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BennettHall
BennettHall
Participating Frequently
May 2, 2018
Question

Stitching 10gb+ Photoshop CC • Which Mac Pro 6.1 to buy?

  • May 2, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 653 views

I am ramping up to stitch high-resolution 16-bit TIF medium format captures of famous murals for output in the 96" x 180” range on Bamboo paper from Hahnemühle; then framed and for permanent installation in a federal building. These are reproductions of vintage New Deal Era Murals - nearly 1:1  (see sample below)

My current Mac Pro just won’t cut it, no new MacPro exists, I do not want to shift to windows, and the iMacPro is well…too pricey.

Therefore my query is Which Mac Pro 6.1 to buy and from whom?

Use Case: stitching captures from a Pentax 645z medium format (8250x6250 pixels each) to create legacy files of original WPA era murals. (up to 30 captures each 297mb each TIFF-16). Resolution to future-proof final result for 1:1 output.

Assembled in 16 bit RGB the files > 10 gigs after flattening and prior to adjustment layers

Questions to resolve

  1. Core: Research shows Photoshop CC 2018 optimizes at 6 cores 3.5mhz and diminishing returns if not slower results come at 8-10-12 cores.
  2. RAM:  faster and less or more and slower?
    1. OWC believe that 128GB of RAM at 1333 Mgz, (which only then runs at 1033 in a MacPro 6.1 due to bus limitation) will be better, less chance of going to scratch whereas Apple (biased as they do not sell 128 option) believes 64gb RAM 1866 mgz (per OWC will run full speed in 6.1 bus) sufficient and “probably be fine”.  
    2. Who is one to believe?
  3. Boot/program drive/work drive:
    1. 1T or 2T or 4T SSD.
    2. 1T should work but perhaps future proofing may mean investing in a larger capacity is more logical
  4. Video Card:  3gb v500 dual is more common, and perhaps sufficient or is it worth investing in the v700 with 6 gigs only available from Apple or Ebay sellers?
  5. Who to purchase from?
    1. Apple:
      1. warranty: per Apple, merely adding RAM voids Apple Care. (Yes we could save the old RAM and cheat the system if it came to that)
      2. Buy their overpriced RAM and suck up, and limit to 64gb
        1. or forget about Apple Care and buy entry level and swap out with 128GB OWC RAM
    2. OWC:  qualified advisors.  Used-refurbs, will configure. Has warranty options. No v700 video cards.
  6. What have I missed?

Findings so far are as follows from research:

  1. iMac Pro: Per Apple etc. the new iMac Pro while capable, and terrific for VR/AR and video would be a waste of money for these applications.
  2. Cores:  More than 6 cores in Photoshop is not productive used and may even reduce productivity; likely choice, Mac Pro 6.1 3.5 MHZ, research indicates faster speed is better in PS
  3. RAM:  more the better, of course, 64 minimum.
  4. SSD boot/program and work drive - of course
  5. Display: planning also to upgrade to a 30+” 4K monitor to better be able to view large-scale output. Second monitor Ben Q IPS
  6. Video Card: presuming v500 minimum with 3 GB of VRAM.
  7. External storage: TBD - thunderbolt   8T-12T RAID 5 - OWC or others, or stop-gap with 6T basic drives and time-machine
  8. Back up: We have fiber - and could  move to the cloud, or just time machine and sneakernet it to the off-site location

Workflow

  1. Pentax captures: 8250 x 6250 pixels processed into Lightroom CC classic output to Tiff-16 bit
  2. Photoshop CC for assembly into master files. Flatten after adjustments
  3. Non-destructive adjustments; test printing
  4. Output to HP z3200, 12 color pigment, 96” height by left fall width, 200+ DPI at the output size

Thank you all in advance for any suggestions on my conundrum!

sample mural -  192" wide by 110" high

City Life,  by Victor Arnautoff

mural displays a feel of organized chaos. The panoramic scene depicts the busy lives of city dwellers and how they can sometimes get wrapped up in moments without seeing what is in front of them. No one is noticing the traffic accident and instead are concerning themselves with their jobs and commute.

This 10′ x 36′ fresco “City Life” was painted by Victor Arnautoff with the help of Edward Hansen and Farwell Taylor with funding from the PWAP. The onsite plaque reads:

“Such familiar San Francisco buildings as City Hall, the Main Library, the Legion of Honor, and the Stock Exchange watch over the hectic urban scene, which includes an accident and a robbery.”

Arnautoff, who was a student of Diego Rivera’s, supervised the entire Coit Tower mural project.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

L
Lumigraphics
Legend
May 2, 2018

Put a few sample files on a hard drive and find a dealer who will let you do some testing. Most higher-end VARs would be happy to set aside an afternoon if you are buying an expensive machine from them.

Adding RAM does not void your warranty unless you break something doing it.

I would personally look at the iMac Pro with 64GB of RAM but as you said, its pricey.

    BennettHall
    BennettHallAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 2, 2018

    Good point - perhaps the Business Team will let me do that if they have photoshop CC loaded

    Checked the Store and the unit that makes most sense is the baseline 8-core iMac Pro with 64gb RAM ( going to 128 is a very ouchy +$1600).   That faster RAM might weigh - and if the 1T ( as their bump to 2T is also eek).  That package weighs in at 5799 and I can get friends and family

    Attached is Apples minimalistic compare chart on CC comparing to a 12-core - research indicates extra cores for my applications would not make this much difference.  What I find odd in this is its representing a >3X speed increase in so-called "well-threaded filters" vs a 12 color, no amount of RAM list nor the size of the sample file - thus the example seems near worthless or perhaps it was conveniently cast to convince people that the the iMacPro is 3X faster than a MacPro.

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 2, 2018

    This will hit the scratch disk heavily, to the point where RAM is almost irrelevant. It will all depend on capacity and bandwidth of the scratch disk. That's your number one priority. One of the new PCIe SSDs would be the best here (they are orders of magnitude faster than SATA SSDs). You should prepare for scratch files of many hundred GBs.

    I haven't tried panos quite that big, but I routinely make panos in the 25000 x 15000 pixels range. These weigh in at a couple of GB as flat files without adjustments, but in layered and adjusted form are often around 6-7 GB. This is handled very comfortably on a five year old i7-3820 with 32 GB RAM (that's Windows). No problems at all.

    It will take a couple of minutes to save such a file, not much to do about that. Auto-align is done in 40 seconds or so, auto-blend somewhat more.

    The scratch disk is the key. 6-core is probably better than 4, but they all say diminishing returns after that.

      BennettHall
      BennettHallAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      May 2, 2018

      thanks for your thoughts D Fosse

      I checked with OWC and the unit I am considering is per them classified as PCIe, configured for the Mac Pro 6.1 6-core I am considering.  I can order 1 or 2T.  They may also have a 4T but that seems like overkills. 

      The debate on more RAM 128 (1333/1066mhz) which is slower vs. less RAM (64) that is faster (1866) is another interesting one  - I should take a survey on that for the varying POV on that one.

      BTW the use case described is my extreme one but best to plan that for future proofing. Some of these are merely 2-3 gigs flattened or so, and amazingly I am able to do those in my vintage Mac Pro 4.1 in the 64 gigs of the old 1033 RAM. Now that I am stitching entire walls the upgrade seems inevitable.

      I am wondering if I should consider the iMac Pro after all - as it is has DDR4 at 2666mzh, a so-called turbo boost to 4.2ghz processor and presumably the fastest SSD I can get though I have not found the specs yet.

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