New Mac Pro specs?

I'm getting a new Mac Pro. Can someone recommend the desirable specs for editing SD and HD projects? This computer is an investment for the next 3+ years so I want to make sure I build it to last and make it relatively robust.
Thanks!

Any of the 8-cores will do well.
As HD, if you are looking at uncompressed, then you will need a Kona and BM card.
If HDV, XDCam or DVCProHD, SATA internals will do.
For Motion, the Nvidia 8800 GT as BTO will work well.
Max out on RAM, but not Apple's. Crucial, macsales.com or transintl.com is better

Similar Messages

Render times very slow on new Mac Pro and Premiere CC

Hi there
I have a brand spanking new Mac Pro (specs below) working off a G Studio r 24 TB array. Rendering anything in Premiere is taking an age (2 minutes timeline is taking 30 minutes). I am cutting 4k Sony F5 footage (XAVC). I have done tests with 1080 material and this doesn't make any difference.
I have spoken to Adobe support and reset permissions plus all the basic workarounds suggested: but there has been no improvement. I was due a call back but have not heard anything.
Can anyone suggest a solution - i have several important deadlines coming up, and can't really deal with the downtime.
I understand 3rd party apps take longer, but even with PP effects, rendering is taking way too long: especially with a super fast system like this.
Regards
Louis
YOSEMITE 10.10.3
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro6,1
Processor Name: 8-Core Intel Xeon E5
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 25 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: MP61.0116.B11
SMC Version (system): 2.20f18
Illumination Version: 1.4a6
Serial Number (system): F5KPD0DDF694
Hardware UUID: 8975F4BE-0140-583C-9615-E3BD60BEC8F2

If you go to the menu File > Project Settings > General and set the Renderer to Software Only, any change?
MtD

New mac pro (2014) specs for production company help

Hey guys new to the forum!
I work for a production company that makes mainly online corporate video and motion graphics, lots of character animation, typography pieces and bits and pieces of 3D work with cinema 4d r14. We currently work on 2009 mac workstations which have the following specs:
Model Name:          Mac Pro
Model Identifier:          MacPro3,1
Processor Name:          Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:          3.2 GHz
Number Of Processors:          2
Total Number Of Cores:          8
L2 Cache (per processor):          12 MB
Memory:          16 GB
Bus Speed:          1.6 GHz
Chipset Model:          ATI Radeon HD 2600
I've been asked to get some specs because we plan on buying the new mac pro and I have been reading some articles regarding performance with After Effects but in all honesty i really don't understand what sort of specs i need because i'm good at designing and animating but it when it comes to CPU, GPU talk it's all very confusing!
My boss wants faster previews, faster render times and an all round better performance than what we have now, and with the possibility of outputting 4K in the near future i have to bear that in mind as well.
If you guys could give me a helping hand choosing a new mac pro i would be eternally grateful!
Thanks,
Mark

The new Mac Pros are, without a doubt, amazing machines. But are they value for money?
A significant cost in these machines is the high end AMD GPUs, which is utilised very well by Apple in their own software like Final Cut Pro X, Compressor and Motion. If you use those a lot, it's a no brainer. Place your order.
Premiere Pro CC has support for the GPUs (one GPU during playback, but can utilise both during renders.)
There has been no pledge from Adobe for After Effects support. AE's ray-traced 3D render engine has been virtually abandoned by Adobe, so there will never be support for AMD CPUs for it. They are now more focussed on integration with Maxxon's Cinema 4D as a 3D alternative, but Cinema 4D exclusively renders with the CPU – no GPU benefit.
The AE team are hinting about substantial multi-processing enhancements in the next major update, so it seems After Effects users will continue to be better off with faster multi-core CPUs, rather than expensive GPUs. With more CPU cores comes the need for more RAM.
Some third party vendors of AE plugins, like VideoCopilot's Element 3D and Optical Flares, have pledged support for the Mac Pro GPUs. But the problem with intertwining CPU-dependent software with GPU-dependent plugins is you need to turn off multi-processing to get the best results, negating the value of your powerful Mac Pro CPU.
Photoshop and Indesign rarely need the balls of a machine like the new Mac Pro. The new high-speed SSDs will certainly make them run faster than your average iMac, but it's not a HUGE leap for the cost difference.
The benchmarks I've seen on media encoding for the new Mac Pros are a little underwhelming, to be honest. They're fast, yes, but not twice as fast as a $4000 iMac, despite a high-end machine being twice (or more) expensive.
So, as a primarily Adobe user, I'm a bit torn. Personally, I think my money will be better spent buying a high-spec iMac for now. I can always on-sell it in 6 months if Adobe prove they are really coming to the party with Mac Pro support. But right now I'm not seeing proof of the benefits (from Adobe) in buying a $6K+ machine.
If you are determined to buy the new Mac Pro, and After Effects and C4D are your primary tools, get the most powerful CPU you can afford, make sure you have at least 3-4GB of RAM for each CPU, and keep the lowest-specced GPUs.

How to choose the right Mac Pro Specs?

Hello all,
Below is a question I posted in May along with someone's response. I'm wondering if I should still go with the response I received considering the new release of the mac pro 12 core. Did anything change that I need to note in my purchase or is the below response suitable? THANKS!!!!!
my question:
I need some help in choosing the right specs for my mac pro. I am looking for a computer that will help me in running my small business and keep my art portfolio organized. I'll probably be running several programs at a time (ex. mozilla, itunes, adobe bridge, dreamweaver, illustrator, and photoshop). More specifics below
What i'll be using it for:
building a few websites
managing my small business
large photo file editing
keeping business files, artist receipts, etc
cataloging my art portfolio (large photo files)
storing photos, music, and short videos
graphic design
infrequent film editing
infrequent sound editing
what programs i'll be using:
CS5 (mostly photoshop, illustrator, bridge, dreamweaver)
iphoto
itunes
maybe minimal finalcut/soundtrack pro
maybe minimal aftereffects
Advice?
My concerns are that it needs to run pretty smoothly with multiple programs open, no overheating, plenty of space for file storage and application support.
Hello washleyill,
My advice would be to buy the standard configuration 2.66GHz Quad Core (i.e. 3 x 1GB RAM, 640GB hard drive) from the Apple store, with the exception of the graphics card which you can buy as a CTO option for $200.00. It is well worth the upgrade from the GT120 - I know, because I upgraded myself last November after using a GT120 for 4 months.
With regard to the memory, if you can afford it now, buy 4 x 4GB from OWC now. If not, I would suggest that you buy 2 x 4GB now, and then add another 2 x 4GB in the future. 16GB of RAM is a much better option than 8GB for your requirements. You can sell the 3 x 1GB RAM to OWC in "part exchange", and there would be little difference in price for 2 x 4GB to the CTO option of 4 x 2GB.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory
Instead of buying 2 x 1TB hard drives as a CTO option, you could purchase 2 x 1.5TB or 2 x 2TB HDDs for less money, and you would still have the 640GB. Spare drives are always useful. I use my original 640GB as a spare emergency system boot drive (OS and applications) in an external enclosure.
Another alternative is to wait a few more weeks, in case the rumours of the introduction of a new Mac Pro range in June have any foundation.
Regards,
Bill

Hello again washleyill,
The defining factor, which you haven't mentioned in either this or your original question, is what your overall budget is.
With the introduction of the new models, it's a new ball game now since I replied to your original question.
Now, if it is within your budget, I would recommend the 2010 Mac Pro 3.33GHz 6-Core "Westmere", with the standard 1TB hard drive, the basic 3 x 1GB RAM, but with the CTO Radeon HD5870 1GB Graphics Card.
This is the same configuration that Lloyd Chambers (of Mac Performance Guide fame) has recently ordered:
http://macperformanceguide.com/index.html
Then buy as much memory as you can afford now from OWC (trade-in the 3 x 1GB of Apple RAM against this):
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory
(The 1333MHz is now listed on this page as well as the 1066MHZ)
If your budget is large enough, then certainly it is worth considering the 2.93Ghz 12-Core, but the 3.33GHz 6-Core, with maxed out memory and fast hard drives, should be more than adequate for your requirements. The more memory the better for Photoshop CS5!
I have just ordered Photoshop CS5 myself. It is a big step-up from Elements 8, and I was going to wait until next year, by which time, hopefully, any initial problems and bugs should have been resolved.
However, Adobe UK made me an offer I couldn't refuse! The full boxed Photoshop CS5 edition for half price!
Also, the offer included an option to buy Lightroom3 at the same time with a 30% discount off its normal price, and so I have taken the plunge and ordered that as well, because I have never been completely happy with Aperture (II or III). Normally, I would not have purchased both Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3, but at these prices the offer was too tempting.
Best of luck with your purchase,
Regards,
Bill

Premiere CC and Media Encoder crashing new Mac Pro

Since installing CC on my new Mac Pro (Late 2013) Premiere and Adobe Media Encoder have been continually crashing my system.
At first, my comp would freeze and I'd have to hard restart, then it switched to rebooting on in's own. This would happen 10-20 times a day while editing.
This began shortly after I synced settings from a previous version of PP but since I've installed new RAM; reinstalled CC/PP; reformatted my HDD and reinstalled Mavericks, CC, PP; and have not synced my settings. I've also tried editing multiple projects of different sizes with different media types -- all are experiencing the same problems.
When I edit the same projects on my MBP, everything works fine.
Recently, I have disabled GPU acceleration in all of my PP projects and that seems to have solved the problem.
My office received 3 Pros at the same time with the same hardware configurations and software -- I am the only one experiencing this problem.
Here are some specs:
Late 2013 Mac Pro
2.7 Ghz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
64 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC
AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB
All drivers, CC, and software is up to date.
So what do I do now?
Any help is much appreciated!

I am on Windows, but have a few saved Mac discussions that may help (or, may not... but free to read)
Mac and Root User http://forums.adobe.com/thread/879931
-and http://forums.adobe.com/thread/940869?tstart=0
Mac & nVidia Driver http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1075592
-and http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html
Mac Retina Bug http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1159632
Troubleshooting guide for Mac freeze
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/troubleshoot-system-errors-freezes-mac.html
External speakers stop playback http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1370072?tstart=0
OSX Crash http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/ame-premiere-crash-launch-export.html

New Mac Pro (Late 2013) and CC 2014

Ok, I've been working on one of the new Mac Pro's from late 2013 and using CC 2013 with R3D footage quite successfully (though without great debayering performance on the R3D - I know it's supposed to be improved in CC 2014).
I'm running 10.9.2 Mac OSX.
When football season here in the states starts in two weeks, I will have a VERY deadline intensive 30 minute television show that I have to turn around from Saturday night at 2am until 8am Sunday morning.
I have purchased CC 2014, but have read in the past few weeks about the headaches the combination of OS 10.9.3 (and .4) and CC 20014 have caused.
My question is, where do we stand with those issues, and what would the community / Adobe moderators say about me heading up to the latest OS and CC 2014 under these circumstances? Thanks so much for the insight everyone.
Banks

jameskachan wrote:
…The obvious reason [sic] seems to suggest…
That's what it suggests to you, in the limited scope of your vision and knowledge, and without your having provided detailed specs about your hardware.
Due to the current unavailability of clairvoyants and mind-readers in the forum, we respectfully request you supply sensible, complete details.
We don't even know what your specific issues are, and for all we know you may be running the pathetic, buggy Yosemite OS—which Apple is giving away for free.
In this case, you have been enormously fortunate in that you received a reply from none other than Gµrµ Chris Cox, a top Adobe engineer who has been writing Photoshop code since the last millennium.
It's hight time you drop the attitude and avoid further embarrassing yourself in a public forum. Just my two cents.

Buying a new mac pro, new things to consider?

Hello all,
Below is the question I posted in may along with someone's response. I'm wondering if I should still go with the response I received considering the new release of the mac pro 12 core. Did anything change that I need to note in my purchase or is the below response suitable? THANKS!!!!!
my question:
I need some help in choosing the right specs for my mac pro. I am looking for a computer that will help me in running my small business and keep my art portfolio organized. I'll probably be running several programs at a time (ex. mozilla, itunes, adobe bridge, dreamweaver, illustrator, and photoshop). More specifics below
What i'll be using it for:
building a few websites
managing my small business
large photo file editing
keeping business files, artist receipts, etc
cataloging my art portfolio (large photo files)
storing photos, music, and short videos
graphic design
infrequent film editing
infrequent sound editing
what programs i'll be using:
CS5 (mostly photoshop, illustrator, bridge, dreamweaver)
iphoto
itunes
maybe minimal finalcut/soundtrack pro
maybe minimal aftereffects
Advice?
My concerns are that it needs to run pretty smoothly with multiple programs open, no overheating, plenty of space for file storage and application support.
Hello washleyill,
My advice would be to buy the standard configuration 2.66GHz Quad Core (i.e. 3 x 1GB RAM, 640GB hard drive) from the Apple store, with the exception of the graphics card which you can buy as a CTO option for $200.00. It is well worth the upgrade from the GT120 - I know, because I upgraded myself last November after using a GT120 for 4 months.
With regard to the memory, if you can afford it now, buy 4 x 4GB from OWC now. If not, I would suggest that you buy 2 x 4GB now, and then add another 2 x 4GB in the future. 16GB of RAM is a much better option than 8GB for your requirements. You can sell the 3 x 1GB RAM to OWC in "part exchange", and there would be little difference in price for 2 x 4GB to the CTO option of 4 x 2GB.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#1066-memory
Instead of buying 2 x 1TB hard drives as a CTO option, you could purchase 2 x 1.5TB or 2 x 2TB HDDs for less money, and you would still have the 640GB. Spare drives are always useful. I use my original 640GB as a spare emergency system boot drive (OS and applications) in an external enclosure.
Another alternative is to wait a few more weeks, in case the rumours of the introduction of a new Mac Pro range in June have any foundation.
Regards,
Bill

Interesting questions you have posed here.
I am thinking about upgrading from my MB to a MBP and I too intend to run a similar set of programs, and with large RAW photo files in Aperture. I find my MB is struggling and I dont want to invest any money in upgrading it, I will use it as a back up. I like the MBP and the 13" screen version is so handy and portable.
Have you made your decision yet...or are you still sitting on the fence like myself..?
Regards
Paul

Obsolete new "Mac Pro" vs Windows 6 Core 3930K PC - What should I expect?

OK, I ordered a pretty fast PC from Amazon, kind of a no-name gaming PC but it had great specs, i7 3930 Six Core at 3.2 ghz.
Installed a Nvidia GTX 670, did the supported cards text file hack, and Premiere Pro 5.5 on it, along with Quicktime Pro, and fonts I needed. I also installed a nifty program called X-Mouse which allowed me to customize my logitech scrolling mouse to use Premiere Pro as I also using USB Overdrive on my Mac - indispensable software.
Got a KVM so I could use my 2 large displays currently hooked up to my Mac on the PC without totally disabling my Mac Pro 2008 8 core - it is my workhorse and I use it all the time.
Finally got the PC somewhat functional on with Premiere Pro and even got it working with projects and media via a fast network connection. It seemed like butter vs my old Mac Pro. My lack of being a Windows power user I'm sure was responsible for my ultimate failure at getting my Windows system, but there could be hardware issues with this particular PC as well. Ultimately it was a total pain to share projects and media that resided on my Mac. Using Premiere Pro on the PC was identical in many ways to the Mac, just faster.
However the PC started going downhill pretty much as I got it working. It wouldn't properly reboot, always spinning in the 'Shutting Down' screen. I had to hard restart it all the time.
Then things started to go south, probably due to system corruption from having to hard reset it. I installed a fresh OS on the other internal drive in hopes it would fix the problems, a whole new set of software to get Premiere Pro working well. Again, shutdown hangs, without any diagnostics other than windows coming up at the hard restart saying there was a problem with the previous shutdown, and wiping out a lot of stuff each time. Then in hopes of curing the ills, a reformat of the drives, reinstallation of Windows 7 Pro, and then the ability to actually install the OS. 2 reformatted drives that cannot b installed with OS. Epic failure. The replacement is on the way.
But this being said, the amount of time in order to make this environment 'cross platform' as well as the indiocyncracies of Windows (to me, I'm not bashing Windows - it seems to be a fine OS!) makes me rethinking the PC for Premiere Pro switch.
I realize the current Mac Pros are basically obsolete, however, MY Mac Pro really is, it's from 2008 and not the fastest model from that era (2.8ghz 8 core, non threading Xeon.)
Investigating "new" Mac Pros, I can get a 6 Core 3.3 ghz threading Mac Pro plus 32GB of RAM for about $3,500. I can get a 12 Core 3.09 ghz for $6,700 and a refurb 2.93ghz with 32GB for about $5,700. The Windows PC with everything I need is in the $4K range. I don't need any new peripherals to make it a direct replacement for my current Mac Pro, all PCI, peripherals will just work. I'm familiar with the OS, and all my apps and plugins will work, no KVM necessary, no cross platform issues. Just not as cost effective as the PC and perhaps slower.
However...
Disregarding the cost, my time is valuable and I probably spend a good 3 solid days getting something non functional to work. There will be continual inefficiencies because I'm not a Windows shop, and I don't foresee this.
Will any 'new' Mac Pro, regardless of the cost, get me to the speed using Premiere Pro of this 6 core 3.2ghz i7 3930K? If I get the answer that the Mac 12 core will get me there, it may be a viable option. If the 6 core will get me 80% there, it might be the 'best buy' option.
Thanks for any advice, really!
-Keith

Thanks Eric and Harm for the helpful answers. I was hoping that Windows 7 had evolved to the point where knowning and using some of the troubleshooting techniques that Harm mentioned would not have to be necessary. I do have the ability / skill, etc, but not necessarily the desire to troubleshoot, but was kind of hoping that I wouldn't need to get to this level on such a simple installation, really it was just CS 5.5 and Video drivers. It is very possible the KVM was blocking on the USB request. This occasionally will happen with a hung device on Mac OS X and firewire, but usually it times out after a while. However there have been those odd times where I needed to unplug everything and even do a NVRAM reset on the Mac to get it back. This is pretty rare though. I even have my Mac set to 'verbose mode' which leaves the unix console up on boot and shutdown so I can track offending things like this. Maybe there is a Windows equivalent to this, which would have been helpful. Knowing that there might be some request that wasn't returning, I left Windows in this state for hours, it never got back. I had no choice but to hard restart it. I didn't examine logs and such, though I could have. I just want it to work or to fail gracefully, and not fail in such a way that makes it unusable and unrecoverable without in depth troubleshooting. I also have to use the KVM, without it I can't possibly use the system. So if the KVM makes the PC hang, then I can't use the PC. It doesn't make my Mac hang.
I am also quite positive that ADK's systems would have been a lot more robust and their emergency DVD's would have actually been able to help me as well as their expert tech support. I also appreciate that though Eric and ADK are a business, that the advice you have provided to me is just helpful and agnostic. This goes a long way to pushing my next PC purchase in the ADK direction!
Getting back to my original question, which was not one of troubleshooting Windows PC's though that advice is helpful...
Seems like a 12-Core Mac would allow me to edit well. I can edit right now with my 2008 Mac Pro 8 Core with 24GB RAM and 240GB SSD and Quadro 4000 and numerous internal and external RAIDs, but just scrubbing AVCHD I see all 8 processors go to nearly 100 % utilization and it's laggy. Not the best editing experience. If I have a few AVCHDs overlaid, which I do, it's almost unusable. As the Premiere Pro project gets bigger and more complex, it seems that everything gets slower. I have no scientific basis for this but I think it's true. It doesn't have to be just the sequence I'm working on, it seems to be even navigating simple sequences will be laggier if in a larger complex Premiere Pro project file.
On the Windows PC i7, for the few hours it was functioning, I was able to scrub AVCHD 1080P footage over a gigabit ethernet like butter. I was pleased with this. It was a very simple 1 track sequence, however. I didn't have a chance to try it with more complex projects before it was unusable.
Would I get smooth performance from a Mac Pro 6 Core, which is $2,500 less than the 12 core? From the basic Mac benchmarking I see, I see a 'rating' of 14000 for the Mac Pro 6 Core, and around 9000 for my current Mac Pro 8 core. This is about 50% more. I don't think 50% is going to get me to 'butter.'
Thanks again for all the helpful advice, Harm and Eric.
-Keith

How well does a new Mac Pro work with Adobe Premiere CC 2014

I'm trying to spec out a new Mac Pro so I can edit 4K footage from a RED camera. I currently edit using Premiere CC 2014. I've heard all kinds of bad stories with the new Mac and Premiere and was wondering if anyone has had a good experience. These are the specs I'm looking at for the mac. Thanks in advance.

Those AMD Dxxx and drivers as well as it may take a product cycle for Adobe if they are interested in the 6,1 customer base.
Dual AMD PCIe 7xxx and above even in dual setups, or of course you can throw one or two nVidia GTX 7xx into those silver "oMP" 2009-2012s (the 2008 just lacks good decent PCIe GPU performance with good graphic cards).
Also the way the nMP will 'share' and throttle to limit itself to 450W and its thermal design so that both GPUs and the processor are not both given full reign (they do when running Windows 8.1 natively - 8.1 because that is the "oldest" version supported with drivers and booting via Apple).

Premiere Pro CC running slow on my new Mac Pro

I just upgraded my system to the new Mac Pro(Darth Vader Helmet) and its running slower then my 5 year old tower!? Ill take 15-20 seconds to save a project(small project). The playback is still a bit jerky. Overall it just seems to be lagging a bit.
Here are my comp specs:
OS 10.9.2
3GHZ 8-Core Intel eon 5
64 GB 1867 MHz DDR2
Does anyone have any idea why Premiere isnt blazing!?
Thanks
R

Jim Curtis wrote:
Thanks, Jason, that's what I was wondering about. Generally, people post to forums when they have problems.
Yep. That's usually what happens. My review will be centered around my usual "benchmark" of editing 2 AVCHD inputs, one PiP'd into the other, synced with an external audio source, and then exported to an h.264 MP4. CC on my current Mac Pro (modified dual 3.46Ghz Xeon, 48G, nVidia GTX570) takes that task about 1/2t, if t = length of video. Which is pretty damned good. I'm hoping the dual GPUs will help scale that export task down a bit more. I don't expect it to hit 1/4t, but.. hey, maybe I'll be surprised?
I make about 60% of my living from Pr, and the rest from Ae and other apps (mostly Adobe).
Given the lack of CUDA, at the moment, I don't expect the new Mac Pro to be a stellar performer with Ae specifically. I assume that Adobe is working on OpenCL'ing Ae as much as they possibly can. But from what I understand, it ain't there yet.
(I'd need a TB monitor and PCI extender, too).
I can understand the need for the PCI extender, but why the TB monitor? I'd in no way even remotely consider one of those, just given how ridiculously priced they are. There's no need for one. Does your display have a DP input? You're all set. No? It has HDMI instead? Still all set. It's dual-linked DVI that becomes problematic.

New Mac Pro major issue's with Premiere CC 14

I bought the latest Mac Pro with top spec but it runs like a pig with Premiere cc 14, Adobe's video shows the Mac works perfectly. However mine takes forever to render, and has a jerky image on full quality playback with some clips, tried multiple setting, also been on the forum about open cl and open gl and other forums saying it's a mac issue and other saying it's adobe issue
Has anyone got a solution.
Would Adobe like to comment on the issues with the new Mac Pro's

I add to Jason's response with this: If you are having any suspicious behavior with Premiere Pro CC 2014 running OS X 10.9.4, please update your permissions to Read/Write first. Your permissions may be set to Read Only (this happens when you update, rather than clean install OS X). See this link: fixing permissions problem that impedes start of Adobe applications | After Effects region of interest
This forum post details the process: Re: Premier Pro 2014 is very sluggish
Thanks,
Kevin

"I've made a huge mistake." The laments of a new mac pro and ridiculously slow AE renders

I just purchased the late 2013 model of the Mac Pro with the following specs:
Processor: 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5
Memory: 12 GB
Graphics: AMD FirePro D700
It barely squeaks out a faster render than my early 2008 Mac Pro (which has the following specs):
Processor: 2 x 3.2 Ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon
Memory: 16 GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
I obviously did NOT configure my new Mac Pro with the best features for AE CC. I still have time to return the machine, and try again. I would appreciate advice from someone who can ID where I went wrong - and direct me toward a machine that will churn out faster renders. Thanks so much!

Sorry, I'm out of the loop on the newer chipsets so would have to defer to others in that respect. There's a lot of reading to be done on multicore rendering in after effects; but you're best off running some test renders to see if its helping or hindering your comps and then base your decision for number of cores vs core speed on that. Either way multicore rendering does require a lot of RAM. You should be getting OK render speeds if you're not using the ray trace renderer, certainly should beat out the old box, that might be something to look into.
I can't advise using those thunderbolt pcie chasis to add an nvidia card to the new mac pro trash can; the sonnet ones we bought have been finicky with our AJA cards and I can only imagine a full graphics card under load being worse performance wise.
I built my hack a few years back on an ivy bridge i7 with 32 GB of ram. They have some newer guides for hardware choices and methods at http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php
Although my build has been extremely stable, I will caution that putting together a hackintosh can be quite a pain even if you're an experienced system builder / knowledgable with *nix. If Windows is an option that can be considered, I've heard good things about the HP Z series workstations but Quadro cards seem overpriced IMO compared to the Geforce series for the cuda cores / ram size (though purists will surely encourage you not to go the budget route).

About to buy a new Mac Pro

A few months ago I posted a very simlar question, but can't find it anymore.
I'm ready to purchase a new Mac Pro, now I have a 2008 8 Core 2.8GHz with 10 gig ram and was looking at the latest 8 core with a lesser speed of 2.4. GHz and cannot find a benchmark comparison of those two models. The closest I found was at Barefeat's site, where it show a chart with the difference of 6 seconds exporting 50 JPGs out of Aperture, 68 seconds on the new 8 core and 62 seconds on my 2008. My opinion is that the difference doesn't worth a $3,500 dollars purchase, unless there are numerous advantages I'm overlooking.
Another idea was to double the ram on mine and get a new video card, planing to keep my 2008 as a server in case I buy a new one.
Need advice and suggestions, making a decision this weekend before something else comes up and spend the money . As I said, purchasing a new one is not an issue, just want to make sure is worth it.

Mac Pro 2009 and later have Multi-Threading and improved memory, so their specs for compute power are near double what 2008 and previous models were:
Primate Labs has posted Geekbench results for all the Mac Pro models since 2006. Here are some of the numbers in 32-bi/64-bit modes:
2.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 4011/4445
2.66 GHz 4-core 2006, 5178/5865
2.8 GHz 4-core 2008, 5650/6456
3.0 GHz 4-core 2006, 5768/6567
2.66 GHz 4-core 2009, 8265/9226
2.8 GHz 4-core 2010, 8629/9723
2.93 GHz 4-core 2009, 9072/10072
2.8 GHz 8-core 2008, 9105/10523
3.0 GHz 8-core 2007, 9172/10783
3.0 GHz 8-core 2008, 9460/11153
3.2 GHz 4-core 2010, 9829/10279
3.33 GHz 4-core 2009, x/11475
3.2 GHz 8-core 2008, 10108/11807
3.33 GHz 8-core 2009, 10304/11476
2.26 GHz 8-core 2009, 11831/13323
2.4 GHz 8-core 2010, 12722/14083
3.33 GHz 6-core 2010, 14049/15781
2.66 GHz 8-core 2009, 14330/16034
2.93 GHz 8-core 2009, 15529/17608
2.66 GHz 12-core 2010, 20226/22733
2.93 GHz 12-core 2010, 21661/24333
from: http://www.lowendmac.com/deals/best-mac-pro-prices.html
This chart shows that to EQUAL what you have now, buy a 2.93GHz FOUR-Core 2009 or later.
The real "sweet spot" in the current offerings is the six-core at only 1.5 times the entry models instead of 2x or 3x. (It's a build-to-order of the four-core.)
In case of a tie, always choose more MegaHertz over more processors.

Advice on choosing a new mac pro model

Hi. I'm looking to buy a new Mac Pro for use mainly with AE, Premiere, Photoshop plus Element 3d and trapcode. Should I spend most $$ on the CPU or the GPU? For just under $6.5K I can get the 3.7 quad+dualD700's or the 3.5 6core +dual D500's (Plus 32 GB of Ram). Any advice would be appreciated. BTW, I'm looking to do hi rez 4K renders in Element 3d (I know this uses GPU but am unsure as to whether I can get away with the lower spec'd GPU's. Does anyone use this with lots of vram for hi rez renders and how much vram seems adequate? Thanks!

You're not saying which model of MacPro you are considering, but if you go with the Quad, you will NOT be able to run all 11GBs of ram. You have 4 slots, and slots 3 & 4 are shared. So you can put the 2x4 for the 8, but then you will only be able to run the 2x1 for another 2, giving you a total of 10GBs.

What are your opinion on the new mac pro

I feel while radical its too limiting thereby loosing fuctionality. But I also knw how the iSheeps would follow their iSheperd blindly. There making this kind of thunderbolt for everything the norm. I also know that the PC companies brought this on themselves they failed to innovate followed intel and nvidia to blindly with there xeons and quadro. The 3 major pc makers market professional workstations that you would probaly sell ur kidney to get one we have the z820 while very powerful its just 2 xpensive. Let's take for example the imac is the best bang for d buck most beautiful all in one if hp had used say a normal 3770k and a gtx 680m 4gb dat would have brought the price of the z1 down drastically. Let's say d average joe wants to be an editor, compositor, colorist. if u goole pc workstations hp z820 and dell T7600 would pop up but they are dam so xpensive hp consumer PCs are garbage. If there is onething apple knows the average pro does not want to be bothered with specs. I think the pc industry brought this on themselves. Wat of the smaller custom builder they focused so much on gaming big megatron design like cases with all the talk of FPS is every thing. My only prayer is that asus, msi gigabyte should stand up aganist apple and start releasing sexier designs, unless I fear even adobe is not safe cos most editors would gradually drfit back to FCPX sad wen inferior products triumphs a superior one. Pls drop ur thoughts also ur opnions as editors in your location the general trend. I hate to be locked in a garden where I am told this is what I need. I love choices.

The 2 biggest problems with the new Mac Pro are the complete reliance on Thunderbolt for expansion and the Proprietary GPU modules. What happens when those Fire Pro cards are EOL and new GPU's are available. Will Apple go to any of the GPU manufacturers and get newer modules manufactured. Considering the applications that are moving to GPU processing, that was really a very bad idea simply because of the Minimum order quantity Apple will have to make to run another module. Apple will not be able to pull from the general video card supply which means they will be solely responsible for any production numbers required to manufacture to begin with. I personally expect this to be a major limitation as time goes on.
The complete reliance on Thunderbolt for expansion really was bad idea and not ready for prime time. TB2 has the total bandwidth of a PCI-E Gen 2 5x. That is the entire pipe available to pump any video output data, high performance storage, I/O devices, and any number of devices available as time goes on especially video cards. Those trying to GPU process through that pipe are going to find that latency is way to much a problem to get that done. If Lightpeak was out and had the bandwidth of PCi-E Gen 2 or Gen 3 16X then I would say great. There is just to small a pipe and to much device moderation at the TB controller to do this now. The major problem that will develop from this later is when Lightpeak is out for the PC and devices start moving there. Where will Apple be with the Mac Pro when it's entire expansion is legacy in 1 to 2 years. As a final note Thunderbolt 2 is just Thunderbolt 1 with 1 bidirectional channel in stead of 2 unidirectional. This is not a major improvement over the original.
The final consideration though not a major problem yet is the limit to 6 Core Xeons. This is likely due to the heat the 8 Core Xeons generate combined with a centralized cooling design. One of the major reasons to get a Dual Xeon is the 8 Core CPU options. Without that then there really is far less reason to get a Dual Xeon over a single 6 core and eventually 8 core workstation. This is a sacrifice that will reveal more later than now.
Considering the Mac Pro is meant to be the flagship platform for Apple's Pro market, there are really way to many limitations on this one to compete with the PC equivalents. There is only so much OSX will add to any system.
Eric
ADK

New Mac Pro specs?

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