MP 7,1 Configuration advice for MP 7,1 for Adobe After Effects

[skippermonkey]

My (semi-serious) advice would be to buy Motion for $99. It does the bulk of what AE does – without the subscription – and is tuned to run on Metal with AMD GPUs and multicore CPUs.

https://www.apple.com/uk/final-cut-pro/motion/

EDIT: And if you like Element3D, you can add MotionVFX mO2 – pretty much the same thing…

https://www.motionvfx.com/store,mo2,p2345.html

 

[theatwar]

Thanks for the tip. I'm all in on AE, though -- I often have to inherit or pass along projects to other clients, which are all in AE.

My (semi-serious) advice would be to buy Motion for $99. It does the bulk of what AE does – without the subscription – and is tuned to run on Metal with AMD GPUs and multicore CPUs.

https://www.apple.com/uk/final-cut-pro/motion/

EDIT: And if you like Element3D, you can add MotionVFX mO2 – pretty much the same thing…

https://www.motionvfx.com/store,mo2,p2345.html

 

[chfilm]

Thanks for the tip. I'm all in on AE, though -- I often have to inherit or pass along projects to other clients, which are all in AE.

My AFX/Premiere System looks like:
16 Core
32 GB to be updated 3rd party to 96 (6x16) or maybe 128 (4x32) first, 192 later. Dont know what‘s the smarter way to go?
1TB SSD (external Promise Pegasus Raid)
1x Vega II (2nd one to be added down the road, but not near future)

Afterburner to be added later down the road eventually if benchmarks validate it, especially in transcoding scenarious.

9860 € after removing VAT. And without the Ram.... that‘s about 2500 € more than I was hoping for in total, but ok fine, whatever. Waiting for my credit card limit to be raised once more.........

 

[vinegarshots]

My AFX/Premiere System looks like:
16 Core
32 GB to be updated 3rd party to 96 (6x16) or maybe 128 (4x32) first, 192 later. Dont know what‘s the smarter way to go?
1TB SSD (external Promise Pegasus Raid)
1x Vega II (2nd one to be added down the road, but not near future)

Afterburner to be added later down the road eventually if benchmarks validate it, especially in transcoding scenarious.

9860 € after removing VAT. And without the Ram.... that‘s about 2500 € more than I was hoping for in total, but ok fine, whatever. Waiting for my credit card limit to be raised once more.........

The 8 core will be faster in After Effects.

 

[theatwar]

I made the same choices as your setup.

I'm going to put 8TB SSD in via the Sonnet SSD 4x4 PCIe, and for RAM I'm going to go for 192 right off the bat (6x32) via OWC, as soon as that becomes available.

 

[chfilm]

The 8 core will be faster in After Effects.

But probably insignificantly, and since I do more editing these days and find myself sitting more in front of Adobe media encoder render cues than the after effects renderer, I think it‘ll be wiser to have some more cores.

I am still a bit tempted by the 12 core though I have to say. 1000 € for 4 more cores seems crazy.
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I made the same choices as your setup.

I'm going to put 8TB SSD in via the Sonnet SSD 4x4 PCIe, and for RAM I'm going to go for 192 right off the bat (6x32) via OWC, as soon as that becomes available.

I have OWC RAM in my trashcan - does it have any advantage over, let‘s say THIS one though? What are the differences between different rams with the same specs? This is really the downside of having used a Mac Pro 2013 for so many years, and now being confronted with all these choices again, it‘s a bit overwhelming and I‘m totally out of my PC modding days..

 

[H. Flower]

chfilm, we are in same boat. Im waiting on Afterburner. I went to apple store and they confirmed you can easily buy it later and install yourself. This is the flexibility the tower offers, isn't it? Why not take advantage.

12 core IS tempting, but I think 16 is still the better choice.

I think I've decided to lay off the Vega 11 and see whats offered in 6 months. In the meantime, I think I'll put that money into a Sonnet SSD 4x4 PCIE, 8TB (like theatwar), which will be a nice internal media drive. Any suggestions for 2TB sticks welcome! It's either that or get the external thunderblade from Other World Computing, and then see whats in the market for an internal solution later in the year.

And of course upgrade RAM through Other World Computing when it becomes available.

 

[Somian]

One thing to consider: are you using any AfterEffects plugins that are using CUDA?

I've worked with people that used trashcan Mac pros with external GPUs in thunderbolt 2-PCI cases because it accelerated their workflows 20x due to CUDA acceleration.

If you're using those plugins, the Mac Pro 5,1 with the 980ti might be faster than the even the 28 core Mac Pro can do in Software.'

I used to have a 5,1 with 980ti, but I'm on iMac Pro now. I don't need CUDA but I sometimes see greyed out buttons and slow performance in applications when people try to do something on Macs that don't support CUDA. I my opinion, it's a huge pain that a lot of things only support acceleration via CUDA and NVIDIA built their monopoly, but if you rely on those Plugins there's no way around it.

With the 7,1 you won't be able to use CUDA even with an external GPU, because CUDA isn't supported in Catalina anymore and the probably 7,1 doesn't run anything before Catalina.

Another offender is Blender, which is supposed to be all Open Source, non-proprietary and multiplatform, but the Blender Foundation chose CUDA as their platform of choice for GPU acceleration. This means that when using certain Blender features a Mac Pro 5,1 will be faster than a $20k Mac Pro 7,1.

 

[bsbeamer]

OWC RAM is often used or buyback and sold as new with their label/sticker and buyer is not informed. For the markup, it’s a waste of money for most. Unless you’re under an enterprise arrangement and need 3rd party vendor warranty.

Personally would choose Crucial, Hynix, or Samsung modules. Even good luck with Kingston support over the years.

 

[chfilm]

chfilm, we are in same boat. Im waiting on Afterburner. I went to apple store and they confirmed you can easily buy it later and install yourself. This is the flexibility the tower offers, isn't it? Why not take advantage.

12 core IS tempting, but I think 16 is still the better choice.

I think I've decided to lay off the Vega 11 and see whats offered in 6 months. In the meantime, I think I'll put that money into a Sonnet SSD 4x4 PCIE, 8TB (like theatwar), which will be a nice internal media drive. Any suggestions for 2TB sticks welcome! It's either that or get the external thunderblade from Other World Computing, and then see whats in the market for an internal solution later in the year.

And of course upgrade RAM through Other World Computing when it becomes available.

So you‘re going with the Radeon 580?
In my case the issue is I have two Dell 5K displays and the old Mac Pro‘s GPUs are definitely overwhelmed with them. It works, sure but everything feels sluggish and slow in Adobe apps. scrubbing through an AFX timeline can be HELL with many layers. The same project on the same machine but attached to regular QHD screens is super smooth. That‘s why I definitely want the VEGA II to never have to think about this issue anymore Hopefully it‘ll really solve that, but It should I think.
It‘s such a shame that Apple business doesnt offer financing, but only this stupid leasing.
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OWC RAM is often used or buyback and sold as new with their label/sticker and buyer is not informed. For the markup, it’s a waste of money for most. Unless you’re under an enterprise arrangement and need 3rd party vendor warranty.

Personally would choose Crucial, Hynix, or Samsung modules. Even good luck with Kingston support over the years.

https://www.mindfactory.de/product_...DR4-2933-regECC-DIMM-CL21-Single_1305972.html This ram module should work, or? Do I understand correctly that this is R-Dimm if it says regECC-Dimm? All specs are matching..

 

[chfilm]

I made the same choices as your setup.

I'm going to put 8TB SSD in via the Sonnet SSD 4x4 PCIe, and for RAM I'm going to go for 192 right off the bat (6x32) via OWC, as soon as that becomes available.

The 8 core will be faster in After Effects.

Damn now you got me second guessing. 8 cores is out of the question for me, but maybe 12 would be actally smart? Though what difference can .1 ghz really make? Wouldn’t I profit more from the added cores in some encoding scenarios?

 

[vinegarshots]

Damn now you got me second guessing. 8 cores is out of the question for me, but maybe 12 would be actally smart? Though what difference can .1 ghz really make? Wouldn’t I profit more from the added cores in some encoding scenarios?

Adobe just pushed an update to the suite today that lists more "performance improvements" for Premiere and AE, so who knows. Maybe one of these updates will max out all cores 100% .

EDIT: Also, I think Premiere Pro makes more use of multiple cores than After Effects, so there should be some benefit there regardless.

 

[H. Flower]

So you‘re going with the Radeon 580?
In my case the issue is I have two Dell 5K displays and the old Mac Pro‘s GPUs are definitely overwhelmed with them. It works, sure but everything feels sluggish and slow in Adobe apps. scrubbing through an AFX timeline can be HELL with many layers. The same project on the same machine but attached to regular QHD screens is super smooth. That‘s why I definitely want the VEGA II to never have to think about this issue anymore Hopefully it‘ll really solve that, but It should I think.
It‘s such a shame that Apple business doesnt offer financing, but only this stupid leasing.

Yeah, the 580x, with two LG 5k monitors hooked up. Your post now has me worried, though. ?

If its sluggish, then I'll sell the 580 and cough up the money for the Vega 2.

 

[bsbeamer]

Internal SSD storage:

2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
2 TB Samsung SSD 850 PRO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO
1 TB Samsung SSD 840 EVO

4. Storage: Considering I currently have almost 8 TBs of SSD storage internally inside my 5,1 Mac Pro, I’m obviously looking at solutions where I’ll be using external SSD storage of some kind.

Assume these are SATA SSDs? They typically MAX around 525MB/s read and write speed with absolute latest firmware. Often 840's are under that, closer to 475MB/s.

See this post for a 5-bay USB-C 3.1 10Gbps that achieves close to MAX speeds natively: #11

 

[deconstruct60]

Yeah, the 580x, with two LG 5k monitors hooked up. Your post now has me worried, though. ?

If its sluggish, then I'll sell the 580 and cough up the money for the Vega 2.

In a old Mac Pro 2013, the primary display D700 GPU ( or less D500 , D300 ) was only solely hooked up to the external displays. The 580X is about 50+ % faster than than. The iMac 27" has a 580 high end mobile edition running its 5K display and may folks aren't being deeply traumatized by it.

Highly Complex 3D objects over two 5K screens the 580X is overmatched. but mostly 2d video stuff it probably won't. If bog it down with expensive decoding that can have an impact too. Vega II has more headroom to layer doing multiple things at the same time.

 

[H. Flower]

Great stuff, thank you.

 

[chfilm]

I went to compare my trashcan with the 12 core and 16 core Intel CPUs on Geekbench. Here are the results:

12 Core:

16 Core:

Well Well Well.... so obviously the 12 core is stronger in Single Core. I can't judge how mich of a difference 70 points make, maybe someone can weigh in.

At the same time, the multicore score is already twice as fast on the 12 core over the 8 core trashcan, while the 16 core obviously adds another shovel on top of that.
Just looking at the graphs though, the performance gain for after effects looks better on the 12 core. Ahhhhhh