Which on should i keep? 6core3,33Hz or 8cores2,4Hz

[zyc]

hi guys,

one of my friend want to sell his Mac Pro(mid 2010) , 2 Xeon 8 cores 2,4Hz, 32G RAM at very low price. and i already have a Mac Pro also mid 2010 but 1 Xeon processor 6 cores 3,33Hz, 16G RAM. the tow graphic cards are nearly the same performance.

my main job is Video Editing(adobe premiere), color grading(Davinci Resolve) and small After Effect project, and now i work more and more with the 4k footages. the 6 cores Mac Pro don't work very well for the 4k real time playback. but i am not sure the other one can also do the job.

my questions is which one should i keep for this kind of job? or can i upgrade one of these machine for this kind of 4k editing job? because i don't have a lot of budget to buy a new mac pro or a super PC.

the 6 core's clock speed is faster than the 2 Xeon 8 cores, but the 8 cores have 8 slots of RAM. so i have more possibility to have big number of RAMs.

could you please tell me your experience or your idea, what should i do?

thx

 

[michaelz]

Keep the two core one and upgrade it with a pair of x5690 for $350.

 

[mcnallym]

If the 8 Core is a genuine 2010 Dual CPU then would say get the Dual Core then upgrade to faster clocked CPU's.

 

[ActionableMango]

Video work seems to be one of the very few applications that can actually make use of every core that you can throw at it. The slower 8-core could be noticeably faster than your faster 6-core, if you buy it and upgrade the CPUs. You could conceivably go all the way up to 12-core 3.46GHz.

 

[flyinmac]

Personally I would start with an evaluation of your current system.

Open the activity monitor. Set it to watch the CPUs, and the perform your usual work.

Observe whether your workload is using 100% of all of your CPU cores.

If so, perhaps more cores would help.

If not, then CPU speed is likely your greatest benefit.

Personally, if it were me, I'd save my money on the system, and go for the best of both worlds by just adding a second Xeon of similar speed to what you have already.

Turn your system into a dual Xeon with 12 cores. (Unless your system only has one CPU socket - but I thought they all had 2 available).

 

[ActionableMango]

(Unless your system only has one CPU socket - but I thought they all had 2 available).

I think that is true of certain earlier models, but for 2009 4,1 and later all of the single CPU models have only one socket.

 

[nigelbb]

Its far & away better to upgrade the dual quad core to a dual hex core. The 3.46GHz x5690 is the fastest CPU you can upgrade with but the 3.33GHz X5680 is only fractionally slower & much cheaper to buy.

BTW as you are using Premier Pro have tried using proxy files for editing your 4K content?

 

[PowerMike G5]

Video work seems to be one of the very few applications that can actually make use of every core that you can throw at it. The slower 8-core could be noticeably faster than your faster 6-core, if you buy it and upgrade the CPUs. You could conceivably go all the way up to 12-core 3.46GHz.

Yes, this is true. Especially as you use the Adobe suite.

I've upgraded mine to 12-core 3.46Ghz. A lot of my 4K video rendering uses all 12-cores easily in Premiere Pro, along with CUDA acceleration. Media Encoder is good at using all 12 as well.

Its also important to note that especially for video, its more about having a balanced system. Sp fast Media/Scratch disks, RAM, GPU, etc. are all equally important.

 

[flyinmac]

I think that is true of certain earlier models, but for 2009 4,1 and later all of the single CPU models have only one socket.

Ok. I remember reading that the current model had a single socket. But didn't recall reading that about earlier models. Thank you for the clarification.

 

[zyc]

Personally I would start with an evaluation of your current system.

Open the activity monitor. Set it to watch the CPUs, and the perform your usual work.

Observe whether your workload is using 100% of all of your CPU cores.

If so, perhaps more cores would help.

If not, then CPU speed is likely your greatest benefit.

Personally, if it were me, I'd save my money on the system, and go for the best of both worlds by just adding a second Xeon of similar speed to what you have already.

Turn your system into a dual Xeon with 12 cores. (Unless your system only has one CPU socket - but I thought they all had 2 available).

I THINK I ONLY HAVE ONE SOCKET FOR ONE CPU
[doublepost=1482185951][/doublepost]

Yes, this is true. Especially as you use the Adobe suite.

I've upgraded mine to 12-core 3.46Ghz. A lot of my 4K video rendering uses all 12-cores easily in Premiere Pro, along with CUDA acceleration. Media Encoder is good at using all 12 as well.

Its also important to note that especially for video, its more about having a balanced system. Sp fast Media/Scratch disks, RAM, GPU, etc. are all equally important.

Thx, i think i'll keep the dual cpus and upgrade one day to dual x5690. and i think i should change also the graphic card. do you know some models of good graphic card designed for video editing not for gaming? because it is still a old machine, not all the new graphic card can work on this machine. thx

 

[666sheep]

All software you're using loves high core count.
As other said: get 8-core, upgrade CPUs to 2x 6-cores 3.33 or 3.46 and sell SP one.

 

[zyc]

thx guys, now i know which one to keep the dual processor one.

anyone has a recommandation for the graphic card? it is an old machine, i think not all the new graphic card can work on it.

 

[Silencio]

thx guys, now i know which one to keep the dual processor one.

anyone has a recommandation for the graphic card? it is an old machine, i think not all the new graphic card can work on it.

That R9 280X isn't bad, but if you're using After Effects and Resolve, one of the higher-end previous generation Nvidia cards (GTX 980, 980 Ti, or Titan X) would be even better. What you choose depends on your budget and your willingness to push the envelope on power consumption. There are numerous other threads about the subject here.

I also upgraded our coloring workstation pretty seriously this year, going to a Dual 6x3.46GHz Xeon setup with a Titan X GPU. Works pretty well for our purposes. I just tried upgrading the RAM from 96GB to 128GB (which is the other great benefit of the Dual CPU Mac Pros — more RAM capacity). Haven't done much testing of that yet.