2013 Mac Pro Thunderbolt2 RAID Speed Tests

[SDMFX]

Hey all,

So in researching new gear to get, I was bummed that there wasn't more nuts and bolts tests being done with some of the Raid solutions out there running Smoke 2015. So rather than complain I thought I'd provide a few tests.

I just set up a 2013 Mac Pro, 8 core, 32 GB RAM, Dual D700s. I originally purchased a Pegasus2 R6 but it was just on the edge of what I was needing so I swapped it out for the R8. 

		Black Magic		AJA		Autodesk
		Read	Write	Read	Write	Read	Frame Rate
Pegasus2 R6 18TB	Raid 5	871	836	1138	809	922	27.27
	Raid 0	913.7	948.1	1145	1151	1088	32.19
Pegasus2 R8 24TB	Raid 5	1043.7	831	1127	818	1144	33.83
	Raid 0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Testing Methods	2013 Mac Pro, 8 Core, 32GB RAM, Dual D700s
Black Magic	Used 5GB test
AJA	Sweep Video Frame Sizes. File size set to 128MB
Autodesk	Used 4K frame size (4096x2160), 10 bit, unthrottled.

By far the most accurate test for us is the sw_io_Perf_tool that Autodesk provides. It actually runs through the Stone+Wire so it will give you exactly what you can expect. Take the others with a grain of salt.

Bottome line, the R8 is a beast. Even in Raid5 I am easily playing back 10 bit 4k DPX. I want to do some Raid 0 tests but have a very large job starting today so I'll have to get to that once I have a couple of days.

Also, I'm getting great results with real time playback of timeline FX. Some hit harder than others but for color correction, repos etc it's super fast and no waiting around for rendering.

[Anonymous]

My setup with Pegasus2 R4 will not play back 10 bit DPX 23.98 2160p UHD real time. 

[Anonymous]

Excellent!  That is speedy!!!  Thank you for posting your results!   I am contemplating a Pegasus2 R8.  Great to see real world numbers not hypotheticals from the manufacturer.

Autodesk

Used 4K frame size (4096x2160), 10 bit, unthrottled.

Just curious the string you used, so I can run the same test in the future. Something like "./sw_io_perf_tool -p0 -v 4096x2160 -s 1 -d 10 -Z"? 

[SDMFX]

Close. The string you'd want to use is:

./sw_io_perf_tool -p 0 -v 4096,2160 -d 10 -Z

The -p call is the partition your media folder is on. -v is video size, -d is bit depth -Z is unthrottled.

./sw_io_perf_tool -h will list all the vailable options.