M4 iMac - Am I expecting too much?

[videojanitor]

This has me stumped. I just got an M4 iMac (24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) to replace a 2017 iMac (16GB RAM, 512 SSD) and was expecting it to run circles around it.

One of the first things I tried was converting a 25GB ProRes LT file to H.264 using a couple of different tools (Shutter Encoder, Apple's Compressor). I was quite surprised to find that the M4 completed the task only 15 seconds faster than the old Intel -- 8:15 vs 8:30.

I then tried exporting the clip from DaVinci Resolve and got the same result. Am I missing something here, or is this just the way it is? I feel like there must be some setting I'm missing. Or maybe I'm just expecting too much?

Thoughts?

 

[PaulD-UK]

That’s why the Mac Studio Ultra has doubled doubled ProRes decoders and H.264 encoders…

The speeds of single encoders is more or less the same between generations.
Your iMac had hardware H.264 acceleration in the Intel CPU.

I don’t know if LT is a slowdown in AS ProRes handling, and not accelerated as much as HQ?

 

[videojanitor]

Thanks for the info. Guess I was expecting the speed of the single encoder to be much faster after 8 years, but as the thread title says, apparently I was expecting too much. I haven't tried any other source formats to see if that makes a difference, but I'll definitely do that. I'm just a hobbyist -- not a pro -- so ultimately doesn't make that much difference in my life. More of a curiosity.