Hello everyone,I want to buy a iMacPro. But I’m really in doubt which GPU I should order.Two possibilities: Vega pro56 8GB RAM or Vega pro64 16GB RAM.The bigger one is sure faster and has twice as much RAM, but as AMD is known for the need of very much power, it will heat up the All-In-One iMacPro more than the small one. As most of the time I’m using AVID and Baselight for AVID, I wonder if this two apps will take any advantage of the bigger GPU? If not it should be better to take the smaller one, acording to increase the lifetime of the whole system.It would be great, if anyone could share his experience or/and thoughts to this problem.Thanks!
Rainer Speidel
Editor, Colorist - Berlin Germany
You've raised some interesting questions.
If money is not a problem, I would get the best specced system you can as you cannot upgrade the iMac Pros in any way that doesn't involve major work (eg. ungluing the front panel) and invalidating your warrenty. It's possible you may be able to get Apple to upgrade it for you, but I don't know of anyone who knows how much this would cost, or if Apple will even entertain doing this for you.
As far as MC using the extra power of the Vega pro64, this is not clear. Modern AVX plugins do increasingly leverage the power of moden GPUs but it's hard to know if they are 'crippled' in any way by having to communicate through Avid's AVX architecture.
There's a discussion on the forum about using eGPUs on laptops with limited graphics chips, and one of the contributers made comments about... 'things appeared to work just a bit faster esp. exports'
See http://community.avid.com/forums/t/184311.aspx
If you intend to use your iMac Pro for anything like Davinci Resolve or Adobe's suite of software, you'll certainly benefit from the higher-end GPU.
As far as heat problems are concerned, it's still too early to tell if this will turn out to be a problem. The fan vents are quite close to the back support and certain reviewers have remarked that this design will tend to redirect the hot air towards the intake port. There's also the issue of dust which always builds up on enclosures with fans, and the inability to open up the machine to do a proper removal of accumulated dust may turn out to be a problem.
I'm also thinking about buying the new iMac Pro base model. I have money for one upgrade and I'm not quite sure what would be the best move for Avid performance (but I also do a lot of After Effect):
⁃
upgrade from: 8 core @ 3,2GZ TO: 10 cores @ 3,0GHZ
or
Upgrade from: Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GO ram TO: Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GO
Knowing I can upgrade the RAM later and that multithreading is not great in Avid, I was thinking about going with the graphic card upgrade.
What do you think ? Thanks
@JPBURight now I think for AVID the 8-core with Vega 56 ist really the best choice.But sure I'll take 64GB RAM. The rule is: minimum 4 GB for each core, so the basic 32GB are minimum. To start with a minimum is really not the best idea.In several test you can find that AE, resolve and FCP take benefit from a Vega 64. About 30% faster. But I did nor find a test with AVID and Baselight.
JPBU:Knowing I can upgrade the RAM later...
Upgrading The RAM is not a something the average person will be able to do as the memory slots live on the underside of the main logic board. This involves almost completely dismantling the innards of the iMac Pro - that is, once you've managed to prise off the front screen which is essentially glued on!
You really need to get this done at an authorised Apple dealer/repairer, so this isn't going to be cheap!
So bottom line, I you had to choose between a 16GIG GPU (knowing that it might be possible to add external GPU in the future) or 64GIG RAM (knowing that a certified apple technician could upgrade the RAM at a cost in the future), what would you choose for the base iMac Pro model ?
Thank you,
I just will tell you what I decided and orderd yet:
Every AVID-Support technician I asked, told me, that AVID will take no use of a bigger GPU (one of them tested it with a benchmark app on a iMacPro) also Baselight support said, there is no need of the greater GPU. The same with the CPU, AVID and baselight will not benefit from more cores.
BUT!!!!! 32GB RAM is not enough for 4K Video on this machine (look at the AVID specifications). You shure should start with 64GB!!!!
So my iMacPro will be: 8-core, 64GB RAM, Vega 56, 1TB SSD - best for my uses.
If you use FCP or AP or AE it will be different!
Oh great. Thanks for the heads up! Where did you see those specifications ? The only mention of the iMac Pro on avid website I can find is here but I don't see any mention of 64GB requirements for 4K... : http://resources.avid.com/supportfiles/attach/Mac_Current_CPU_Specifications.pdf
JPBU
Here you go...
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Compatibility/en365919
Marianna
marianna.montague@avid.com
Thank you, Marianna,
I've seen this page before but I can't see any mention of the iMac Pro on this page. For 4K/UHD, all it says is "32 GB recommended". And I can't see any mention of 64 GB being recommended for any configurations.
Rainer Speidel, do you have a link ?
this is good.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/How_To/Correct-interactive-frame-cache-or-Media-Cace-settings-in-Media-Composer
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