View Full Version : Imac with Fusion Hard Drive- HD Setup for video editing


Chad Andreo
January 25th, 2014, 03:18 AM
Hi,
I just ordered a new iMac with the following specs just for video editing:
27" iMac Quad-Core Intel Core i7 3.5GHz
8GB RAM
3TB Fusion Drive - I got this setup with the 3TB fusion for a good deal due to the fact that it was an open-box, otherwise I would of went with a SSD.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780MX with 4GB of GDDR5

My question is, what is the best way for me to setup my hard drives (OS, Programs, Pagefile, Media Cache, Media, Projects, Previews, Exports, etc.) for editing with the this iMac and hard drives that I own?


I currently use a combination of a 6TB Lacie Raid-0 HD and a 1.5TB OWC FW-800 Raid-0 for video editing on my MBP which has a SSD and oem 750gb HD.

iMac Setup:
3TB Fusion: OS, Programs, Parallel
6TB Lacie Raid: Video Storage/Media Drive

1TB OWC USB 3 external:
Multiple OWB FW-800 Externals:
I might consider getting a Lacie 1TB thunderbolt HD, if it will be of any significant benefit.
I do plan on getting a arc-8050 raid somewhere down the line, but that is out of my budget right now.

Also, I am already familiar with the standard guidelines for disk usage which is in the link below, but since the iMac cannot be configured with multiple HDs, I am looking for any suggestions from people knowledge with this kind of setup.
http://forums.adobe.com/servlet/Jive...line+Disks.jpg

Thanks

Harm Millaard
January 25th, 2014, 09:51 AM
See Tweakers Page - External Drives (http://ppbm7.com/index.php/tweakers-page/89-external-drives)

Chad Andreo
January 27th, 2014, 11:16 AM
Thanks, but I'm familiar with most of the info in that link. I looking for any info that can help me with assigning different PP task to multiple HDs.
Bump

Charles W. Hull
February 1st, 2014, 02:28 PM
Chad, how is it going with the IMac? I have a question. I don't see the GeForce GTX 780M on Adobe's list of supported GPUs for Mac. Is it supported on your system? Did Premiere Pro come up with GPU acceleration working?

And with Mac is it possible to simply add other NIVIDA cards to the recognized list, as with Windows?

Thanks, Chuck

David Knaggs
February 5th, 2014, 04:57 PM
Hi Charles.

I'm not Chad, but I have the latest iMac with the 4GB GTX 780M and 32 GB of RAM. I specifically got the 4 GB card for After Effects work, but all I get is a message that it won't support Ray Tracing for the graphics card and that it will all be done through the CPU. Grrrrr.

I check Adobe's web page a couple of times each week, but it's still not supported. It would be nice if Adobe would give some indication as to when, or if, they're going to get around to it. It's been a couple of months now and ...

Charles W. Hull
February 8th, 2014, 02:03 AM
Hi Charles.

I'm not Chad, but I have the latest iMac with the 4GB GTX 780M and 32 GB of RAM. I specifically got the 4 GB card for After Effects work, but all I get is a message that it won't support Ray Tracing for the graphics card and that it will all be done through the CPU. Grrrrr.

I check Adobe's web page a couple of times each week, but it's still not supported. It would be nice if Adobe would give some indication as to when, or if, they're going to get around to it. It's been a couple of months now and ...

David, a web search shows several links to enabling non-supported CUDA cards with Mac OS. Have you tried this with the GTX 780M?

Chuck

David Knaggs
February 10th, 2014, 07:33 AM
Hi Charles.

I'm not keen to try hacks, but your post did prompt me to look harder into the official Adobe site and I found this link to a post by Todd Kopriva:

GPU changes (for CUDA and OpenGL) in After Effects CC (12.1) | After Effects region of interest (http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2013/09/gpu-changes-for-cuda-and-opengl-in-after-effects-cc-12-1.html)

So I downloaded the latest version of CUDA and checked the box in the latest Creative Cloud version of After Effects which says:
“Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of ray-traced 3D renderer.”

I took a composition which I'd rendered a week ago and which took 1 hour 40 minutes. After enabling the card, I rendered the same composition again and it took exactly 1 hour and 39 minutes.

This was not exactly the speed-up (1 minute) that I was looking for, so I'll assume I've missed something in my set-up and look into it over the next day or two, as my workload permits.

But it's really good that Adobe are giving us the option of using an unsupported card in After Effects. I feel that's a real step forward.