MP 7,1 Expected pricing for Vega II?

[chfilm]

Vega II: $850
Vega II Duo: $2450

Seems realistic...at this price I might even be tempted to jump on a duo... if only we knew anything about app support for the dual GPUs outside of FCPX... i mean we had dual GPUs in our Mac pros since 6 years and not much has happened in Adobe land... Davinci resolve sure. But premiere?

The question is will they be able to make it appear as one GPU or not.

 

[goMac]

Seems realistic...at this price I might even be tempted to jump on a duo... if only we knew anything about app support for the dual GPUs outside of FCPX... i mean we had dual GPUs in our Mac pros since 6 years and not much has happened in Adobe land... Davinci resolve sure. But premiere?

The question is will they be able to make it appear as one GPU or not.

It still appears as two GPUs. Software has to be dual GPU optimized for it. There is new API, but I also bet 2013 Mac Pro dual GPU optimizations will work as well.

 

[chfilm]

It still appears as two GPUs. Software has to be dual GPU optimized for it. There is new API, but I also bet 2013 Mac Pro dual GPU optimizations will work as well.

In that case I guess it’s pretty much a waste of money for now if I’m relying heavily on premiere and after effects for my money earning maybe later could add a second Vega II...

 

[H. Flower]

Yeah, I’m heavy on premiere and ae so I’m thinking just one Vega II. Unless cinema 4d would greatly benefit ?

 

[Coyote2006]

It still appears as two GPUs. Software has to be dual GPU optimized for it. There is new API, but I also bet 2013 Mac Pro dual GPU optimizations will work as well.

Isn't metal supporting multiple GPUs out of the box?

 

[chfilm]

Yeah, I’m heavy on premiere and ae so I’m thinking just one Vega II. Unless cinema 4d would greatly benefit ?

C4D would benefit if you use a GPU renderer, wouldn’t it?
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Isn't metal supporting multiple GPUs out of the box?

Not on my trashcan... 99% of the time, the second GPU sits idle.

 

[goMac]

Isn't metal supporting multiple GPUs out of the box?

If your application supports multiple GPUs. It’s not automatic.

 

[Coyote2006]

If your application supports multiple GPUs. It’s not automatic.

How I understood: if an app supports metal it directly supports multiple GPUs. Or am I wrong here?

 

[goMac]

How I understood: if an app supports metal it directly supports multiple GPUs. Or am I wrong here?

Multiple GPUs require extra work by developers. Metal doesn’t automatically add multiple GPU support to apps.

 

[deconstruct60]

How I understood: if an app supports metal it directly supports multiple GPUs. Or am I wrong here?

Metal supports it . That doesn't mean the apps automagically get that support solely passed through the historic API calls.

That's Afterburner and ProRes compress/decompress and demosaic support.

Metal doesn't make the dual GPUs opaque to the applications. It is presented as two separate GPUs with some new additional API functions to explicitly orchestrate between two (or more) using a backchannel (other than PCI-e host bus connection). The Apps have to tell the two GPUs to share data/memory on that back channel. It doesn't come for 'free' and there is an expanded API to abstract that second connection bus. ( presumably if Intel comes with something similar to Infinity Fabric that is CXL based Metal would do that too. )

Afterburner is different. If using Apple AV Foundation library routines to open/load/write ProRes files the library code will leverage Afterburner if it is present and just use the regular software implementation if it is not. The Afterburner card is opaque to the application; hidden behind the Apple API.

 

[H. Flower]

Ok, afterburner seriously can’t just be limited to prores raw, right ?
It should work for all prores ?

 

[PowerMike G5]

Seems realistic...at this price I might even be tempted to jump on a duo... if only we knew anything about app support for the dual GPUs outside of FCPX... i mean we had dual GPUs in our Mac pros since 6 years and not much has happened in Adobe land... Davinci resolve sure. But premiere?

The question is will they be able to make it appear as one GPU or not.

This is my biggest question for Premiere. Given that Premiere uses only one GPU for accelerated playback (although it uses both now for rendering and exporting).
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Ok, afterburner seriously can’t just be limited to prores raw, right ?
It should work for all prores ?

Yes, I believe it is for all ProRes codecs.

What could make it useful in the short term for Premiere users is if it speeds up transcoding to ProRes codecs from other formats in a dramatic way. Then one can at least transcode in the short term to ProRes and have the Afterburner do all the decoding during editing, leaving the GPU solely for accelerated effects. This is assuming Premiere can use Afterburner in its basic form initially.

I know, defeats the purpose of the card at the start, but its a viable option in its early uses till Adobe commits to fully utilizing it somehow.

 

[chfilm]

This is my biggest question for Premiere. Given that Premiere uses only one GPU for accelerated playback (although it uses both now for rendering and exporting).
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Yes, I believe it is for all ProRes codecs.

What could make it useful in the short term for Premiere users is if it speeds up transcoding to ProRes codecs from other formats in a dramatic way. Then one can at least transcode in the short term to ProRes and have the Afterburner do all the decoding during editing, leaving the GPU solely for accelerated effects. This is assuming Premiere can use Afterburner in its basic form initially.

I know, defeats the purpose of the card at the start, but its a viable option in its early uses till Adobe commits to fully utilizing it somehow.

this is exactly my thinking as well. If afterburner can dramatically speed up full res prores 422hq "proxy" generation it would also be REALLY useful.

 

[PowerMike G5]

this is exactly my thinking as well. If afterburner can dramatically speed up full res prores 422hq "proxy" generation it would also be REALLY useful.

Yeah exactly. it could be really helpful, especially with working with RAW formats, like the CRM in the upcoming C500 MII. Attaching the full Res 4K HQ "proxy" files would allow for a super smooth editing/grading experience and simple replacement with the RAW files later for final looks/output. Especially since the proxy workflow in Premiere is so smooth with it's literal one button switch to the masters.

I may order the Afterburner initially for the machine just for this purpose.

 

[deconstruct60]

Ok, afterburner seriously can’t just be limited to prores raw, right ?
It should work for all prores ?

It works for all ProRes. It just has more "bang for the buck" in the ProRes RAW zone. And if the other "native" format is more processed then converting from highly processed to PreRes will be a longer compute. ( and less likely to get much bang for the buck out of creating high fidelity proress copies that Afterburner can shine on. )

 

[jinnyman]

That's crazy price. wow

 

[frou]

Vega II: $850
Vega II Duo: $2450

Hehe

 

[jinnyman]

You know. You never stop being surprised by Apple!. WOW

 

[Coyote2006]

I was slightly too low ... ?

 

[H. Flower]

For that price, f*ck the Vega II ?

 

[deconstruct60]

this is exactly my thinking as well. If afterburner can dramatically speed up full res prores 422hq "proxy" generation it would also be REALLY useful.

Is it going to speed it up $2,000 worth though. Versus a $400-600 GPU assigned to acceleration duties ?

 

[H. Flower]

Yeah, having second thoughts on the Afterburner....

 

[IanK MacPro]

For that price, f*ck the Vega II ?

You're quite free to add any supported graphics card you like, however, if you are running heavy science/3D apps with scenes/projects large enough to require it, the 32Gb maybe a feature you need that you can't buy anywhere else.

 

[deconstruct60]

Hehe

View attachment 881871

Notice that two Vega II are not 2x a single Vega II . There are giving about a $400 'credit' for swapping out the 580X module. The second one is "full price". Did a quick search of the accessories store. Vega II doesn't show up. but looks like the kit in a box version would be $2,600 .

Honestly don't have any idea why folks were trying to price anchor on the Radeon VII. This is higher than I thought though. Apple is really , really pushing for margins over volume here.

Not too surprising that they are scrambling to put perhaps "plain" W5700 cards into the BTO systems. The marketing ( real marketing .. user needs investigation and matching ... not the spin mastering) is whacked as it has been for the last 5-6 years.


P.S. [update... a bit of sticker shock so missed this too. The Duo is + $400 over linear on the Solo version. 2 * 2,400 4,800 wereas the swap-for-580X price for the Duo is $5,200 So another $400 in binning for dies that can sit relatively close together too. ]

 

[goMac]

You're quite free to add any supported graphics card you like, however, if you are running heavy science/3D apps with scenes/projects large enough to require it, the 32Gb maybe a feature you need that you can't buy anywhere else.

Ow.

It seems like a better option to wait for the 5700. The generic PC Cards won't drive the internal Thunderbolt ports.

It would just be a shame if Apple got the 5700 MPX module out just in time for AMD to drop a 5800.