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Fairly high end video rig.
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Doc HM
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Jan 8, 2022, 06:43 PM
 
Imagine you wanted to construct s fairly high end, well specced and above all, speedy video set up in order to put together 4K video of around the 1 hour mark.
What Apple offering er... offers the best solution.

The current machine is a 2013 Mac Pro dustbin with a 4TB SSD and 128GB RAM running Catalina and a 64TB thunderbolt 2 RAID external drive.

is anything in the current apple line up going to offer a substantively better experience or is it bestowed to hold off and await the arrival of the new big iMacs or even (maybe) the Mac Pro mini (if it exists)

??
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subego
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Jan 8, 2022, 08:25 PM
 
We just got an M1 Mini, so we’re not really ready to report yet.

Is it only/mostly editing, or motion graphics and special effects too?



Edit: in terms of the best desktop offering right now, that actually hinges on the monitor setup. We use only one monitor so that nixed the iMac (24” is too small).
( Last edited by subego; Jan 8, 2022 at 10:50 PM. )
     
OreoCookie
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Jan 8, 2022, 10:46 PM
 
I think if you use an Apple-accelerated codec, any M1-based Mac will be significantly faster in many operations. I remember seeing a few youtube reviews of the M1 Mac mini (not the M1 Max!) where their humble Mac mini was competing with their 32-core AMD Threadripper box in many tasks. Of course, that’s assuming RAM is not limiting your performance, so that means you’d have to make do with 64 GB. And when you rely on codecs that aren’t hardware accelerated, the story changes completely for obvious reasons.

For example, in Anandtech’s review of the M1 Max, their 16” MacBook Pro was on par with “a high-end, RTX 3080-equipped desktop”. I don’t know what they mean by high-end, presumably a system equipped with a Core i9 or 5950X. The RTX 3080 is still pretty much as fast as it gets when graphics cards are concerned, though. On the DaVinci Resolve 30x blur test the M1 Max performed 2/3 as fast as a 2019 Mac Pro with the highest-end Vega II 32 GB (10 fps vs. 15 fps). It is 2x as fast as a 2020 Intel-based iMac with the fastest discrete graphics card and 3x as fast as the fastest Intel-based 16” MacBook Pro. Now I would caution against cherry picking single benchmarks, but an M1 Max-based Mac will likely smoke the system you have now, provided you do not run out of RAM, of course. The M1 Max is “limited” to 64 GB.

Honestly, if I were you and 64 GB are sufficient, I’d wait for the iMac Pro that’s just around the corner. And that system will be a lot faster. If you need more than 64 GB, I’d wait for the Mac Pro that lies in wait. And perhaps get a MacBook Pro to “tide” you over in case you need more power now.
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subego
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Jan 9, 2022, 11:30 AM
 
Waiting is definitely a good idea if possible. We were kinda forced to make the jump.
     
andi*pandi
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Jan 9, 2022, 04:06 PM
 
How just around the corner is that imac pro? Spring? Planning my own birthday present...
     
Doc HM  (op)
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Jan 9, 2022, 04:24 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
We just got an M1 Mini, so we’re not really ready to report yet.

Is it only/mostly editing, or motion graphics and special effects too?



Edit: in terms of the best desktop offering right now, that actually hinges on the monitor setup. We use only one monitor so that nixed the iMac (24” is too small).
Not doing any effects beyond some basic grading. Pretty much all editing so not sure how much grunt will be from the GPU(s) vs the CPU(s)

At the moment got a weird 42in curved Samsung screen set up, single monitor but super wide. Not 4K, 4K images get sent to a smaller screen for preview. I'm thinking wait to see where Apples Pro silicon desktops go in 2022.
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reader50
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Jan 9, 2022, 09:27 PM
 
Doc, you can probably determine what's maxed out your rig.

Open Activity Monitor. I'd suggest leaving it on the Disk pane, to see if drive access is a bottleneck.
Window menu -> CPU History
Window menu -> GPU History

Leave both History windows open while doing a typical video task.

My guess is the GPUs are the bottleneck. Apple never upgraded those - they're vintage 2013, equivalent to a Radeon HD 7950. Or so I've read.

Your other specs are excellent already. Assuming it's the GPUs, a TB eGPU enclosure could do wonders for your edit time. Assuming you can lay hands on a semi-modern graphics card without sacrificing your first born.
     
   
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