"Best" configuration for new Mac Pro used for Aperture?

I'm getting ready to order a new Mac Pro and would like to configure it to optimize Aperture performance.
On CPUs - I have found no benchmarks which show whether Aperture would benefit from 2 quad core processors versus 1. Does anyone know of any benchmarks or have any experience using a single quad core? I don't want to spend $500 on a 2nd processor if Aperture can't use it.
On Graphics cards - I was sold on the GForce 8800, due to it's supposed blazing speed for gaming and it's larger on board memory. However, after reading the following review http://www.barefeats.com/harper10.html , these guys seem to imply that applications such as Aperture actually run faster with the standard Radeon 2600 video card! If anyone has any experience or opinions on this review, I'd love to hear them!
On memory - I know from experience that Aperture will use all of the physical memory you make available to it. I plan on ordering the standard 2GB from Apple, then adding 8GB from 3rd party for total of 10MB.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I can only say that when faced with the same decision last month, I went with a 2.8 8-core/8800GT/10gb RAM/library stored on 2nd internal drive setup and am completely satisfied with Aperture's speed. Beyond satisfied, really, borderline thrilled to be honest. No beach balls, perfectly responsive adjustment sliders, smooth and quick scrolling through images (even with Quick Preview mode turned off). Aperture 2 definitely takes advantage of all 8 cores - I have MenuMeters installed and can watch its CPU usage across all 8 cores. Exporting, for example, is fast and uses all cores for background processing.
I have seen a couple small anomalies though...when moving photos around in a light table, I get some odd flashing artifacts on the right side of screen that could be graphics card related. Visually annoying but it doesn't affect performance. I'm also seeing some weird behavior with keywords not appearing in Tooltips and in the Viewer, but it's intermittent and is most likely a software bug and not my hardware setup.

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How can I configure my new Mac Pro to output the timeline via HDMI

How can I configure my new Mac Pro to output the timeline in FCP 7 (yes, I have X, but I'm using 7 right now). I have two monitors running from TB2, but want to have the third for a client monitor.
If I use all three via TB2, it's literally three monitors, and I want to edit on my CineDisplay. I only want the client to see the timeline video on the third monitor. When I hook up HDMI I get no signal, in fact, I can't have the HDMI cable hooked up for TB2 to work with the third.
Thanks,
GEvans
DarthPro
3.7 QCIntelXeonE5
12 GB
AMD FirePro dual D300 2048MB
OSX 10.9.2

If you use all ThunderBolt displays, or stick with DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort (free conversion between the two with only a cheap cable) you can have up to six displays.
If you attach "legacy" displays with "any-old adapter", you can have up to two, and the built-in HDMI counts as one if you use it.
Any more requires ACTIVE Adapters.
The US$100 Apple ACTIVE Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter works in every case, even displays over 1920 wide.
StarTech and Accell make US$35 ACTIVE adpters that work for displays up to 1920 wide.

Help Configuring my New Mac Pro

I just purchased a new Mac Pro (early 2009 Quad Core" 2.66 (2009/Nehalem), and a second (1 TB) internal hard drive. I would like to transfer my applications, files, and profile from my Macbook Pro (early 2008 Core 2 Duo" 2.5) to the Mac Pro. I also want to install with Boot Camp a copy of Windows XP Pro (SP3) on a separate hard drive. I want the XP drive to be the 640 GB hard drive that came with the Mac Pro, and the MacOS drive to be the added 1TB hard drive. I want the Windows drive to have 4 logical partitions ( C, D, E, and F) with the C, D, and E being NTFS (so they can exceed 32GB) and, F drive being FAT (for read/write compatibility with MacOS). I've been doing a fair amount of reading both on this forum and have a tentative plan to accomplish the setup. But, a lot of what I'm planning to do is new to me. So, before executing my plan, I wanted to get some feedback. Any thoughts or comments on the steps in my plan would be much appreciated. Here are my planned steps:
1. Turn on the new Mac Pro computer but don't transfer and applications or files - just transfer the profile. Then check to make sure that the computer is working properly.
2. Turn off computer and install 1 TB hard drive and RAM upgrade.
3. Turn on the computer and transfer applications and files from my Macbook Pro to the Mac Pro using Migration Assistant (located in the applications, utility folder). Connect the computers using Firewire 800 (9 pin to 9 pin cable). I currently don't have such a cable, but from what I have read the migration can be very, very slow if done using the ethernet network or a USB-2 cable. I've got about 200 GB on my Macbook Pro so I assume that the Firewire cable is the only sensible way to go.
4. Test the system to see that the applications are working and check that the data files have been transferred.
5. Download SuperDuper and use it to create a clone of the 640 GB drive on the new 1 TB drive. Make the 1 TB drive the boot drive by choosing it from System Preferences > Startup Disc
6. Check and make sure the bootup from the 1 TB drive works properly.
7. Check to make sure the EFI Boot ROM version on the Mac Pro is up to date. If it needs updating, download latest version from Apple support website and install.
8. Check Apple support for updates to Boot Camp Assistant. Once I have the latest version open Boot Camp Assistant (in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder). Create Boot Camp partition that is the entire 640 GB hard drive.
9. Insert the Windows XP CD and click Start Installation in Boot Camp Assistant. Select the Boot Camp partition for installation of Windows.
10. As I begin the Windows install, I'm expecting that I will be offered at the start of the setup process an opportunity to create the 4 separate logical partitions that I want on the 640 GB hard drive. Format the hard drive with the 4 partitions.
11. Select the partition where I want to put Windows Operating System and follow the Windows setup process to install Windows XP.
12. Once Windows is installed, eject the Windows disc and insert to Mac OS disc. Install the Boot Camp drivers for Windows.

NTFS is read only already. You don't need anything just to access, only if you plan to write files, and NTFS won't like HFS file names if they have special characters.
XP SP2 or later, and would have to be able to transfer to new hardware. What it lacks is good multicore and memory management.
Newegg and Amazon has single system builder versions that can save but can't be used on another system. OEM (Dell, HP, etc) versions or "restore discs" won't work and aren't supported.
I said you can get by without BCA. You don't have to believe me but it is a waste to have to say everything twice. Windows 7 is perfectly capable of doing any formatting and installing without it.
Installing Windows 7 on Mac Pro is easier and different. There is a forum devoted to Boot Camp and Installing Windows.
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237

Configuring my new Mac Pro with a RAID solution... Help appreciated!

Hi, I am about to purchase a new Mac Pro to have in my studio.
One of my unresolved features is what to do with storage. Currently I am considering either: (a) the Apple internal RAID card with 4x500GB 7200 RPM drives; or an external G-Technology G-Speed eS also with 4x500GB 7200 RPM.
In either of these cases I would have an additional external drive of 1.5TB (pretty much the available storage I should have from the RAID), to perform back-up and take off-site.
Questions:
(1) Anyone has experience with Apple's Raid Card? Better or worse than an external solution?
(2) Any feedback on the storage from G-Tech? I have a few mini drives with great success.
(3) Any suggestion on RAID vendors (beyond what I am considering)?
Thanks so much!

I'm also planning to upgrade to a new Mac Pro, and just waiting for newest Intel "Penryn" processors:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Having eSATA ports for external eSATA drives would be great.
I will go with a RAID, but haven't decided on the configuration - I'm thinking of having 3 or 4 drives in RAID 5; I perceive a benefit in going with the Apple RAID card rather than a cheaper third party card - it's designed to work well with the Mac Pro and with Apple Care you'd get warranty coverage. Can't decide if it's better to save money and buy drives from a third party (and maybe end up with them not covered by Apple Care), or to pay more and get the drives with the machine.
I got burned many years ago by four failed IBM 75GXP hard drives, so I think choosing a reliable hard drive is very important; I'll probably go with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 or Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000. Great info here:
http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr
Good RAID tests results:
http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/followup.html
And I think this is required reading too:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/RAIDUtility_UserGuide.pdf
Ron

Configurating a new mac pro

Hello Folks!
I'm an apple user from 7 years ago, and after i contact the apple suport in portugal i was very disapointed,
because, i'm trying to configurate a new mac pro but when i saw the graphics card option i realised that none
of options offered are actually great enought. I found the following graphics possible solution:
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
dual ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
these options doesn't fit for my profile because i need a desktop to work in projects such as
designs for mechanical engeneering, sctructural analys and for serious flying simulators witch require
more gpu power. So, i would like to know if there are other options available for such a great machine.
Best regards,
Emanuel Ferreira

there is some third party company out there that flashes some higher end cards. I don't know the name but if you dig a bit you may be able to find some other cards. I had great hopes, years ago, when the macpro first came out that it meant we would get access to top end graphics cards. sadly that has not happened. if you need the fastest computer graphics, a mac isn't the ticket. great operating system....poor selection of graphics cards to say the least.

Prepare the drool cloths! New Mac Pro will make Aperture SCREEEAAAAMMMM!!!

Shipping TODAY
New Mac Pro
1.6 -2.1 faster than current PPC Quad
2.6 Ghz dual DuoCore
256 MB ram
Superdrive
$2499
All quad, up to 3ghz
Up to 16 GB memory
Up to 2 TB SATA internal storage with FOUR internal drive bays
4 PCI Express slots
Graphics up to radeon x1900 or FX4500
HOLY SMOKES!!!

Looks like a nice machine.
Bit dissapointed with the graphics options though - in the PC world you can get dual on one card Nvidia 7950GX2 cards which would absolutely destroy anything you can get for this machine.
I wonder if you could just buy a Radeon 1900XTX card and pop it in, if it would use the same drivers as the XT card.
On the memory front does anyone know if it NEEDS ECC RAM? ECC ram is hideously expensive and I'd really want 4gb for aperture.
CPU looks great and is actually very well priced, the Xeon's are very expensive chips.
notice also the tech specs for the screens have increased, and prices dropped.

Configuring a New Mac Pro

Hi, pro users! This is technically a bit off-topic, but this still seems like the right forum for my question. I have a dual-G5 Power Mac and am thinking about upgrading to a Mac Pro before Apple starts reducing the FireWire support on that one, too. The most demanding things I use are Mathematica, Aperture (with a very large library) and Logic Studio. I am interested in the opinions of you experienced users in three areas:
1) Processors - I will get eight cores. Is it really worth $4/MHz to get the 3.0 or 3.2 GHz machines? More precisely, will most things run at a speed that is proportional to the nominal clock rate - or do other limitations reduce the advantage?
2) RAM - I am getting by with 4.5 GB on my G5. It is not enough - particularly with Aperture, I sometimes fill it up. Should I order 8GB from Apple? Should I order the minimum from Apple, throw it away and replace it with Crucial??
3) Graphics card. I am running a single 23" display now. I don't foresee using more than one 30" display, or maybe 2 23"s. I'm not a gamer, although I might try X-Plane some day. I know that Aperture performance benefits from a good graphics card - when I upgraded the one in my G5, it helped a lot...
Thank you for your help and long live FireWire!

Stephen, here's my thoughts:
1) Processors> Yes, you will see some difference by going with the faster machine. I can't, tell you whether or not it would be worth the extra price, as this is a determination that you'll have to make. If you are using the machine in a commercial environment, i.e. you make your living off the work you do with it, and time being money in such a situation, it may be worth the price difference. The 3.0GHz machine may be a nice compromise if you're not comfortable plunking down an extra $1600 for the 3.2GHz machine.
2) Memory> 8GB of RAM from Apple will set you back $1500. For $1595 at [OWC|http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory], you can get 32GB of RAM or for the same 8GB you were suggesting, you would pay either $260 or $400 depending on whether you selected 2GB or 4GB modules. I've ordered RAM for my Mac Pro from OWC and have never had an issue with it. They are a very reputable company and I believe that their RAM is covered by a lifetime warranty. All of the RAM in all of my Macs comes from OWC and I've never had one issue with them. I can wholeheartedly recommend them. And yes, more RAM is generally better....
3) Graphics> I don't know exactly what your graphics processing needs are, but I doubt that you probably need the $2850 Quadro FX 5600. For me, anyway, the extra performance of the GeForce 8800GT at such a modest price of $150 is a no-brainer...

"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).

New Mac Pro 8-core / D700 not much faster than an iMac... in PPro CC.

So.... my very preliminary testing with our new Mac Pro using the plugin I use most (filmconvert -FC) anyway, shows that Premiere CC needs more optimization for the dual GPUs. In fact, I'd say the CPU utilization is not up to snuff either.
I know FC only uses one GPU presently from the developer. That will change. In the meantime, using a couple of typical projects with that plugin as an example, I'm only seeing 25-45% speed up in renders over our maxed out iMac (late 2012, 27") exporting the same project. That's significant of course but not the 100%+ one would think we would be seeing at the least given the MacPro config of 8 cores and dual D700s. Premiere Pro CC seems in fact to never maximize CPU (never mind GPUs). I have yet, in my very limited testing, see it "pin the meters" like I did on the iMac.
Of course that's just testing now two short (under 5 min) projects, and it depends on what one is doing. Some stuff is much, much faster like Red Giant's Denoiser II or Warp Stabilizer VFX. The improvement there can be 3-4x faster anecdotally. I used to avoid them for speed reasons unless absolutely needed a lot of the time but now they are fast enough to rely on quickly. Other stuff unrelated top PPro CC like DxO PRIME noise removal on RAW stills is much faster too, as is Photoshop CC. Some effects like blur, sharpening, resize there are nearly instant now even on giga pixel files in Photoshop CC.
And of course FCPX is much faster on it but I hate the whole editing paradigm. The timeline is just horrid on it; simple things like replacing a word in someone's dialogue is a multi click, multistep process that is nearly instant in Premiere and most every other NLE. Just to try to see your whole timeline is a chore, to see what your edits and sound are in detail are problematic, trying to keep things in sync is a chore, and you can't even zoom your timeline window to full screen! If anybody has edited for any amount of time, I do not understand how they use FCP X. If they start with that program, for example if they are young, then that is a different beast.
I'm sure Adobe will improve over time. They have to to stay competitive. In the meantime I'll take my 45%... but I wish I saw much more improvement given the cost and hardware differential. Unfortiunately, for now, the mainstream reviews I have seen regarding PPro performance on this machine were right.

That statement about 4k/5k in Premiere CC with the nMP is false, insofar as performance goes.
I just tested 5K Red raw files just dragged into Premiere Pro CC (latest version). I expected this to be slow, given my HD experience. However, on my 8 core/D700, I can play 1/2 just fine, full speed. And I even can also do that with a very streneous plugin/filter attached - FilmConvert (in OpenCL mode), also at 1/2 which is quite impressive. I can even add a bunch of other Premiere filters and SG looks and it still stays at full speed at 1/2.
Ironically, this is quite faster than FCPX which can't seem to play back 5K at all with that filter attached (it doesn't stutter, but it's not smooth... low resolution at "best performace" and reduced frame rate). Even if I remove all filters FCPX plays back Red 4k (again not transcoded) about the same as CC at 1/2, but with a seemingly lower resolution to keep it smooth. It's a head scratcher. It's like Adobe's Red handling is much better coded than Apple's in this case.
Or... it has to be attrituable to that particular plugin (other FCPX motion-based plugins don't suffer the same fate and are fast). But either way, filter or no, Premiere Pro CC is definitely and sharper looking at 1/2 when cutting Red 4k/5k with no transcode, playback in real time, than FCPX which needs to bump it down to what looks like a 1/4 or less rez to keep it smooth. So I have no idea what is going on.
This experience is the opposite with HD, where FCPX is significantly faster (using the same filters/plugin, using C300 Canon XF for HD and 4 and 5K RedRaw alternatively). Premiere seems slower in HD than FCPX by a good amount in HD and signficantly faster with Redraw 4k. Go figure.

User Upgradability on the new Mac Pro?

I understand that one can configure the new Mac Pro from around $3,000 to almost $10,000. But can one buy the base unit and then upgrade parts later on? For example, RAM upgrade, CPU upgrade, graphic card upgrade, etc.
Is the Mac Pro as quiet as a Mac Mini?

The tear-down images and data on the Xeon E5-xxxxV2 series processors look like the cpu can be upgraded by the user. All E5 processors use the FCLGA - 2011 socket, same pin-out so should be replaceable:
1620V2 - 4 core - 3.7 GHZ - $294
1650V2 - 6 core - 3.5 GHz - $583
1680V2 - 8 core - 3.0 GHz - $1723
2697V2 - 12 core - 2.7 GHz - $2618
Interesting tidbit - the max addressable memory for the 4, 6, 8 core models is 256 GB, while that of the 12 core is 768 GB.

New mac pro with ATI video card & 2x 24" displays??

is it possible to connect two 24" apple displays to the new mac pro using the ATI video card?

2 nVidia cards doesn't buy you any performance increases. They don't talk to each other to improve performance in Mac OSX. Multiple cards is mostly for supporting multiple displays. How many displays do you have?
Apple has some initial performance benchmarks:
http://www.apple.com/macpro/features/graphics.html
Scroll down to see the graphs. The HD4870 destroys the GT120
Message was edited by: Wormy-san
Fixed names of cards

Blu-ray with separate 4-pin and 39-pin connector on a new Mac Pro ?

I have a 2007 blu-ray burner I am trying to install as the 2nd drive in my new 12-core Mac Pro. But how to you connect it (it has separate 4-pin power and 39-pin connector) ? Any feedback would sure be appreciated.

The drive is PATA. Older Mac Pros uses PATA optical drives but newer Mac Pros use SATA. There are adapters
<http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_bridge.html>
The adapter was intended for hard drives but should also work with optical drives. You may want to check with Sonnet before buying to see if it works with Blu-ray drives

Looking to run autodesk inventor on a new mac pro* will it work?

Looking to run autodesk inventor on a new mac pro* using boot camp and windows.
Will it work or am I waiting my time?

As an alternative, though not an ideal FCS box, the Intel iMacs should be fine, and should fit into the same budget range as the MacBooks.
For serious FCP work, I wouldn't recommend an iMac, but for the purposes you've outlined, it should be acceptable, for the most part.
EDIT: My comment above is in reply to your comment about school purchases, not your original post about carrying around two laptops.

New Mac Pro (2010) Configuration for Photoshop

Multiple questions for this august body of knowledge holders...
Consider the following problem statement:
---->> "To purchase a new Mac Pro as a *Photoshop / Aperture* rocket sled."
Now the questions:
1 Is the 6 core 3.33 GHz option the best CPU option? Can Photoshop make use of more (slower) cores?
2 What about the video card? Stock card (ATI Radeon HD 5770) Or are there gains to be had springing for the upgrade (ATI Radeon HD 5870)?
3 What about RAM - go for 24GB (8GB modules) or 32GB? Apple says limit is 16GB, aftermarket seems to think 32GB is limit (4GB vs 8GB modules) ( I've heard some say use only the first three RAM slots - the 3rd and 4th slot use the same bus and are therefore slower...true? )
4 Last question: Storage. Who makes the most reliable hard (2TB) drive? Seagate? WD? Other?
Thanks, in advance, to all those who provide brilliant advice!

I think it depends on your needs as to what will be optimal.
No to PS being very well threaded at all.
So GHz rule. So do SSDs! and RAM helps as long as you work with large files.
3 x 8GB is fine. Apple never lists the max RAM or drive capacity.
$200 BTO for 5870 now rather than later.
Hitachi, OWC SSD, WD.
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html
Even the 4-core 3.2GHz might do just fine and better $$ investment.
Or this 3.33 2009 Special
http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0G81LL/A?mco=MTcyMDg3MDQ
http://twitter.com/diglloyd

Can I set up a new Mac Pro late 2013 using a Wacom Cintique 13HD tablet as the default monitor? How would I install the driver software for the tablet?

Can I set up a new Mac Pro late 2013 using a Wacom Cintique 13HD tablet as the default monitor? How would I install the driver software for the tablet?

The wacom site will have the drivers for you.
http://us.wacom.com/en/support/drivers

"Best" configuration for new Mac Pro used for Aperture?

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