Premiere Pro CC and the New Mac Pro (2014)

[eschillay]

I'm expecting delivery soon of a new Mac Pro, nicely loaded, which I purchased mainly because of all the work I do with video. Yet, I read in a review that Adobe Premiere Pro isn't optimized to take advantage of the new Mac Pro, won't run faster, and I'm better off using Apple's Final Cut.

1. Is this true?; and

2. If so, will Premiere Pro be updated any time soon to run best on a 2014 Mac Pro?

My new Mac Pro will have the following configuration:

•	3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache

•	32GB (4x8GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC

•	1TB PCIe-based flash storage

•	Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

[soulcoaxer]

I just joined this group. I've read every post up to this last one. Very scary stuff. It was the final bit of information that made me just now inform Apple that I am returning the new Mac Pro I purchased that is still in unopened box.

If this is true "We have found out that the OpenCL GPU drivers for OS X are broken and are unable to render but the simplest of scenes. With anything barely complex the driver simpy crash.", then is it possible many others are not having these issues as Kevin from Adobe suggested?

Thanks

[DellPatrick]

This is a problem specific to the LuxRender plugin. While i have had some issues with Adobe on my MacPro 2013 running D500’s, it runs well for the most part.

Render times are extremely fast and it handles 4k footage well. The frustrating thing is that Final Cut X seems to be more optimized than Adobe software and this could be an industry sabotage thing - that’s the conspiracy theorist in me.

[soulcoaxer]

Thanks. The Mac Pro I have was shipped with two 700 cards. I incorrectly believed they would assist immensely with rendering in PR, until I read an earlier post that said basically, 500s were more stable than 700s, but still resulted in jerky frames and crashes. I did take a spin recently with Final Cut for the first time in a decade on my 2009 mac pro, but the new vastly different layout and logic of FCP would be daunting to master.

[rebeccapm123]

Horrible we have to put up with this. Makes me sick to think about. Not feeling the love from Apple any more. That ended awhile ago.

[NordicFilmworks]

Sorry not buying the LuxRender story... at least not fully...

Maya we have zero issues with MacPros... Davinci we have zero issues with MacPros... FinalCut we have zero issues with MacPros... It's only Adobe After Effects and Premiere where we see consistent crashing and poor performance.

When FUSION 7 comes out, on a FRESH architecture designed for OSX, if it runs smoothly, then this argument should be put to rest fully.

Sincerely,

Matthew Altheim

Executive Producer

www.NordicFilmworks.com

Nordic Filmworks is a film, television, and video production company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[soulcoaxer]

The Mac Pro 2014 may very well be a fallacy, though not likely an intentional one. It might not be important to many either, but is important to me.

Mac Pro Towers apparently only exist as either early 2013 or late 2013. Fact: I purchased mine direct from Apple less than a month ago, and when I phoned Apple care and requested a date of manufacture they said it was a late 2013.

Most may not be aware that a select number of certified Apple Dealers have been and continue selling 4 and 6 core 2013 Mac Pro Towers at greatly reduced pricing under the guise they are "open box" deals. Some claim they only have (1) in stock, but not so. There could never be that many open boxes. The early 4 and 6 core machines were fitted with 300 cards, whereas the late 2013 models sported 500 cards.

To address the conspiracy buffs, no, I'm not a plant. I purchased my first Apple III business machine in 1979, and have upgraded every 4-5 years since then.

There is also a big difference between not having a problem using certain software, and purchasing a $7k 2013 Mac Pro that does not compete well with the rendering power of its own 2009 and 2010 machines, some of which are selling now for more than the 2013 4 and 6 core machines. Explore for yourself.

While all of us waited for a typical new Mac Pro Tower to help support and improve our businesses, Apple was dreaming of new iPhones, iPads and Watches. They apparently watched their watches instead of supporting long time loyal customers. I was told recently by an insider that Apples motivation for the new Mac Pro was not as it always was previously. Instead, it was to maximize their very own FCP software. It's difficult to discern whether watching watches or directing all the components to work best with FCP is more egregious and arrogant.

[asal_naxax]

I am keeping my fingers crossed. I as well purchased a Mac Pro 2013 for a boost in video editing performance. Like everyone, i am pulling my hair out.

That video I saw of the Adobe guy running a mac pro while editing 4k on two monitors and realtime editing sold me on the Mac Pro. When I started using it, this wasnt the case. I was incredibly disappointed and felt misled.

This forum thread gave me some relief knowing I wasn't alone.

However, I hesitate to discuss my improvement. I don't know if it is an isolated incident or I am just lucky; but after installing the new premiere cc 2015 I have had significant improvement. HOWEVER!!!! : Old projects that are converted to 2015 are just as slow and laggy with terrible playback FPS. I tested the new 2015 by creating an entirely new project from scratch. Imported all the Panasonic GH4 footage i had with my older projects and everything seems much faster. Mind you, I have not added effects yet. But using dual monitors and 4k playback on full res at 100% works like a dream.

Hopefully this is a permanent thing and I didn't just get lucky. Can anyone else confirm this? Is there a way I can properly convert an old project without all the BS from cc 2014? Exporting xml into 2015 maybe? I am still new to the premiere workflow as my background is in vegas. Any help or advice or clarification would be helpful.

[Punker]

I have not had any crashes since the update but I do still get the

occasional eardrum rupturing pop when repositioning the playhead. Although,

come to think of it, that was on a carryover 2014 project. Can't confirm if

that issue is still present on 2015-created projects. Premiere also did not

crash when sending a group of sequences with audio compression effects to

Media Encoder like it used to.

So far so good for me for the most part.

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 10:07 AM, asal;naxax <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[asal_naxax]

I really dont want to jump the gun just yet but I have experienced an improvement akin to the Adobe Video I criticized in my previous post. full 4k and downsampling with effects, multiple laters, warp stabilization, no frame drops or anything.

if this is you Adobe....THANK YOU....DEAR GOD THANK YOU BLESS YOU ALL.

[DellPatrick]

I have to chime in here and agree the CC 2015 upgrade has been a big improvement. Dynamic linking with After Effects comps is 500% more fluid so far.

HOWEVER, this improvement only seems to be true with NEWLY created 2015 project files. As someone suggested earlier, create a new 2015 project file and IMPORT your 2014 projects rather than converting to see the buttery smoothness.

[Ugio]

Good to hear that CC 2015 improved the speed.

Could somebody make a video to see if this is really true?

On CC 2014 if you import footage the project file grows quite a lot, is this still happening? for feature films and documentaries it's a pain in the butt having 1 or 2 GB project files.

[rebeccapm123]

I am trying this tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Just finished upgrading today. Thanks for the tip on the import procedure.

I have never done that so we'll see how it goes!

[toneproductions]

How is everyone going with CC2014 on their trashcans? I'm still pulling my hair out!! Is there any glimmer of hope for Premiere and AE to play nicely with these machines? My Duals D700s need to stretch their legs!

[DellPatrick]

I find 2014 and 2015 very speedy on dual D500’s on my late 2013 trash can (64GB ram, 12 cores @ 3.5ghz).

I’m sure they could be FASTER even still.

The PROBLEM is consistency, which is lacking to say the least.  It seems i’m always working through bugs and hiccups.

--

Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

[third unkle]

I have upgraded to CC15 on new Mac Pro 8 cores with D700 video cards running Yosemite 10.4 and I have to say I am pretty happy. Dynamic link works as it should now... AE and PPro seem to be sharing preview renders and the system is pretty stable... a few crashes here and there when Premiere or AE gets itself in a bit of a tangle, but on the whole working as you would hope... may it continue...

[toneproductions]

That's great @third unkle. I'm Jealous.

Have you been working with it for long? Have you had Premiere projects with multiple Dl comps (10 or more)?

[third unkle]

have been on CC since the beginning... it's only now that all the bits have really fallen into place and seem to work as advertised

I'd encourage you to upgrade to CC15 and Yosemite and you may be pleasantly surprised

working with large projects lots of sequences and multiple DL clips... not a lot of them are too complicated, but recently had a logo animation using Element 3D, a camera, a light, a few 3D planes and once rendered in AE it played in real time in PPro without a PPro render.

this is how you would expect it should work. that it actually does is very encouraging.

[toneproductions]

@third unkle. I'm on CC15 too but have serious and crippling problems withe Ae and Premiere on my system which i just can't seem to iron out!

it boils down to things working as expected in a new project and gradually getting worse as the project increases. That said, the projects aren't of a hugely significant size. Generally 2-3 min Corp film with averagely complex Ae comps (similar to that which you describe)

my rig..

Yosemite 10.10.4

CC15

Late 2013 Mac Pro ghz 8 core

32 GB RAM

DUAL D700s

1GB SSD Boot Drive

Thunderbolt 2 RAID 0

Media and projects are on the TB RAID, sending previews, cache etc to internal SSD

How does your system compare?

[DellPatrick]

I think everyone has extremely high expectations for the trash can.

The truth is Adobe likely never did any rigorous tests on the hardware - they seem to work more closely with Nvidia than Apple.

If Adobe integrates Metal 3D we may be able to expect deeper compatibility.

For now though, I'm still impressed with the speed, when it works correctly. Would you describe your symptoms as sluggishness or failure?

What kind of footage are you using?

[asal_naxax]

It has been a while since I have checked back with this thread to see if improvements have been made. Anyone experiencing improvements with the trashcan and adobe products?

[third unkle]

all working as advertised now... CC15... yosemite 10.4... dynamic link works really well... pretty stable... no complaints...

I think there are updates for el capitan on the way in the usual end of year CC update

the irony is that they had the PC version working really well... not so well now in CC15... crashes... buggy... then again it could just be the average PC I work on occasionally, although it is the top spec off the shelf HP.... PC is really not my thing so I can't be sure... but my trash can is rocking... (8 cores, D700s)

[Trevorhamlett]

I have the same problem  when scrolling text for 20 minutes, its slows then stops and application memory message comes up

[davidp158]

My mid-2010 Mac 5,1 tower tends to bog down with highly compressed footage and multi-cam sequences in Premiere Pro CC 2015. I have been considering a new video camera, and tried to edit some SONY FS5 footage and it wouldn't play full HD footage in real time (no edits, no effects, no color grades) at even 1/4 resolution.

So, I'm thinking its time to either buy a new Mac or upgrade my "vintage" 2010 Mac. The upgrade options to my 2010 Mac would be a flashed Nvidia GTX 9800 video card, up my RAM from 32 to 64GB, and replace spinning hard drives with SSDs. These upgrades, while expensive, as still less than buying a new Mac Pro "trash can". Given all the problems people have had with Premiere Pro and the new Mac Pro trash can towers, I'm wondering if these issues have been sorted out, or if I am safer to stay with my old Mac for another couple years. I'm hesitant to put a lot of money into an old computer, but I dread dealing with the issues others have had with the new Mac Pros. I suspect the prime issue is that Apple refuses to accommodate Nvidia cards with CUDA acceleration. I have always resented Apple's insistence on a limited choice of over-priced, outdated video cards, but I don't expect that the ever change. If Adobe would make Premiere Pro compatible and stable with the Mac Pro's AMD cards, this would be less of an issue.

Any suggestions on what my best option forward is, would be greatly appreciated.

[Teamrivers93]

Wow...this is an old thread...with repeating, old problems.  And to think I was going to upgrade to a new MacPro from my solid, 15"macbookpro retina.  It might be slow, but it works.  I dread the thought of going back to windows, having left at XP and 7.  I just can't stomach more headaches and truly believed there is a hardware solution out there that can handle the basics of using the Adobe creative suite.  I started video editing in the VCD days with slow spinners and even with the souped up PC's, still had issues with Adobe.  Apple needs to quit with FCP, no real pros are using it anymore.  And Adobe, make up your minds to either serve the lightweight consumer, or, work with the pros and develop pro tools.  I almost had to leave you with the last lightroom debacles. 

[asal_naxax]

This is ridiculous. When are Apple and Adobe finally going to give a crap about their customers. I can barely get After Effects to render a simple layer of rotoscoped text. It renders at .0298 Frames Per Second. REALLY???

This is a 6000 dollar computer and it's running terrible with these applications. I believe the issue lies on Adobe as FCP and Motion are blazingly fast with this computer. Why haven't you guys updated your software to work with this hardware?

Get out of the closet with Adobe and start taking care of ALL your customers.

My premiere crashes 8/10 times when using dynamic link to import an AE comp into Premiere. Is there any hope soon? Im seriously considering selling my trashcan and building my own PC. This is ridiculous.