Which Mac for the fastest 4K ProRes export

[quadslo]

Which iMac or Mac Pro would be the best option for the fastest export of 4K ProRes files in Adobe Premiere CC 2015? And to stay in the reasonable price range?

What about upcoming Macbook Pro 2016?

Thanks

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The one with the best graphics cards, the mac pro with D700's

 

[maflynn]

Which iMac or Mac Pro would be the best option for the fastest export of 4K ProRes files in Adobe Premiere CC 2015? And to stay in the reasonable price range?

What about upcoming Macbook Pro 2016?

Thanks

I've read that in many tests the iMac is as fast if not faster then the Mac Pro. Personally, I'd opt at looking to spend about 2.5k on a configuration that includes a 5k 27" display and current chipset over spending over 3,000 on a computer that has not been updated by Apple in 3 and 1/2 years.

As for the MBP in 2016, I doubt it will have a GPU that will be on par with the iMac's.

 

[JamesPDX]

I've read that although the iMac looks great on paper, heat issues will throttle your performance down. YMMV. Check the Adobe-user forums. Your may be better off with a PC if you're on the CC, but you'll have to spend money on a CC-compatible graphics card. What GPU scheme are they doing now? Open CL or CUDA or what? See? Check out those pro forums. Lots of good advice to be gotten out there.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I've read that in many tests the iMac is as fast if not faster then the Mac Pro. Personally, I'd opt at looking to spend about 2.5k on a configuration that includes a 5k 27" display and current chipset over spending over 3,000 on a computer that has not been updated by Apple in 3 and 1/2 years.

As for the MBP in 2016, I doubt it will have a GPU that will be on par with the iMac's.

In overall performance the top spec Imac will outperform the 6 core mac pro with D500's on many benchmarks, however for the specific job of exporting 4K video the 8 core mac pro with D700's is the daddy, just take a look at these benchmarks.

http://barefeats.com/imac5k18.html

 

[quadslo]

I am on PC now with GeForce 660 card. In the export option I run CUDA.

The problem I have with PC is that I can't play 4K ProRes files smoothly. From anywhere.

I tried to play the files on the smallest Macbook Air and they had no lag, smooth playback.

I've read that although the iMac looks great on paper, heat issues will throttle your performance down. YMMV. Check the Adobe-user forums. Your may be better off with a PC if you're on the CC, but you'll have to spend money on a CC-compatible graphics card. What GPU scheme are they doing now? Open CL or CUDA or what? See? Check out those pro forums. Lots of good advice to be gotten out there.

[doublepost=1452764392][/doublepost]It is hard to make a choice 🙂

I am willing to spend as much as maxed out iMac 5K 27" and I really like Retina display included. Is there any other option available?

In overall performance the top spec Imac will outperform the 6 core mac pro with D500's on many benchmarks, however for the specific job of exporting 4K video the 8 core mac pro with D700's is the daddy, just take a look at these benchmarks.

http://barefeats.com/imac5k18.html

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I am on PC now with GeForce 660 card. In the export option I run CUDA.

The problem I have with PC is that I can't play 4K ProRes files smoothly. From anywhere.

I tried to play the files on the smallest Macbook Air and they had no lag, smooth playback.


[doublepost=1452764392][/doublepost]It is hard to make a choice 🙂

I am willing to spend as much as maxed out iMac 5K 27" and I really like Retina display included. Is there any other option available?

Other than building a PC (or using a mac pro which is beyond your budget) and attaching a $1600 5K display using 2 mini display port cables then no I'm afraid not. Your card should work fine with 4K so I have no idea where your issues are coming from are you using the correct display port cable??? If you are using HDMI you'll only get 30FPS.

Specs on your card for external displays can be found here...

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-660/specifications

If you read through the link above you will see that the 5K iMac maxed out with the 395X is going to give you about the performance of a 6 core mac pro with dual D500 graphics cards, of course the mac pro will not throttle under load over time and will give you better 24/7 performance but for what you want the iMac should be a great solution AMD are not CUDA enabled so you'll have to run as open CL but that should play fine with adobe.