MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1, HD display vs 4K speed (Radeon VII)

[MikeymikeT5]

Good Morning,

I don't often post here, but often read. I'm looking for opinions, as I have a Mac Pro 5,1 with 12 core 3.46 processors, NVME, and Radeon VII. I use my machine for editing 4K movie footage in FCP occasionally. At the mo, I'm using two NEC PA243W screens, which I like, but I'm considering upgrading to a pair of 27" 4K screens. This might sound like a stupid question, but will the bigger screen resolution make the graphics card struggle? Sometimes, FCP suffers with dropped frames during playback, so I fear it'll be worse with new screens? I have the Radeon VII 16GB by the way.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

Mike.

 

[zedex]

It won't struggle. I work with 2 4K screens using a QUADRO K6000 - both run at 60Hz. Never encountered 'slowdown' or 'artifacts' of any sort. I love the K6000 but it has a fraction of RADEON VII the GPU power - you will be ABSOLUTELY FINE!

 

[h9826790]

Good Morning,

I don't often post here, but often read. I'm looking for opinions, as I have a Mac Pro 5,1 with 12 core 3.46 processors, NVME, and Radeon VII. I use my machine for editing 4K movie footage in FCP occasionally. At the mo, I'm using two NEC PA243W screens, which I like, but I'm considering upgrading to a pair of 27" 4K screens. This might sound like a stupid question, but will the bigger screen resolution make the graphics card struggle? Sometimes, FCP suffers with dropped frames during playback, so I fear it'll be worse with new screens? I have the Radeon VII 16GB by the way.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

Mike.

More pixel of course need more GPU power to drive. However, for modern GPU, 4K desktop enviornment is really nothing. What really stress the GPU is 3D in 4K, not normal 2D UI in 4K.

A Radeon VII can easily drive four 4K monitors at 60Hz without any issue.

FCP drop frame is because it can't render the frames in real time (not fast enough). Not related to the pixel count of your monitor, but the pixel count / codec of the source videos, and how many (also which) effects you applied. In fact, play 4K video on a 4K monitor is easier. The GPU no need to down scale the output to 1920x1080 to fit your existing monitor.

e.g. If you put a few HEVC video into the time line, and haven't turn on the GPU HEVC hardware decode, then most likely you will see a shuttering timeline.

In any case, you can always turn on background rendering (or even using proxy). With this function, once the background rendering is completed, you should able to play the timeline smoothly.

 

[MikeymikeT5]

Zedex, Martin, many thanks for your replies, greatly appreciated!. I wish I had asked the question months ago now! So, will now be fervently hunting for the right monitors (27" most likely)..

 

[MikeymikeT5]

So, I've been looking at new 4k displays. I figure a Viewsonic 2786-4K is my best bet, or maybe a Benq PD2725, or possibly an Alogic Clarity. Not sure if anyone has any opinions on these? Nonetheless though, one other thing has become evident to me that might be an issue, and thats font/tab scaling? Is there a way to scale things so that its not too small on the 4K screen? ;-)

 

[zedex]

I would encourage you to look at much bigger screens if you're going 4K..

In the picture attached my setup shows 1 Generic 65-inch 4K screen (connected with a $30 DP to HDMI2.0 adapter) and 1 Philips BDM4065 40-inch screen (DisplayPort to DisplayPort). I find docs and apps on the 40-inch more difficult to view compared to the 65-inch. I couldn't go below 40-inch in 4K - everything gets way too small.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[StellarVixen]

I would encourage you to look at much bigger screens if you're going 4K..

View attachment 2177545
In the picture attached my setup shows 1 Generic 65-inch 4K screen (connected with a $30 DP to HDMI2.0 adapter) and 1 Philips BDM4065 40-inch screen (DisplayPort to DisplayPort). I find docs and apps on the 40-inch more difficult to view compared to the 65-inch. I couldn't go below 40-inch in 4K - everything gets way too small.

GOOD LUCK!

You don't care much about pixel density? From which distance are you looking at those screens usually?

 

[zedex]

Good point.. I am 150-170cm from the screens (which suits me but may not suit other users) 😉