MP 7,1 Configuration advice for MP 7,1 for Adobe After Effects

[theatwar]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on configuring a new Mac Pro 7,1 for my independent animation studio. I use Adobe AfterEffects for animation (lots of “2 and a half D” style motion graphics as well as compositing and film/video manipulation) and Adobe Photoshop for design.

I keep my computers for about 8-10 years (I’ve been in business since the mid-90s and I’ve only used Macs — I’m not interested in building a PC). I’ve got a large budget set aside for this new computer and accessories (I’m looking at upgrading my external storage solutions to Thunderbolt from eSATA as well as purchasing dual 4K monitors).

That said, I would also like to see if it’s possible to continue using some of the upgraded components I’ve purchased over the years in my current setup as well, especially the SSD storage that I’m currently using.

I’ll start by thanking everyone for reading this — I know there are a ton of expert users on this forum, and I really appreciate any advice I get. Also happy to answer as many questions as possible.

First off, I’ll describe my current setup:

Mac Pro 5, 1 (Mid 2010), running macOS Sierra v 10.12.6
Processor: 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTx 980 TI 6144MB (Purchased from macvidcards)

Monitors:

LED Cinema Display (2560x1440)
Cinema HD Display (1920x1200)

Internal SSD storage:

2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO

960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD
960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD

External spinning drive storage:

24 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.1/eSATA
10 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200 128MB with eSATA
10 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200 128MB with eSATA

(I connect these spinning drives to my 5,1 Mac Pro via a NewerTech MAXPower USB/eSATA 2x2 host adapter.)

My questions for the new Mac Pro 7,1 are:

1. Processor: Considering I’d like this computer to last for 8-10 years, I’m assuming I should choose the fastest processor — the 28-Core 2.5 GHz Intel Xeon W?

2. Memory: I’m considering just getting the ‘minimum’ memory when I build the computer from Apple and then upgrading with memory from OWC (I’m assuming the OWC memory will be cheaper without sacrificing quality).

That said, what ‘amount’ of memory should I consider? I’d love to be able to run AfterEffects and Photoshop simultaneously on this new machine.

3. Graphics: Which AMD Radion Pro Vega II option would be the best for AfterEffects? I’m also purchasing two new 4K monitors (I’m looking at the LG UltraFine 4K display, but if anyone has other recommendations, I’d love to hear them) and place them side-to-side in my new setup.

4. Storage: Considering I currently have almost 8 TBs of SSD storage internally inside my 5,1 Mac Pro, I’m obviously looking at solutions where I’ll be using external SSD storage of some kind.

A. One of my main questions is are there solutions where I can move the Samsung SSD drives and/or the OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD cards that are currently inside my 5,1 Mac Pro to external enclosure(s) and connect them via Thunderbolt to the new 7,1 Mac Pro?

Would moving these drives “erase” the data currently on the drives? What kind of speed loss would I be looking at compared to the internal SSD drive options from Apple? Would I just be, in the long run, better off buying something like an OWC Thunderblade for my external SSD needs?

B. If I purchased a new Thunderbolt enclosure for my spinning drives, would I be able to move my current spinning drives that are in my Mercury Elite Pro eSATA enclosures? Or would it just be better off to buy a new Thunderbolt drive enclosure + new drives (something like the OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID?)

Totally understand that I’ve asked a ton of questions here, and I thank you all again for any advice you have to offer!

 

[chfilm]

Hey, glad somebody asked this, I’m kinda in the same boat as a heavy after effects user, also doing a lot of editing though and coming from a trashcan so I can’t answer any of your questions about the old cards.
I’m aiming for the 16 core, Vega II with 192gb of ram.
I think anything other than a single Vega won’t make sense for after effects. It’s not being used anyways, THANKS ADOBE!
about cores the same, during rendering sure, it’ll use them, but 16 should be plenty!! Above that the single core speed drops as it seems, so I think we’ll be better off with a lower core count/higher clock speed. Hell even the 12 core might be a worthy consideration. It’ll still be a massive upgrade over your current setup even though you already have 12 cores, but just due to the clock speeds.

I’m saying 16c is the sweet spot though.
Let’s see about those Vega prices... but you could always ask a second Vega II later if adobe chooses to tax GPU more and more.

3rd party OWC ram is my plan as well!

 

[H. Flower]

Has Adobe announced support for Afterburner?

 

[theatwar]

Hey, glad somebody asked this, I’m kinda in the same boat as a heavy after effects user, also doing a lot of editing though and coming from a trashcan so I can’t answer any of your questions about the old cards.
I’m aiming for the 16 core, Vega II with 192gb of ram.
I think anything other than a single Vega won’t make sense for after effects. It’s not being used anyways, THANKS ADOBE!
about cores the same, during rendering sure, it’ll use them, but 16 should be plenty!! Above that the single core speed drops as it seems, so I think we’ll be better off with a lower core count/higher clock speed. Hell even the 12 core might be a worthy consideration. It’ll still be a massive upgrade over your current setup even though you already have 12 cores, but just due to the clock speeds.

I’m saying 16c is the sweet spot though.
Let’s see about those Vega prices... but you could always ask a second Vega II later if adobe chooses to tax GPU more and more.

3rd party OWC ram is my plan as well!

Oh good, I'm glad this thread might be able to help other AfterEffects users as well.

Can others weigh in on chfilm's lower core count/higher clock speed recommendation for the processor? Would selecting the 16-Core option be a much better choice than the 28-Core option? (The 16-Core 3.2GHz, 24-Core 2.7GHz, and 28-Core 2.5GHz chip options listed on the specs page all say "Turbo boost up to 4.4GHz", not sure if that makes a difference when it comes to Adobe software?)

As for Afterburner -- not quite sure I'll get a lot of use out of that card, so I'm not planning on purchasing that as part of my setup.

 

[chfilm]

Oh good, I'm glad this thread might be able to help other AfterEffects users as well.

Can others weigh in on chfilm's lower core count/higher clock speed recommendation for the processor? Would selecting the 16-Core option be a much better choice than the 28-Core option? (The 16-Core 3.2GHz, 24-Core 2.7GHz, and 28-Core 2.5GHz chip options listed on the specs page all say "Turbo boost up to 4.4GHz", not sure if that makes a difference when it comes to Adobe software?)

As for Afterburner -- not quite sure I'll get a lot of use out of that card, so I'm not planning on purchasing that as part of my setup.

This would interest me as well (in how far the turbo boost makes up for the lower base clock speed in every day usage.)
I think afterburner will Not benefit after effects at all. Premiere might be another story..

about external storage, im gonna continue to use mit promise Pegasus 2 raid as main storage, just like I did on the trashcan.
Maybe for you an external multi bay enclosure would be a good idea to keep the spinning disks in use, meanwhile it would interest me as well how to bring your own ssds into the new machine.

 

[theatwar]

This would interest me as well (in how far the turbo boost makes up for the lower base clock speed in every day usage.)
I think afterburner will Not benefit after effects at all. Premiere might be another story..

about external storage, im gonna continue to use mit promise Pegasus 2 raid as main storage, just like I did on the trashcan.
Maybe for you an external multi bay enclosure would be a good idea to keep the spinning disks in use, meanwhile it would interest me as well how to bring your own ssds into the new machine.

I could be wrong -- I often am! -- but I think it's not possible to install my current Samsung SSDs inside the machine. I would like to explore purchasing some kind of external Thunderbolt enclosure for them (if anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear them).

The 960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSDs are another story -- I reached out to OWC tech support and they don't know if they'll be compatible without a 7,1 box to test them on. However those are a few years old and I've already had each of them replaced due to failures so I might not continue using them.

 

[chfilm]

I could be wrong -- I often am! -- but I think it's not possible to install my current Samsung SSDs inside the machine. I would like to explore purchasing some kind of external Thunderbolt enclosure for them (if anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear them).

The 960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSDs are another story -- I reached out to OWC tech support and they don't know if they'll be compatible without a 7,1 box to test them on. However those are a few years old and I've already had each of them replaced due to failures so I might not continue using them.

Yea those were the ones I was referring to.
I’m thinking.. so far I was pretty happy with my 512gb internal setup with the big promise raid for all video files and other data, and a lacie little big disk 2 as a cache drive. But with the new Mac Pro it would be nice to have all the caches internally. I was aiming for 1 tb ssd only to safe money for GPU and CPU, but this cache situation got me wondering if it would be better to get 2TB.
Then again maybe something like the Sonnet M.2 PCIe at a later point for more internal SSD bang is the better choice.

 

[ekwipt]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...be-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

Check this out, Adobe is looking to improve on CPU advantage but at the moment a highly clocked CPU is best (iMac might be the best for After effects in Apples lineup!)

 

[bsbeamer]

Has Adobe announced support for Afterburner?

No. At this point, wouldn’t plan on anything before NAB 2020 either. CC 2020 was just released. No new features for few months.
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The only announced products for internal SATA based drives are from Pegasus. Pricing and availability has not been announced. Initial reports suggest these may be post machine purchases and MIGHT not be BTO configurable, more like accessories.

 

[deconstruct60]

....

My questions for the new Mac Pro 7,1 are:

1. Processor: Considering I’d like this computer to last for 8-10 years, I’m assuming I should choose the fastest processor — the 28-Core 2.5 GHz Intel Xeon W?

Unless Apple gets some huge price discount o the 28 version ( Intel charges a $3K tax for > 1 TB ... which you are no where near ). Even if Adobe software got better at > 8 cores processing that tax when not anywhere need actually using the 1TB limit doesn't make much business sense at all. Even less when the Adobe apps don't commonly scale that high in a well rounded way.

Even at matching 12 cores these are much more modern cores. If Adobe did anything decent with AVX-512 there would be an even bigger gap.

2. Memory: I’m considering just getting the ‘minimum’ memory when I build the computer from Apple and then upgrading with memory from OWC (I’m assuming the OWC memory will be cheaper without sacrificing quality).

That said, what ‘amount’ of memory should I consider? I’d love to be able to run AfterEffects and Photoshop simultaneously on this new machine.

I think I've seen folks through out x GB / core numbers for either priemere or after effects.

3. Graphics: Which AMD Radion Pro Vega II option would be the best for AfterEffects?

Best within a likely budget? Yes. if current GPU isn't currently being overly taxed then the Vega II will do just fine for a long enough while.

4. Storage: Considering I currently have almost 8 TBs of SSD storage internally inside my 5,1 Mac Pro, I’m obviously looking at solutions where I’ll be using external SSD storage of some kind.

A. One of my main questions is are there solutions where I can move the Samsung SSD drives and/or the OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD cards that are currently inside my 5,1 Mac Pro to external enclosure(s) and connect them via Thunderbolt to the new 7,1 Mac Pro?

Would moving these drives “erase” the data currently on the drives?

Unless they are formatted by some proprietary hardware RAID controller, no.

What kind of speed loss would I be looking at compared to the internal SSD drive options from Apple?

The SATA drives would be slower. But they are also cheaper. All the more so because you already own them.

It seems doubtful that your current Mac Pro was even fully utilizing those SATA SSDs you have since they are stuffed on a SATA II bus. USB 3.1 gen 2 would be better than that.

Would I just be, in the long run, better off buying something like an OWC Thunderblade for my external SSD needs?

if not RAIDing up the drives now, I don't think the thunder blade makes much of an impact here. There are other options. It is perhaps more affordable than some other options.

B. If I purchased a new Thunderbolt enclosure for my spinning drives, would I be able to move my current spinning drives that are in my Mercury Elite Pro eSATA enclosures? Or would it just be better off to buy a new Thunderbolt drive enclosure + new drives (something like the OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID?)

Do you really need to? the SATA card should be able to go into the new Mac Pro and can just use that same external set up. If going to keep the old mac operational then may need all new stuff, but if just moving things over the card should work.

That card is getting old so the driver support ( if needs any custom ones) may drop away after macOS 10.15 or so ( when most everything will need new drivers. )

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Has Adobe announced support for Afterburner?

If apps are using standard Apple AV Foundation libraries to open/write ProRes files there is no support to be added. it should just work. There is no direct app access to Afterburner. It is all through Apple libraries that already existed.

Those libraries check to see if Afterburner is there. If so it uses it. If not then it defaults to the software Apple has been using up until now. As long as Apps don't by-pass the Apple libraries to open/load/write the files there is not much new to do.

Adobe needs portable code. If they layered a portable facade on top of Apple's ProRes libraries then they won't have to do much at all ( perhaps some new APIs updates in macOS 10.15 but not much). If they rolled their own from scratch to be "portable" then they'll have issues. There isn't going to be a way "in" as apps don't have direct access to Afterburner.

Several apps that have been follow the rules/guidelines Apple has laid down over time will just work. That was the objective. Not to hide afterburner is Apple only apps.
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No. At this point, wouldn’t plan on anything before NAB 2020 either. CC 2020 was just released. No new features for few months.

If Adobe ocmpletely by-passed the Apple foundational libraries then NAB 2020 probably isn't going to solve it. If they didn't then it is non issue.

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The only announced products for internal SATA based drives are from Pegasus. Pricing and availability has not been announced. Initial reports suggest these may be post machine purchases and MIGHT not be BTO configurable, more like accessories.

The Promise Pegasus J2i is a simple mechanical bracket with pragmatically zero electric parts. ( I suspect they supply some SATA cables with the product but those are pragmatically commodities. The 'unique' part is just a simple metal bracket. )

The Promise only as a jump there because they have had long term access to the exact physical dimensions of the Mac Pro. Once those dimensions are public knowledge the barrier to entry on that product should evaporate over several months. By April-June that should be about over. ( Unless Mac Pro sales are pretty bad. Which doesn't look like it so far. ). Promise boosting the price by coupling a HDD with the purchase probably won't work so well. ( this is a product where Apple probably doesn't want to stock a huge inventory on because it is probably going to have problems by the end of 2020.... if not sooner. )

Apple is probably not going to have any HDD options in their BTO page. The point in the buying process where could be some more accessories/kits in separate boxes to add to the purchase order. That's where you'll possibly find some HDDs.

 

[vel0city]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...be-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

Check this out, Adobe is looking to improve on CPU advantage but at the moment a highly clocked CPU is best (iMac might be the best for After effects in Apples lineup!)

No. After Effects on an iMac causes the fans to spin at full pelt and will sound like a hairdryer. The iMac is a terrible choice for anyone working with video, rendering or 3D. The throttling and noise levels are unacceptable.

 

[bsbeamer]

Any writeup that recommends a DAC for AFTER EFFECTS usage should be viewed with extreme caution as it's a really good sign they're not actually using the software...

AE has traditionally favored high clock CPU and a lot of RAM, but age of CPU and machine also plays huge a factor. You can have a modern lower clock CPU that outperforms an older much higher clock CPU. This is where benchmarks like GB5 are actually helpful to evaluate.

After AE stopped updating the original version(s) of raytracing in projects, GPU wasn't a huge impact. Things are beginning to change with CC 2020. The dream of an Adobe accelerator card from a few years ago is never going to happen, but their tools are absolutely embracing METAL on macOS a lot more.

AE does work (sometimes really well) on Mac Mini, iMac, iMac Pro, and MBP despite what some may want you to believe.

 

[shuto]

I think the best Modular Mac Pro CPU choice would be the 12Core.

After Effects doesn't multicore that well, so higher clock speed is more important, so thats why I think 12C would be slightly faster than 16C for after effects...

16Core - 4.40 GHz Max Turbo Boost - 3.90 GHz All Core Turbo
12Core - 4.40 GHz Max Turbo Boost - 4.00 GHz All Core Turbo

Think I'm going to get 16C as I also work in C4D, but guess it depends what price increase is.

96GB ram would be a nice amount for After Effect. I've been getting along ok with 32GB, but you can keep more RAM previews hanging around for longer if you have more RAM. AE loves Ram they say.

Don't think a VegaII would massively speed up After Effects - not many effects are GPU accelerated, but I guess they are always working on this, so maybe its better for future, but can always upgrade later hey.


Hope that helps

 

[chfilm]

I think the best Modular Mac Pro CPU choice would be the 12Core.

After Effects doesn't multicore that well, so higher clock speed is more important, so thats why I think 12C would be slightly faster than 16C for after effects...

16Core - 4.40 GHz Max Turbo Boost - 3.90 GHz All Core Turbo
12Core - 4.40 GHz Max Turbo Boost - 4.00 GHz All Core Turbo

Think I'm going to get 16C as I also work in C4D, but guess it depends what price increase is.

96GB ram would be a nice amount for After Effect. I've been getting along ok with 32GB, but you can keep more RAM previews hanging around for longer if you have more RAM. AE loves Ram they say.

Don't think a VegaII would massively speed up After Effects - not many effects are GPU accelerated, but I guess they are always working on this, so maybe its better for future, but can always upgrade later hey.


Hope that helps

96gb for 16 cores? Don't think that's enough, your cores are gonna choke. Adobe recommended 8gigs per core previously..

 

[ssgbryan]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on configuring a new Mac Pro 7,1 for my independent animation studio. I use Adobe AfterEffects for animation (lots of “2 and a half D” style motion graphics as well as compositing and film/video manipulation) and Adobe Photoshop for design.

I keep my computers for about 8-10 years (I’ve been in business since the mid-90s and I’ve only used Macs — I’m not interested in building a PC). I’ve got a large budget set aside for this new computer and accessories (I’m looking at upgrading my external storage solutions to Thunderbolt from eSATA as well as purchasing dual 4K monitors).

That said, I would also like to see if it’s possible to continue using some of the upgraded components I’ve purchased over the years in my current setup as well, especially the SSD storage that I’m currently using.

I’ll start by thanking everyone for reading this — I know there are a ton of expert users on this forum, and I really appreciate any advice I get. Also happy to answer as many questions as possible.

First off, I’ll describe my current setup:

Mac Pro 5, 1 (Mid 2010), running macOS Sierra v 10.12.6
Processor: 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 64 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTx 980 TI 6144MB (Purchased from macvidcards)

Monitors:

LED Cinema Display (2560x1440)
Cinema HD Display (1920x1200)

Internal SSD storage:

2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO

960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD
960 GB OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD

External spinning drive storage:

24 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual RAID USB 3.1/eSATA
10 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200 128MB with eSATA
10 TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro 7200 128MB with eSATA

(I connect these spinning drives to my 5,1 Mac Pro via a NewerTech MAXPower USB/eSATA 2x2 host adapter.)

My questions for the new Mac Pro 7,1 are:

1. Processor: Considering I’d like this computer to last for 8-10 years, I’m assuming I should choose the fastest processor — the 28-Core 2.5 GHz Intel Xeon W?

2. Memory: I’m considering just getting the ‘minimum’ memory when I build the computer from Apple and then upgrading with memory from OWC (I’m assuming the OWC memory will be cheaper without sacrificing quality).

That said, what ‘amount’ of memory should I consider? I’d love to be able to run AfterEffects and Photoshop simultaneously on this new machine.

3. Graphics: Which AMD Radion Pro Vega II option would be the best for AfterEffects? I’m also purchasing two new 4K monitors (I’m looking at the LG UltraFine 4K display, but if anyone has other recommendations, I’d love to hear them) and place them side-to-side in my new setup.

4. Storage: Considering I currently have almost 8 TBs of SSD storage internally inside my 5,1 Mac Pro, I’m obviously looking at solutions where I’ll be using external SSD storage of some kind.

A. One of my main questions is are there solutions where I can move the Samsung SSD drives and/or the OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD cards that are currently inside my 5,1 Mac Pro to external enclosure(s) and connect them via Thunderbolt to the new 7,1 Mac Pro?

Would moving these drives “erase” the data currently on the drives? What kind of speed loss would I be looking at compared to the internal SSD drive options from Apple? Would I just be, in the long run, better off buying something like an OWC Thunderblade for my external SSD needs?

B. If I purchased a new Thunderbolt enclosure for my spinning drives, would I be able to move my current spinning drives that are in my Mercury Elite Pro eSATA enclosures? Or would it just be better off to buy a new Thunderbolt drive enclosure + new drives (something like the OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID?)

Totally understand that I’ve asked a ton of questions here, and I thank you all again for any advice you have to offer!

1. CPU: The 28 core Xeon runs at 2.50Ghz. Adobe apps for the most part, are poorly coded wrt cores. They tend to depend more on clock frequency. I would recommend going with the W-3245. 16 cores/32 threads @ 3.2Ghz. Ignore the boost clock numbers - If 1 core can hit that number for 1 second, that is the number that Intel pushes.

2. Memory: Definitely only get the minimum. OWC should give you a reasonable deal. Or just go on line and order server memory. Long term, in 36 - 48 months 2933 server ram should be pretty cheap as the servers build around these CPUs (and their immediate predecessors) are retired.

3. GPU: AMD is in the process of dumping GCN architecture for RDNA. The workstation cards have already popped out, and Navi drivers already exist in OSX. I'd recommend just getting the 580, and get a real Navi card.

4. Storage: I would suggest that you relook your storage. You can fit all of that (and more) inside the 7,1. You have 7 or so PCIe slots. get yourself some NVMe cards and stuff them with 1 or 2 TB NVMe blades. (The 7,1 should support PCIe bifurication - if not, Apple has no business releasing it.) PCIe 3.0 NVMe blades are inexpensive (around $100 per Tb), and will reach PCIe 4.0 speeds when in a Raid 0.

5. External Storage: Your current Esata card should work just fine (If you need faster speeds than it delivers, wait for USB4). If your current card is working in your current boxen, it will work in the 7,1.

 

[shuto]

96gb for 16 cores? Don't think that's enough, your cores are gonna choke. Adobe recommended 8gigs per core previously..

Sure that sounds good advice with 8GB per core for After Effects.

12Core would be 96GB (Six 16GB DIMMs)
16Core would be 128GB (Eight 16GB DIMMs)

Then just keep adding 16GB DIMMS over time to get upto 192GB ram.

 

[chfilm]

Sure that sounds good advice with 8GB per core for After Effects.

12Core would be 96GB (Six 16GB DIMMs)
16Core would be 128GB (Eight 16GB DIMMs)

Then just keep adding 16GB DIMMS over time to get upto 192GB ram.

Yea that would be a plan. I'm wondering HOW BAD the performance hit would be for not using a 6 channel config but using 8 channels instead of 12 in that case.
My plan would be 16 core with 6x32gb, maybe starting out with 4 to save some money or so. Maybe some expert can chime in here?

 

[tommy chen]

any sources for the 8GB per core statement?

 

[bsbeamer]

any sources for the 8GB per core statement?

AFAIK, it's an old RECOMMENDATION not a requirement. AE will work with as little as 8GB RAM for Version 15/15.1 (believe CC 2018). Version 16 (CC 2019) and Version 17 (CC 2020) require 16GB RAM for minimum spec.

If you're talking about maximizing performance, that is a different conversation.

 

[shuto]

Yeah I think we are talking about maximum after effects performance here.

In this great article...
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recomm...be-After-Effects-144/Hardware-Recommendations

It talks about RAM just being for RAM Previews, and not how it affects rendering speed. So I think the main reason to have more ram is for longer RAM previews, not quicker rendering speeds.

I think the 8GB per core, is maybe old advise when after effects could multi-thread render, where each core would need more ram for spawning a separate instance of the after effects renderer.


In that article they say "If you don't have a specific need, we generally recommend at least 64GB of RAM for most users, or 32GB if your projects are relatively simple."

So yeah I think 96GB RAM is good to aim for with Mac Pro used for After Effects.


From what I have heard on this forum its better to have RAM in 6 channel config, but its only a small performance gain, and always better to have more ram, so to not worry about it too much.


I think I'll buy mine with 32 GB (Four 8GB DIMMs), and then can upgrade to 96GB (twelve 8GB DIMMs) over time.

 

[theatwar]

Thanks everyone for weighing in, I really appreciate it!

Quick questions:

1. If I want to maximize performance and keep Photoshop + After Effects open simultaneously (would love to be able to hop into Photoshop while RAM previewing or rendering in After Effects), would you recommend something along the lines of six 32GB DIMMs = 192GB RAM?

2. Will definitely look into purchasing new SSD storage via NVMe. Can you recommend a reliable brand/vendor for purchasing NVMe cards and a reliable brand/vendor for purchasing PCIe 3.0 MVMe blades?

3. For NVMe SSD, can I partition the SSD to create multiple drives and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my startup drive, so I can make a backup bootable drive?

1. CPU: The 28 core Xeon runs at 2.50Ghz. Adobe apps for the most part, are poorly coded wrt cores. They tend to depend more on clock frequency. I would recommend going with the W-3245. 16 cores/32 threads @ 3.2Ghz. Ignore the boost clock numbers - If 1 core can hit that number for 1 second, that is the number that Intel pushes.

2. Memory: Definitely only get the minimum. OWC should give you a reasonable deal. Or just go on line and order server memory. Long term, in 36 - 48 months 2933 server ram should be pretty cheap as the servers build around these CPUs (and their immediate predecessors) are retired.

3. GPU: AMD is in the process of dumping GCN architecture for RDNA. The workstation cards have already popped out, and Navi drivers already exist in OSX. I'd recommend just getting the 580, and get a real Navi card.

4. Storage: I would suggest that you relook your storage. You can fit all of that (and more) inside the 7,1. You have 7 or so PCIe slots. get yourself some NVMe cards and stuff them with 1 or 2 TB NVMe blades. (The 7,1 should support PCIe bifurication - if not, Apple has no business releasing it.) PCIe 3.0 NVMe blades are inexpensive (around $100 per Tb), and will reach PCIe 4.0 speeds when in a Raid 0.

5. External Storage: Your current Esata card should work just fine (If you need faster speeds than it delivers, wait for USB4). If your current card is working in your current boxen, it will work in the 7,1.

 

[tommy chen]

this article refers to windows hardware and is not directly transferable to macs

 

[chfilm]

I think the 8GB per core, is maybe old advise when after effects could multi-thread render, where each core would need more ram for spawning a separate instance of the after effects renderer.

Yes it was old advice, but if I look how quickly afx fills up the 64gb on my trashcan when I hit the render button I think it still applies.

 

[shuto]

this article refers to windows hardware and is not directly transferable to macs

Yeah but After Effects on Windows and Macs use hardware in the same way isn't it. Sure you can't use nvidia on Mac, but think there is lots of helpful info in there. Puget system are really good for real world benchmarks of hardware.

 

[bsbeamer]

Windows cannot use METAL. Use Windows vs. Mac comparisons for system requirements for top line compare only. When getting into more/finer detail, the OS plays a factor.

If you want to run AE benchmark test projects in multiple configs, that's a different story. Then you're actually comparing performance on individual machines all doing the same tasks. The one semi popular test render project from a few years back would need to be updated for this kind of experiment.