Help deciding M395 v/s M395x for video editing.

[mjoshi123]

I've finalized configuration I want for my iMac
I& + 1TB SSD + 8GB RAM (upgrade to 32 later), But I'm not sure if M390 or M395 or M395x is way to go ? Primary use is going to be Lightroom, Photoshop + Video Editing.

What is general consensus on this ? Is it worth paying extra for M395x in terms of performance ? (I know you cannot upgrade video cards on iMac)

 

[Sirmausalot]

I wrote this in another thread. You need the 395X Also, the 1TB Fusion only has 24GB RAM. you want the 2 or 3TB with 128GB Ram. And yes, the I& is the right CPU

"Any sort of Premiere Pro effects are generally off-loaded to the GPU. This includes color correction, LUTs, fades, dissolves, and more. The heavier the effect, the more the GPU gets a workout. Currently I'm working with a 4K timeline with a single LUT applied (a type of color effect) necessary when working with flat LOG footage. Without the GPU acceleration, the files will NOT play back in full resolution. I would have to turn down the playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4. With the GPU acceleration, it moves, scrolls, and plays smoothly. The more VRAM, the more Premiere has power to process the effects without having to turn down your playback resolution. Exactly where the breaking point is might be impossible to find. But I don't want to find out. (Except this same footage didn't play back smoothly on a Macbook Pro with a 750m with 2GB VRAM and not quite well enough on an older Retina iMac with an m290.

Light video editing with 1080P should be fine with the lower end card. But if you add several effects, have a lengthy involved time line, or go to 4K in a couple of years, you will wish you had gone with the higher end card...."

 

[Buerkletucson]

I've finalized configuration I want for my iMac
I& + 1TB SSD + 8GB RAM (upgrade to 32 later), But I'm not sure if M390 or M395 or M395x is way to go ? Primary use is going to be Lightroom, Photoshop + Video Editing.

What is general consensus on this ? Is it worth paying extra for M395x in terms of performance ? (I know you cannot upgrade video cards on iMac)

Get the M395x as stated above......
The 1 TB SSD is sweet......sure glad I went with that on my machine, EVERYTHING loads super fast.

 

[mjoshi123]

Thank you for your help. Yes I'm getting 1TB SSD - not 1TB Fusion. I was just stuck on should I get M395X or M390 will be good enough ?

 

[twilexia]

I wrote this in another thread. You need the 395X Also, the 1TB Fusion only has 24GB RAM. you want the 2 or 3TB with 128GB Ram. And yes, the I& is the right CPU

"Any sort of Premiere Pro effects are generally off-loaded to the GPU. This includes color correction, LUTs, fades, dissolves, and more. The heavier the effect, the more the GPU gets a workout. Currently I'm working with a 4K timeline with a single LUT applied (a type of color effect) necessary when working with flat LOG footage. Without the GPU acceleration, the files will NOT play back in full resolution. I would have to turn down the playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4. With the GPU acceleration, it moves, scrolls, and plays smoothly. The more VRAM, the more Premiere has power to process the effects without having to turn down your playback resolution. Exactly where the breaking point is might be impossible to find. But I don't want to find out. (Except this same footage didn't play back smoothly on a Macbook Pro with a 750m with 2GB VRAM and not quite well enough on an older Retina iMac with an m290.

Light video editing with 1080P should be fine with the lower end card. But if you add several effects, have a lengthy involved time line, or go to 4K in a couple of years, you will wish you had gone with the higher end card...."

Darn you Sirmausalot, you already convinced me to go for the i7 and the 1TB SSD, now you're making me wonder if I should reorder and get the 395x as well.

 

[Sirmausalot]

Darn you Sirmausalot, you already convinced me to go for the i7 and the 1TB SSD, now you're making me wonder if I should reorder and get the 395x as well.

You know, I am doing fine with the 512GB Flash simply because all of my media is living on fast RAID external drives. I think if money is tight, that is the way to go and get the 395X (though I still kind of wish I had stretched to the 1TB Flash, I realistically don't need it)

 

[mjoshi123]

You know, I am doing fine with the 512GB Flash simply because all of my media is living on fast RAID external drives. I think if money is tight, that is the way to go and get the 395X (though I still kind of wish I had stretched to the 1TB Flash, I realistically don't need it)

I was initially thinking of 512GB Flash instead of 1TB, but then I realized that it may be too small considering my normal event shoot is roughly 60-90GB of data, and I like to keep my working RAW files in main drive and once done I move it off to backup drive and to Amazon cloud. Do you think RAID 1 is way to go to keep cost down ? Will Lightroom and CS6 work well with data being on external drive ?

 

[Sirmausalot]

I was initially thinking of 512GB Flash instead of 1TB, but then I realized that it may be too small considering my normal event shoot is roughly 60-90GB of data, and I like to keep my working RAW files in main drive and once done I move it off to backup drive and to Amazon cloud. Do you think RAID 1 is way to go to keep cost down ? Will Lightroom and CS6 work well with data being on external drive ?

The rule of thumb has always been that media should never, ever be on your system drive. Perhaps that rule has changed while I wasn't looking. I am editing about 2TB of 4K footage on this http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/performance/backup-plus-fast-hdd/ You could keep all of your projects (perhaps up to 40 of them?) on this one drive and edit off it. Then you'd need a second 4TB drive (doesn't have to be RAID) for project backup. You need RAID 0 for performance.

 

[twilexia]

You know, I am doing fine with the 512GB Flash simply because all of my media is living on fast RAID external drives. I think if money is tight, that is the way to go and get the 395X (though I still kind of wish I had stretched to the 1TB Flash, I realistically don't need it)

Well, I just checked my order status and it says "preparing to ship" so I guess I'm going to stick with it (the m395).

I think I may be overthinking this way too hard. I'm primarily an audio producer and not a video producer, yet all this discussion is making me think that I'm going to be editing 4k video on a regular basis and become the next J.J. abrams