Mac Pro configuration

[moreymichael]

Hey guys, when looking at running Smoke on the new Mac Pro, is it better to have faster processors or higher core count? 

Processor

• 3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
• 3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache [Add $1,500.00]
• 2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache [Add $3,000.00]

also, is there a real advantage to upgraded graphics cards?

• Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each [Subtract $600.00]
• Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

Usually I assume bigger is better, and always do an upgrade, but that may not be the best thing for running Smoke in particular.

Cheers, Mike

[DavidCrites4631]

Hi Mike,

It depends on what kind of work you do most of the time. I do a lot of fluid sims and such in Maya, and the more cores the better. Smoke is pretty well multi-threaded, so it benefits from more cores as well. I bought the 12 core new mac pro, and have been very happy so far with the performance.

Best,

dc

[moreymichael]

Thanks dc.

Did you upgrade the graphic cards as well?

mm

[DavidCrites4631 · Accepted solution]

Yes, I got the D700's. Pretty impressed so far.

dc

[arichards]

I got the 6 Core and D700s and am also very happy but would be even happier to see Smoke make use of tbe second GPU. I saw a significant increase on existing projects from my late 2014 Macbook Pro but I know there's more in tbere if Smoke took advantage. Still happy however. I also upgraded the RAM myself to 64 GBs

Cheers
Tony

[moreymichael]

I guess the thing is, would I see a significant improvement in Smoke with 12 cores instead of 8. I mostly work in HD, but I also know that 4K is coming fast. I know there is always a benefit to more RAM. But I'm just a bit unclear, from a technical perspective, what the different GCs do differently from each other, and what more cores do. Does any of this affect render times or give the timeline (dissolves, for example) real time playback without render? What is it that bogs down interactivity in action when the layers start adding up: RAM? Cores? 

A fully loaded MB is 10K. If I don't really "need" 12 cores, I could save 1500$. As a freelancer, that's a lot of moolah, so I want to know I'll be happy remortgaging my house to get it.

Cheers, Mike.

[DavidCrites4631]

I have not had an 8 core to compare it to, but just the simple test of watching the activity monitor while rendering shows Smoke is hitting all of the cores pretty hard. I have to imagine the 12 core is going to be a bit faster. I also added after market RAM to bring it up to 64GB.

[moreymichael]

Right. So it sounds like the full 10K version is best. Thanks for the input. 

Cheers, Mike

[arichards]

Im Denken wird jeglich Ding einsam & langsam - quotation from Hiedegger by a bench in Todtnauberg.

I've been following this thread slowly from within a small provincial village the black forest of Germany where I've been spending a few days chilling (it's been as cold as icicles!) with a slow Internet connection.  I'm dying to quote some Heidegger on the question concerning technology, as per some self-mockingly pretentious quotes in another post around these parts, but I'll just let the above stand as a marker.

In any event, now I'm back home and looking at some of the footage of said "heimatlich" area (and pining that Smoke could read raw Canon files instead of having to go through Davinci to resolve it!) I am not seeing my cpu's on my Mac Pro banging 100% as David seems to experience on his 12 core. Running 2015 on my 6 core (64GB's and dual 700s) barely gets above 30% on average across the cores on either playing back or rendering. I think that Smoke does not take advantage of the CPU's and that it's better to go for the graphics card if one were to choose. In any event, I have read in a number of places that the 8 core is the sweet spot if one is running a number of pieces of software and not targeting one that might favour multi cores specifically. I remember when Snow Leopard was announced there was all this talk of grand central dispatch that would make the cpu and the gpu work together in some sort of amalgamated 'worldhood' but it seems that it's either one or the other and that Smoke, I think, really takes advantage of the GPU much more than the CPU's. As said in an earlier post, I am seeing a good boost in comparison to my MacBookPro with Nvidia 650M but it would be much better if the second GPU were taken advantage of also. I can definately chime with David however in saying that the MacPro is much more like a knife through butter in comparison to other models. On my MacBookPro in the Black Forest I was getting pretty frustrated but now I am back at home off the hols my MacPro is much nicer. Am hoping that future iterations of Smoke take fuller advantage, but also do not reduce the feature set further as seems to be the rage at the moment, but that's another post. What other software (well Apple's FCPX) takes away tools and restricts you still further as the software develops. As a beta tester, although I will not say, I fear updates may lead to further strangulations. That really is no way to live!

Cheers

Tony

[ThirdrowWilmu]

<Bump>
We are running a 8Core Xeon e5 with the AMD FirePro 500 and are getting some issues while working in Maya.....anyone care to chime in and share their experiences?

[yann.laforest]

Hi, I suggest you to ask on the Maya dedicated discussion forum: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-general/bd-p/area-b201 You will get better chances to get responses on that discussion forum. Regards, Yann Yann Laforest Feedback Community Manager Autodesk Canada Co. 10 rue Duke Street Montr?al (Qu?bec) Canada H3C 2L7 Direct 514 954-7241 [logo]