest RAM possible"??
-agreed
-Raid 1 should be fine, Raid 5 would be the more secure and faster solution or is this wrong?
 

CapnDavey

macrumors 6502
Apr 11, 2015
345
87
PCI E for ssd is a faster option I used a cheaper apricorn card there are much better options. A GTX680 can be flashed with the mac rom and will work without the web driver so no need to wait on upgrades. my 2 cents good luck
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,584
Hong Kong
thxs for your answer

why not take the X5690 Processor? (of course its more expensiv...)

what do you think about a PCI Express SSD ?

any details about the Nvidia web driver problem?

and at least a bit stupid question: what do you exactly understand with "good native support"
[doublepost=1485211221][/doublepost]

-any recommends for "the fastest RAM possible"??
-agreed
-Raid 1 should be fine, Raid 5 would be the more secure and faster solution or is this wrong?

The price difference between X5690 and X5680 sometimes can be very large (e.g. 50%), and the real world performance difference is almost negligible. If money is not an issue, I will sure go for dual X5690, but that usually not a smart move (unless you can source a pair of cheap X5690).

PCIe SSD is very good, but not a balanced option. It's highly focus on extreme sequential speed, the trade off is smaller storage and much more expensive. Again, if budget is not an issue, I will tell you go for 4x SM951 512GB RAID 0 + Amfeltec card. However, that's not a good option to keep the budget low. IMO, the main point of using SSD is the low latency, not the high sequential speed. And the small files read / write performance (4K random read QD1) on a single SATA SSD (SATA II connection) is almost identical to the 4x SM951 RAID 0 setup. So, why go for the more expensive setup if you don't really need it? Of course, high sequential speed is also a big advantage. But again, do you really need it? I have a 840 Evo, I have a Tempo SSD card (PCIe SATA III card). I tried that setup. TBH, can't feel any difference. My Mac run more or less with the same speed (including video editing) no matter how I connect the 840 Evo. In fact, I can edit 4K Pro Res with HDD only (non RAID). Of course, that will require a very large HDD space. But obviously PCIe SSD is not required, then why go for a more expensive + less storage option if not required. It's my personal experience, that's why I suggest you simply connect a 850 Evo to the lower optical bay to save money. However, that may not fit your workflow, if you are interested in high speed SSD. I will suggest you go straight to the PCIe SSD but not SATA SSD + PCIE SATA III card.

Since I am a FCPX user, I end up gave up the SATA III card and install a 2nd GPU there. Which gives me good performance jump. And obviously it gives me more benefit than a higher speed SSD (only applicable for my usage). Anyway, here is my setup

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mac-with-2-d700s.1732849/page-5#post-21722712

About "native support" and Nvidia web driver, please read through this post. (At least post #1)

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/

Any, "native support" means the card can run OOTB. No software or hardware mod required. Just plug that into the PCIe slot, and OSX / macOS will provide a driver to run the card. R9 280X and GTX680 has native support from Apple, but GTX980 do NOT. If you install that card in the Mac and boot, all you have is just black screen. And it may happen on every single OS update (including security update). You have to install the Nvidia web driver BEFORE you swap the 980 into your cMP. And make sure the web driver is avail from Nvidia BEFORE you do any OS update.

The fastest RAM configuration in your case should be 6x (any size) 1333MHz NON ECC DDR 3 sticks. Yes, non ECC is faster, but I won't recommend it. The difference is 2% or less in real world, better go for ECC. So, in your cMP, the fastest options are 6GB, 12GB, 24GB, 48GB, 96GB. Since the 8GB stick is pretty cheap now (especially those pulled from server), I will go for at least 48GB RAM. If you can source some cheap 16GB stick, I will go for 96GB. Even though your workflow don't need that much RAM, the system can still utilise the extra RAM as cache to speed up some process. Eventually, that mean 96GB RAM is the fastest option (because size also help).

IMO, RAID 0 = pure speed (but increase the chance of failure), RAID 1 = keep system alive (but double the cost), RAID 5 = speed up and have some redundancy. I think RAID 5 make sense for general use, however, if using hardware RAID, and if the controller fail, there is no guarantee that you can recover the data. Which make the redundancy a bit meaningless. And since no matter which RAID option (including RAID 1), you still need proper backup anyway. So, I personally will simply go for RAID 0 + proper backup.
 
Last edited:

nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,150
273
PCIe SSD is very good, but not a balanced option. It's highly focus on extreme sequential speed, the trade off is smaller storage and much more expensive. Again, if budget is not an issue, I will tell you go for 4x SM951 512GB RAID 0 + Amfeltec card. However, that's not a good option to keep the budget low. IMO, the main point of using SSD is the low latency, not the high sequential speed. And the small files read / write performance (4K random read QD1) on a single SATA SSD (SATA II connection) is almost identical to the 4x SM951 RAID 0 setup. So, why go for the more expensive setup if you don't really need it? Of course, high sequential speed is also a big advantage. But again, do you really need it? I have a 840 Evo, I have a Tempo SSD card (PCIe SATA III card). I tried that setup. TBH, can't feel any difference. My Mac run more or less with the same speed (including video editing) no matter how I connect the 840 Evo. In fact, I can edit 4K Pro Res with HDD only (non RAID). Of course, that will require a very large HDD space. But obviously PCIe SSD is not required, then why go for a more expensive + less storage option if not required. It's my personal experience, that's why I suggest you simply connect a 850 Evo to the lower optical bay to save money. However, that may not fit your workflow, if you are interested in high speed SSD. I will suggest you go straight to the PCIe SSD but not SATA SSD + PCIE SATA III card.
You have ignored the middle way which is a PCIe card like an Apricorn Velocity housing a regular SSD or two. This gives full SATA III speed for the SSD(s) at a fraction of the price of the Amfeltec card plus SM951s.
 

orph

macrumors 68000
Dec 12, 2005
1,884
393
UK
>.< backups you want backups so that needs to be added to your budget.
adobe apps like fast scratch disks.

OS drive (less important speed wise)
media drive (fast & large)
scratch drive (fast)
(on a budget you can always just stick SSD's in bays then get a pci card later)

i like external backups too

32GB of ram is ok most the time but depends on projects try not to go smaller or get 8GB sticks so you can add more later.

gpu
nvidia anything post gtx680 requires nvidia web drivers which are a slight pain but ok (dont upgrade the os until after new drivers are out or your in pain) which can be a no deal on a work computer.
ATI the RX 480 requires some work but looks like a god option for the price.

what kind of projects are you working on?

but do keep in mind that if your computer fails it may be a pain to fix
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,584
Hong Kong
You have ignored the middle way which is a PCIe card like an Apricorn Velocity housing a regular SSD or two. This gives full SATA III speed for the SSD(s) at a fraction of the price of the Amfeltec card plus SM951s.

No I didn't. In fact, I have a PCIe SATA III card. I tried that option, it makes no difference in my real world ops (including video editing in FCPX).

And this still occupy a extra PCIe slot, which I prefer to install the 2nd GPU more then a high speed SSD.

Also, the PCIe SATA III card is not cheap at all, if compare to the normal PCIe SSD adaptor. That Amfeltec card is just an example for OP to know what is the "best" if money is not an issue.
 
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Greyhound

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2017
6
1
Switzerland
Wow a lot of information thxs very much
did take some time to read and understand everything :)

for further talk lets eliminate the price factor. lets talk about "the real s***" :cool:;)


Since I am a FCPX user, I end up gave up the SATA III card and install a 2nd GPU there. Which gives me good performance jump. And obviously it gives me more benefit than a higher speed SSD (only applicable for my usage). Anyway, here is my setup

What are your Benfits with a second GPU? (in Relation to Videoediting)

CIe SSD is very good, but not a balanced option. It's highly focus on extreme sequential speed, the trade off is smaller storage and much more expensive. Again, if budget is not an issue, I will tell you go for 4x SM951 512GB RAID 0 + Amfeltec card. However, that's not a good option to keep the budget low. IMO, the main point of using SSD is the low latency, not the high sequential speed. And the small files read / write performance (4K random read QD1) on a single SATA SSD (SATA II connection) is almost identical to the 4x SM951 RAID 0 setup. So, why go for the more expensive setup if you don't really need it? Of course, high sequential speed is also a big advantage. But again, do you really need it? I have a 840 Evo, I have a Tempo SSD card (PCIe SATA III card). I tried that setup. TBH, can't feel any difference. My Mac run more or less with the same speed (including video editing) no matter how I connect the 840 Evo. In fact, I can edit 4K Pro Res with HDD only (non RAID). Of course, that will require a very large HDD space. But obviously PCIe SSD is not required, then why go for a more expensive + less storage option if not required. It's my personal experience, that's why I suggest you simply connect a 850 Evo to the lower optical bay to save money. However, that may not fit your workflow, if you are interested in high speed SSD. I will suggest you go straight to the PCIe SSD but not SATA SSD + PCIE SATA III card.

so understand this one thxs so much. about the connection: is the lower optical bay already a "SSD connector" or is there a need for adapters? And if i want to install another SSD in the HDD Slots i also will need a Adapter Kit right?

Any, "native support" means the card can run OOTB. No software or hardware mod required. Just plug that into the PCIe slot, and OSX / macOS will provide a driver to run the card. R9 280X and GTX680 has native support from Apple, but GTX980 do NOT. If you install that card in the Mac and boot, all you have is just black screen. And it may happen on every single OS update (including security update). You have to install the Nvidia web driver BEFORE you swap the 980 into your cMP. And make sure the web driver is avail from Nvidia BEFORE you do any OS update.

In my opinion i think a OOTB solution is more realistic, just because of heavy duty using (dont want to fight with some driver issues). Is the R9 the in your eyes the best opinion?

OS drive (less important speed wise)
media drive (fast & large)
scratch drive (fast)

Can you give me a further explanation of "Scratch Drive" what exactly is on this drive?

what kind of projects are you working on?

At the Moment just private Video editing for me and my friends (but on a quiet high level)... Maybe in future i will do payed Projects who knows?


again thank you very much for your answers and inputs, it is very very helpful!!
Greetings from Switzerland
 
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Lil Chillbil

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2012
1,323
99
California
Let the Mac Pro **** Measuring begin


Booting from a 2tb SSD with PCI-E adapter

Eventually i'll throw a more powerful card in there
 

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wonderspark

macrumors 68040
Feb 4, 2010
3,052
104
Oregon
I have a 4,1 Mac Pro that came with a single 3.33GHz quad core CPU, Radeon 4870 GPU and an Apple RAID card with 4 HDDs in RAID 5. It was first used to edit an independent feature length film shot on P2 cards. Over the years since 2009, I've made the following changes to keep up with the needs of my clients:
- Immediately added 16GB RAM (before even booting it the first time), then 32GB 1333MHz RAM (current)
- Updated firmware to 5,1, and swapped in 3.33GHz 6-core CPU (current)
- Replaced Apple RAID card with Areca 1880ix RAID card, currently an 1880ix-16, which runs 12 disks (but will soon be running 16 disks) in RAID 6, and an internal scratch SSD in the lower ODD bay
- Replaced 4870 with a 5870, and then R9 280X GPU (current)
- Added various eSATA and USB PCIe cards, currently using a CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 Plus for USB 3.1 (no longer using eSATA ports)
- All original HDDs are used as backups for smaller things, and I have used 2TB, 4TB and 8TB enterprise drives from Western Digital for my RAID 6 and individually for backups. The 8TB HDDs work perfectly both internally in the Mac Pro, and in the external RAID towers. I boot to a Samsung 850Pro 512GB SSD, and all my older SSDs are used as backup clones. I have a Samsung 830Pro 256GB SSD as my Mountain Lion backup, and an even older Crucial M4 256GB SSD as my current backup clone using Mavericks.

With backup clones, if the boot disk goes bad, I can reboot with the backup SSD and only lose about a minute of time. With the RAID 6, I can lose any two HDDs and still work with no data loss. If the whole RAID were to be lost for some reason, I have all data backed up on separate disks, so I'd rebuild the RAID and copy the data back in.

The RAID 6 was running sustained data throughput of over 700MB/sec read speeds, and over 800MB/sec write speeds using 8x 2TB HDDs, but since updating those to much faster 8TB HDDs and adding in more disks, it's over 1000MB/sec, though I've not measured it lately to say what it currently does, as I've also added more disks to the RAID. The 2TB HDDs gave about 137MB/sec each, whereas the 8TB deliver about 215MB/sec each. If you do the math on the overhead for parity and all the disks running together, you can see it gives outstanding performance.

I use Adobe CS6 for Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, Lightroom, SpeedGrade, Audition and so on. I also have FCP X, but I never got it to work for me as well as Adobe does. Now it requires Yosemite or greater, I think, and I'm not willing to sacrifice the stability I'm seeing in Mavericks to move up.

I edit professionally for a few clients for a living, and it's been fantastic.
 

mastermamo

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2017
85
36
Cape Town South Africa
I do post production and visual effects for clients ranging from documentaries to feature films. Have been doing this for years. Here's one of my setups which might point u in the right direction. I have a few more elaborate setups but will use the one below as it's more apt for what you might need.

For more intensive work I use Quadro Cards and/or a 8 node render farm.

Mac Pro 5.1 3.03Ghz 12 core
64 gig DDR3 1333 RAM
Samsung 850 Evo SSD OS drive
OWC Electra 6G SSD (scratch disk)
4x3TB WD Caviar Blacks (storage)
6 x G-Tech 4TB Pro Drives Slaved (storage)
Nvidia GT120 Boot GPU
Nvidia GTX 780Ti main GPU
Sonnet USB3.0 card
4 port eSata PCI card
4xDell U2713H screens

Software:
Premiere CC2017
AE CC2017
Avid Media Composer
Cinema 4D
Houdini
Real flow
etc etc

I also lecture Adobe products and Beta test for them extensively and this particular setup manages 4K playback (half res) and full 4K renders quite comfortably.
Not a costly upgrade path but one that has suited my needs for small to medium projects pretty well thus far
 

PhotoGUY73

macrumors newbie
Dec 26, 2016
9
0
Hello everyone. I appreciate reading about everyone's setup.

I'm currently building my setup:

MacPro 5,1 w/2 6-core 2.93 ghz
Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6GB video card
Boot drive 256GB Samsung SSD 850 Pro w/OS and Adobe CS6 Apps
Scratch drive (haven't decided yet) suggestions?
ATTO ExpressSAS R680 Card. (Can't decide on which RAId tower to buy for 1TB Samsung SSD 850 Pro)

Open to suggestions for backup drives or clones internal hard drive bays?

I was considering using the Amfeltec 16x PCI w/ 4 SSD for scratch/media/

Needing some guidance on finishing up my setup. I will be editing 1080p video mostly but I'd like to have a system for 4K for future use. I currently use Adobe products. No interest in FCP.

For now, I will be shooting video and pictures with my DSLR Canon 70D and other gear.
 

lclev

macrumors 6502a
Jul 29, 2013
551
393
Ohio
I do post production and visual effects for clients ranging from documentaries to feature films. Have been doing this for years. Here's one of my setups which might point u in the right direction. I have a few more elaborate setups but will use the one below as it's more apt for what you might need.

For more intensive work I use Quadro Cards and/or a 8 node render farm.

Mac Pro 5.1 3.03Ghz 12 core
64 gig DDR3 1333 RAM
Samsung 850 Evo SSD OS drive
OWC Electra 6G SSD (scratch disk)
4x3TB WD Caviar Blacks (storage)
6 x G-Tech 4TB Pro Drives Slaved (storage)
Nvidia GT120 Boot GPU
Nvidia GTX 780Ti main GPU
Sonnet USB3.0 card
4 port eSata PCI card
4xDell U2713H screens

Software:
Premiere CC2017
AE CC2017
Avid Media Composer
Cinema 4D
Houdini
Real flow
etc etc

I also lecture Adobe products and Beta test for them extensively and this particular setup manages 4K playback (half res) and full 4K renders quite comfortably.
Not a costly upgrade path but one that has suited my needs for small to medium projects pretty well thus far

I am running a system almost identical (I have 4-4TB WD Red drives) to the above and will agree it will handle anything you can throw at it. My largest project to date using this setup was a 5 hour 4K project that it handle beautifully. I use the Adobe CC suite.

Lisa
 

mastermamo

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2017
85
36
Cape Town South Africa
I am running a system almost identical (I have 4-4TB WD Red drives) to the above and will agree it will handle anything you can throw at it. My largest project to date using this setup was a 5 hour 4K project that it handle beautifully. I use the Adobe CC suite.

Lisa

What's your spec :
GPU?
CPU?
Etc etc
 

mastermamo

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2017
85
36
Cape Town South Africa
I was considering using the Amfeltec 16x PCI w/ 4 SSD for scratch/media/

For what u will be doing u won't see a massive jump in performance if u use a PCI SSD compared to a standard SSD as your scratch disk. A scratch disk is pretty important for both post production and visual effects but the 2-5% speed difference isn't noticeable and for the price difference between the two types it's definitely not worth it.
Rather put that money into more RAM or a PCI SSD for your main OS, in which case you WILL see and feel a difference.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,584
Hong Kong
Wow a lot of information thxs very much
did take some time to read and understand everything :)

for further talk lets eliminate the price factor. lets talk about "the real s***" :cool:;)




What are your Benfits with a second GPU? (in Relation to Videoediting)



so understand this one thxs so much. about the connection: is the lower optical bay already a "SSD connector" or is there a need for adapters? And if i want to install another SSD in the HDD Slots i also will need a Adapter Kit right?



In my opinion i think a OOTB solution is more realistic, just because of heavy duty using (dont want to fight with some driver issues). Is the R9 the in your eyes the best opinion?



Can you give me a further explanation of "Scratch Drive" what exactly is on this drive?



At the Moment just private Video editing for me and my friends (but on a quiet high level)... Maybe in future i will do payed Projects who knows?


again thank you very much for your answers and inputs, it is very very helpful!!
Greetings from Switzerland

The 2nd GPU can greatly reduce the rendering / analysing time (about 40% reduction, very significant).

Both optical bay come with SATA II port. So, all standard SATA SSD are plug and play. No adaptor required.

Yes, IMO, R9 280X still the best OOTB card for FCPX in cMP, but for other video editing software, may be GTX680 is the best.

Scratch drive means the drive that to store the cache during editing.
 

rueyloon

macrumors regular
Sep 24, 2013
187
11
what do you think about a PCI Express SSD ?

What makes the difference is actually the random access speed. Absolute transfer speed only comes in when you are moving files around. I have monitored and did tests, the software does not (and probably cannot) "ingest" the raw files any faster on a SSD vs a HDD because it can only process the files at a certain speed, which is pretty low.
[doublepost=1485369559][/doublepost]
The 2nd GPU can greatly reduce the rendering / analysing time (about 40% reduction, very significant).
Yes, IMO, R9 280X still the best OOTB card for FCPX in cMP.

I just did some extensive tests with 1, 2 and 3 r9-390x and I'm getting results that are quite disappointing. I have a 12core D500 nmp 2.5ghz and 12core omp 3.47. With 3 r9 I can match the output speed of the nmp within seconds. Some have mentioned that the graphics cards of the nmp and fcpx are optimized for each other. I would like to do the same tests with the R9-280x to see if that is true. The 280x have the same device ID so might have tighter integration with the software.

The typical tests/benchmarks using Bruce 5K might be misleading as the output is completely generated and does not involve transcoding of source files. Bruce 5k might be good for estimating 3d renderings but not for editing video editing.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,584
Hong Kong
What makes the difference is actually the random access speed. Absolute transfer speed only comes in when you are moving files around. I have monitored and did tests, the software does not (and probably cannot) "ingest" the raw files any faster on a SSD vs a HDD because it can only process the files at a certain speed, which is pretty low.
[doublepost=1485369559][/doublepost]

I just did some extensive tests with 1, 2 and 3 r9-390x and I'm getting results that are quite disappointing. I have a 12core D500 nmp 2.5ghz and 12core omp 3.47. With 3 r9 I can match the output speed of the nmp within seconds. Some have mentioned that the graphics cards of the nmp and fcpx are optimized for each other. I would like to do the same tests with the R9-280x to see if that is true. The 280x have the same device ID so might have tighter integration with the software.

The typical tests/benchmarks using Bruce 5K might be misleading as the output is completely generated and does not involve transcoding of source files. Bruce 5k might be good for estimating 3d renderings but not for editing video editing.

Sure encoding and rendering are two different things. That's why I said the 2nd GPU helps rendering / analysing, but didn't mention encoding, because that's mainly the CPU's job, only very few occasion that some software can use GPU to assist a little bit.

However, even thought we always need to output a video after editing. I personally won't consider encoding is a part of editing. So, I will say BruceX is actual not bad to benchmark the editing performance.
 

PhotoGUY73

macrumors newbie
Dec 26, 2016
9
0
For what u will be doing u won't see a massive jump in performance if u use a PCI SSD compared to a standard SSD as your scratch disk. A scratch disk is pretty important for both post production and visual effects but the 2-5% speed difference isn't noticeable and for the price difference between the two types it's definitely not worth it.
Rather put that money into more RAM or a PCI SSD for your main OS, in which case you WILL see and feel a difference.


I read this article thinking it would be a solid upgrade.

http://barefeats.com/hard210.html
 
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