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zubro · Oct 3, 2005, 02:38 PM

Hi all.

I am looking for info regarding the real power of a dual G5 on the poor G4s I am loosing patience with..
I read here and there that a dual G5 with a good bunch of RAM (but I believe that it is mostly if not only a bus + PCU issue here) can do close to real time in encoding with Compressor from FCP to m2v.
I also read that the Pro apps are specially optimised for G5. (funny, I thought that the loss of altivec would not make the G5 so good...)

Let me know if you have experience in this domain and can compare the G4 to 5 in this special domain.

PS: I believe that a dual dual core will blow away all the things I have experienced now, but let s see what we will have under our christmass tree! ;o)

MovieCutter · Oct 3, 2005, 02:57 PM

I had a Dual 1 Ghz G4 Power Mac MDD, and upgraded to a Dual 2.5Ghz G5, absolutely no comparison. Final Cut rendering times cut down to about 1/5 time, real time renderings in Motion, and encoding times taking 10 minutes vs. the normal 1 hour in Compressor. Of course all these numbers depend on the media you're working with.

zubro · Oct 6, 2005, 05:40 PM

thanks for the info MovieCutter.
I work with FCP with PAL DVCAM source, do a bit of editing and lots of encoding before DVDs.
I am still using AfterEffects as I can not run Motion on my Hardware... :-(
What kind of jobs are you doing with Motion?
and what do you get in "real time" with Motion? one graphic layer + one video, ...
What is your setup? a 2x2.5 but Video card, RAM and HDD?
:o)

OreoCookie · Oct 6, 2005, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by zubro

I also read that the Pro apps are specially optimised for G5. (funny, I thought that the loss of altivec would not make the G5 so good...)

A G5 still has an AltiVec unit, it's just called VMX by IBM, because AltiVec is a Motorola trademark

As the G5 (generally) has higher clockspeeds than G4, he is arguably even better suited for encoding tasks

zubro · Oct 6, 2005, 06:11 PM

thanks Oreo.
I did not know about the VMX.
G5s also have a monster bus compare to G4s. Clock is not all!

see how quiet the GHz of the Intel and oyhers went lately...
It feels good actually, not to see so much crap TV-GHZ-adz all the time.. but that is another topic I believe. ;o)

brokenjago · Oct 6, 2005, 06:46 PM

Dual Dual Core G5s coming up!!

That'll boost performace by a good 100-160% if the numbers are to be believed....

Sweet

MovieCutter · Oct 6, 2005, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by zubro

thanks for the info MovieCutter.
I work with FCP with PAL DVCAM source, do a bit of editing and lots of encoding before DVDs.
I am still using AfterEffects as I can not run Motion on my Hardware... :-(
What kind of jobs are you doing with Motion?
and what do you get in "real time" with Motion? one graphic layer + one video, ...
What is your setup? a 2x2.5 but Video card, RAM and HDD?
:o)

Well I sold my setup last week to buy a new dual core system next week. I had 4GB RAM, 6800Ultra GPU, RAIDED Dual 400GB drives. I was getting about 20-25 fps on the first pass with a couple particle emmitters and a few filters on a piece of DV video. I use Motion for spots, effects, chroma keying, backgrounds, and various other GFX. After the first pass (which sends the video into RAM I think) I get full frame 30 fps.

zubro · Oct 7, 2005, 01:54 AM

this is HUGE! :oD
I will hold a little longer to see the new hardware comming out, but I am dying to put my hands on Motion. The "behaviour" are probably a great thing!
Thanks for the input MovieCutter.

And Oreo, I found this:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork.../pa-unrollav1/
"VMX was the original code name for this extension inside IBM. That term isn't in widespread use, with generic terms like SIMD or vector processor preferred in IBM documentation. AltiVec is Motorola's trade name for this set of extensions, and the company thoughtfully trademarked the term. That's why Apple uses the name Velocity Engine, which is nicely generic and refers to either company's implementation of the technology."
;o)