MP 1,1-5,1 Picked up another Mac Pro, should I keep my Hexcore and sell the dual? Workflow inside

[ADDvanced]

Hey guys,
I have used premiere and FCPX but honestly I just prefer the basicness of imovie, and most of my videos are just how to videos not art projects, so I've been doing everything in iMovie for a few years now. I do a lot of timelapses/compressing 5 minute videos into 10 second clips... but again, I am only using iMovie.

Current Machine:
5.1
3.33 hex
32 gigs ram

New Machine:
5.1
2 x 2.6quad

I would think exporting the movies themselves would be faster with the 8 core... and yeah, I know i can upgrade the CPUs so it's a 12 core, but I'm just saying would that actually matter in day to day in program use? Or would this ONLY affect the export time?

 

[mikas]

I am not a Movie guy, but for what I know it's not so much of a difference between CPU bound tasks between the two. And that's assuming your programs can use multithreading efficiently. If not (good at multithreading), then your current Mac could even be faster than the new one (see SC score).

Apple Mac Pro "Eight Core" 2.66 (2009/Nehalem) Specs

Apple Mac Pro "Six Core" 3.33 (2012/Westmere) Specs

As you said you can update the dual processor Mac to 2x six cores though, and that's another thing again to consider. It seems that the New Machine is a 2009 model flashed to 5,1, and this means the original processors are of type "delidded". You need to consider that if thinking of updating.

Or if GPU can be utilized here (with iMovie I don't know), then I think it's about enabling hw acceleration in GPU, and you should study the appropriate threads about that.

edit. you should obviously wait an answer from a movie guy

 

[ADDvanced]

Yeah, it's a 4.1 with upgraded firmware.... I'm aware of the processor upgrades available, I just don't know if I would benefit at all besides having a warmer room and a higher power bill.

 

[ADDvanced]

Anybody?

 

[DPUser]

I'd take a look at Activity Monitor while you are working on a typical project; if you see utilization of all six of your current machine's cores, it is likely that the 12 core (after upgrading to X5860s) will be faster. Then decide if it's worth the trouble!

I love my 12 core 5,1, but I do audio and thus use all the cores consistently.

 

[ADDvanced]

Really thinking about just selling this thing and not upgrading... if I knew iMovie used multiple processors and would enable smoother compression playback in the timeline, I'd upgrade it, but if it won't improve that issue I don't know what benefit I'd see other than faster compression times, which honestly are not that bad.

 

[DPUser]

Really thinking about just selling this thing and not upgrading... if I knew iMovie used multiple processors and would enable smoother compression playback in the timeline, I'd upgrade it, but if it won't improve that issue I don't know what benefit I'd see other than faster compression times, which honestly are not that bad.

So monitor using Activity Monitor (Applications>Utilities), like I suggest, and see if you are using more than a single core. If you get a solid six cores under load, it is a pretty good bet 12 cores will improve things.

 

[ADDvanced]

Yes, when playing back a sped up clip in the timeline, iMovie is using all 6 cores at 80-90%.

 

[ADDvanced]

Okay, well, update. I bought two x5680s and installed them in the 4,1 last night, and loaded a 5 minute clip into imovie. I then compressed it down to 15 seconds... and it would play, but it was still choppy. However, a few seconds later, activity monitor spiked for maybe 5 seconds, then stopped. I was now able to play back the clip smoothly; so I am guessing that iMovie will prerender the sped up parts as you work, but it only does it when you give it a second.

With my single 3.33, this took so much longer I thought waiting didn't do anything! So this will definitely change my workflow, just leave imovie open a bit longer hwen I'm done to let it render up, then should hopefully play back smoothly.