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Configuring Your System for CS4, Part 2

Feb 23, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer

Configuring the Mac Pro

As mentioned in the first installment, I used different tests with the Mac and Windows workstations because the systems were configured with different processors and I didn’t want the results compared. More specifically, with the Windows test projects, I added After Effects components to the Premiere Pro timeline and rendered via Adobe Media Encoder. On the Mac, I substituted native color key overlay effects for the After Effects chroma key, sent the sequence off to Encore via Dynamic Link, and rendered a DVD or Blu-ray folder to hard disk, depending upon the source footage.

I performed all tests in the dual-processor configuration because I didn’t have the guts to perform the major surgery necessary to access and remove one of the two processors that shipped with the system. Since the system shipped with 8GB of RAM, this was my maximum configuration. I also tested in 2GB and 4GB configurations, which are the only other configurations offered by Apple. All render times are in seconds.

As you can see, both the HDV and Red formats tanked in the transition from 8GB to 4GB, indicating that you should stick with 8GB for both of these formats. Interestingly, at least from a pure rendering standpoint, the other three formats remained fairly peppy all the way down to 2GB.

How responsive was the system while rendering in these memory configurations? Again, to test this, I rendered a 15-second portion of the Premiere Pro timeline containing a native color key effect while rendering the DVCPRO HD project to Blu-ray-compatible MPEG-2.

As you can see, in the 2GB configuration, rendering took more than 7 minutes, which dropped to just less than 4 minutes at 4GB and 8GB configurations. This tells me that if you plan to use the system for other activities while rendering, you should buy at least 4GB of RAM.

Using this Information

How to use this data given that your projects will differ widely from my test projects? Two platitudes come to mind, which I’ll use as a substitute for original thought. First is that your mileage will certainly vary. The suggested configurations could prove more than adequate, or they could bog down like a city car in the country mud.

However, (here comes the second) in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Any information is better than none at all. In your shoes, I would start at the suggested configurations—remembering that you can always add RAM and a second processor, but you can seldom give it back if you end up buying more than you need.

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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