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iMac Pro can not playback 4k video in Premiere Timeline???

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kat.hayes

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 10, 2011
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I have a 3.2GHz, Radeon Pro Vegas 56 8GB, 64GB ram iMac Pro running High Sierra and Premiere CC 2018 and I imported some 4k 24 fps footage shot with a Sony A73 and it can not keep up in the timeline. It stutters and lags. I was under the impression that the iMac Pro could handle this? Is there something I am missing here?

Thanks.
 
kat.hayes said:
I have a 3.2GHz, Radeon Pro Vegas 56 8GB, 64GB ram iMac Pro running High Sierra and Premiere CC 2018 and I imported some 4k 24 fps footage shot with a Sony A73 and it can not keep up in the timeline. It stutters and lags. I was under the impression that the iMac Pro could handle this? Is there something I am missing here?...
Click to expand...

I have a 10-core Vega 64 iMac Pro, edit Sony A73 material and use mainly FCPX but also Premiere and Resolve. The problem is Premiere Pro does not use hardware acceleration on Mac for decode (ie playback) only for encode to an output file. It should play back OK at 1x speed but Premiere is very sluggish when using JKL keys for higher speed forward or reverse playback.

You can download the free version of Resolve or the eval version of FCPX to verify this on your own hardware.

Newer versions of Premiere have been improved somewhat but even the latest version is dramatically slower than FCPX or Resolve.

If you stay with Premiere I suggest you upgrade to the latest version of macOS and Premiere. That combination will make it a bit faster. You can also create proxy files which Premiere now supports. Proxies will make it much faster, at the space and time cost of creating those.
 
joema2 said:
eval version of FCPX
Click to expand...
Huh? What eval version of FCPx?

There is a way to get FCPx. Logic, Motion, Compressor and Main Stage for $200.
https://www.apple.com/us-k12/shop/product/BMGE2Z/A/pro-apps-bundle-for-education

The apps are not registered to the purchaser. Once purchased or if someone buys it on your behalf, the 5 codes are emailed. Log into your App Store account and there's a place to enter each code—this registers the app and begins the download. I used it to purchase FCPx but I already had Logic and Main Stage so I was able to gift those apps to friends.
 
joema2 said:
I have a 10-core Vega 64 iMac Pro, edit Sony A73 material and use mainly FCPX but also Premiere and Resolve. The problem is Premiere Pro does not use hardware acceleration on Mac for decode (ie playback) only for encode to an output file. It should play back OK at 1x speed but Premiere is very sluggish when using JKL keys for higher speed forward or reverse playback.

You can download the free version of Resolve or the eval version of FCPX to verify this on your own hardware.

Newer versions of Premiere have been improved somewhat but even the latest version is dramatically slower than FCPX or Resolve.

If you stay with Premiere I suggest you upgrade to the latest version of macOS and Premiere. That combination will make it a bit faster. You can also create proxy files which Premiere now supports. Proxies will make it much faster, at the space and time cost of creating those.
Click to expand...

I avoided upgrading because of tons of bugs that I had read about with the updated OS and CC version...I guess I will re-look into updating. Thanks.
[doublepost=1559495508][/doublepost]Since Premiere does not use hardware acceleration, is there any benefit to using an iMac Pro if using Premiere vs. a high end iMac?
 
kat.hayes said:
I avoided upgrading because of tons of bugs that I had read about with the updated OS and CC version...I guess I will re-look into updating. Thanks.
[doublepost=1559495508][/doublepost]Since Premiere does not use hardware acceleration, is there any benefit to using an iMac Pro if using Premiere vs. a high end iMac?
Click to expand...

I recommend upgrading to the new OS and CC version. The latest versions of Premiere have some significant performance improvements. However this is not guaranteed to solve your problem.

Premiere *does* use hardware acceleration for H264 video on Mac, but only for encoding or output. For decoding or playback it apparently does not use this, thus it can be 10x slower than Resolve or FCPX, depending on how you measure it. The slowest aspect is keyboard lag when using JKL keys to scrub through a file, also lag in updating the program monitor, even if resolution is set to 1/4. However this varies based on specific 4k H264 codec. Some are worse than others -- Sony XAVC-S is particularly bad on Premiere.

Supposedly Adobe is working on improving this but I don't know what the timeframe is.

Re iMac Pro vs regular iMac for Premiere Pro, you can see Max Yuryev's comparison and benchmarks here. In general it doesn't look like the iMac Pro buys you much in this scenario:
 
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I just realized that when creating a new project there is a drop-down for Renderer: with options for selecting either Mercury Playback Engine GPU (Open CL) OR Metal OR Software. I'm guessing software is not the best choice, which of the other two should be selected to maximize my graphics card abilities? OR will it not make a difference?
Thanks.
 
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