Premiere Pro CC and the New Mac Pro (2014)

Report · Feb 21, 2014

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

Report · Feb 18, 2015

As far as hardware goes, it's lightning fast.

The only problem I'm facing is random crashes when switching apps several

times a day. Originally I thought it was a software issue attributed to

Yosemite but now I'm not sure. My crash logs mention "Thread 0 Crashed::

Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread - 0

com.adobe.AudioSupport.framework 0x0000000103d7f8d0

ML::Device::GetNumberOfPhysicalChannels(unsigned int, bool) + 80" and I

can't tell whether or not this is software or hardware related.

I didn't have any problems on Mavericks. Maybe the trick is reverting to

10.9.

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 2:47 AM, toneproductions <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

Report · Feb 18, 2015

Sounds like an audio card or audio library issue

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Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

www.worldtreefilms.com

Report · Feb 22, 2015

I have had issues with 4k files from the Panasonic GH4 in Premiere CC 2014. Grinds to a halt on my MBP 2014 13" with 16GB and i7 (even at 1/4 and 1/8 resolution). Have used a utility called EditReady to transcode the files to pro-res 4k (UHD) 422, which is fairly quick and maintains metadata. Amazingly these prores files fly when editing in Premiere CC 2014 - very smooth editing. Meanwhile, on my i7 PC (16mb, quad core etc), while the native files still struggle a little bit, it kind of works and I can put up with it. Speedgrade doesn't much like them at UHD, but footage shot at 1080p work fine.

On my Mac I have just downloaded the FCP X trial (my CC membership is up soon and not looking forward to my deal coming to an end so am looking at alternatives as I'm only a hobbiest) and I have to say, it blew my mind just how smooth the editing is with the GH4 4k files natively, not even generating proxy's or optimising the files. Worked perfectly, and the final encoding of the timeline shows it really is working off the 4k files.

So while I initially thought my MBP was under powered for 4k when I first started editing the GH4 files, I have come to the conclusion that Premiere CC is not handling the files as well as it could. Given when transcoding to Prores 422 and quadrupling the file size, Premiere worked perfectly with it. When using native files in FCP X, they too worked perfectly smoothly. Can only conclude CC doesn't like native GH4 4k. Hope this gets sorted in the next release, I have been using Premiere since version 4.2 (in the 1990's) and really like it, but if I can't edit with it I'm definitely off!

Report · Feb 22, 2015

many thanks Andrew, this clarifies my situation and offers some solutions. I wish Adobe would just discuss this properly.

Report · Feb 22, 2015

Obviously the Adobe suite is not as optimized for Apple hardware as Final

Cut is. Editing 4k files encoded as H.264 or MPEG4 (as the GH4 surely

uses), it is amazing you can edit smoothly in FCP given those are highly

compressed formats not suited for editing.

I wish Premiere and AE were as beastly of an engine as FCP, because i prefer

their workflow and interface, but we may be wishing on a star. What we are

discussing (editing 4K H.264 files and REDCODE) are things you might think

of for stress testing. Those formats are going to be very difficult for any

machine to handle, much like 1080p was pushing my iMac¹s ability in 2009

using FCP7.

The easy solution for editing 4k from a DSLR or other compressed codec

source and high end proprietary formats like RED is to transcode

something which was very common just a couple years ago. I found editing 4k

files from a GH4 was somewhat sluggish on my MacPro late 2013 6-core with

64GBRAM and 3GB Firepro 500¹s, but I did not expect it to be 100% smooth.

Decoding lossy codecs in real time is asking a lot. Still, the shift to

FCPX doesn¹t seem worth it to me.

It¹s obvious that Apple doesn¹t want you to use Adobe products

Brian Nunes, Director

Find Your Way

www.findyourwayfilm.com

Report · Mar 10, 2015

I believe this to be true. I read an interesting report on the duel core AMD FirePro GPUs in the 2013 MacPros. When using FCP X, both cores of the GPU are accessed. When using Premier Pro, only one core is accessed while the other sits idle. What a waste. Apple definitely is giving us incentive to use FCP. I have had so many problems with the MacPro. I finally sent it back to Apple.

Report · Mar 10, 2015

Can you please post a link to that article here? The most frustrating thing, for me, is I DID do my homework. I scoured the Internet, to the best of my abilities, and didn't find a single article, post or tweet that clearly stated: PremierePro CC 2014 does not work with GPU Acceleration on the MacPro (2013) on 10.10.2. There was a lot of fuss about the GPU support being broken with the 10.9.3 update, but apparently that was repaired with the 10.9.4 update. I did not see any discussion beyond that.

Posting clear information here will help other Premiere users who are currently in the market for a new MacPro. Since Adobe will not give you a clear answer, it's up to us to get the information out there. So to anyone wondering about compatibility between Premiere Pro CC 2014 and MacPro (2013): GPU ACCELERATION DOES NOT WORK forcing you to use Software Only Rendering which makes all that expensive hardware completely useless. DO NOT BUY A MACPRO (2013) IF YOU PLAN TO USE PREMIERE PRO CC 2014 EXCLUSIVELY. Buy an iMac.

As for me, I've got one more open project to complete on Premiere, then I'm switching to Final Cut X... unless Adobe can solve this?

Report · Mar 10, 2015

Here is one of the articles I found about the GPU, and unless I am interpreting this incorrectly, it looks like apps need to be coded to take advantage of both GPU cores in the Mac Pros that are using Dual Core GPUs. FCP is one of those apps. Premiere is not. "The same is true for professional applications. By default you will see only one GPU used for compute workloads. Just like the gaming example however, applications may be written to spread compute workloads out across both GPUs if they need the horsepower. The latest update to Final Cut Pro (10.1) is one example of an app that has been specifically written to take advantage of both GPUs in compute tasks."

AnandTech | The Mac Pro Review (Late 2013)

Report · Mar 10, 2015

Interesting

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Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

www.worldtreefilms.com

Report · Mar 11, 2015

Adobe, please start using both GPU's!

Your lagging.

David Ethridge

Report · Mar 11, 2015

Adobe supports at least up to 4 nVidia GTX cards, at least on Windows. Mac problems seem to be related to the OS, so contact Apple would be my suggestion.

Report · Mar 11, 2015

Both Apple and Adobe. To Apple it's a software (Adobe) issue. To Adobe it's an Apple issue. And we are caught in the middle. Very sad.

Report · Mar 12, 2015

Hi Rebecca,

Keep in mind that most people are operating these Macs with no issues with Premiere Pro.

Both Apple and Adobe. To Apple it's a software (Adobe) issue. To Adobe it's an Apple issue. And we are caught in the middle. Very sad.

I don't believe I've ever seen Apple "blame" Adobe in any official manner. I think that they just wouldn't do that (I know a lot of folks there, and used to work there, as well). My response is almost always that we are working together to solve issues.

I do apologize for the frustration, though. Hopefully, we can see a resolution to the various problems people are having soon.

Kevin

Report · Mar 12, 2015

Here are my issues on the MacPro late 2013, 6-core, 64GB ram with dual D500’s:

1. Dynamic link server is slow, crashes and generally unreliable while operating AE and PP simultaneously.

2. Rendering 3rd party effects like Boris Continuum effects is very slow (seems to be software only)

3. OpenGL Context error occurs when rendering 3rd party effects like BCC in Media Encoder

4. Playback doesn’t seem as fast as it could be when even moderately intensive effects are applied (relative to final cut pro X) -does not seem to match with your video demonstrating heavy layering with buttery playback (http://tv.adobe.com/watch/davtechtable/working-with-premierepro-cc-the-new-mac-pro/)

Those are the issues I’m having with it now. Otherwise can’t complain!

--

Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

www.worldtreefilms.com

Report · Mar 11, 2015

Hi Rebecca,

Here is one of the articles I found about the GPU, and unless I am interpreting this incorrectly, it looks like apps need to be coded to take advantage of both GPU cores in the Mac Pros that are using Dual Core GPUs.

Dual GPUs like those found in the 2013 Mac Pro are utilized in Premiere Pro for certain things, like encoding and other tasks.

FCP is one of those apps. Premiere is not.

Where in the article does it say that Premiere Pro does not use dual GPUs? How did you come up with this conclusion?

The same is true for professional applications. By default you will see only one GPU used for compute workloads. Just like the gaming example however, applications may be written to spread compute workloads out across both GPUs if they need the horsepower. The latest update to Final Cut Pro (10.1) is one example of an app that has been specifically written to take advantage of both GPUs in compute tasks."

It does not state that FCP X uses dual GPUs for every task, just some things. The same would be true for Premiere Pro. Sometimes both GPUs are used, other times not.

Thanks,

Kevin

Report · Mar 11, 2015

Hi Kevin,

You are right. This article does not say that. I had read one over the weekend that included tests that showed one core of the Fire Pro GPU remaining idle while the other did all the work when using PP on a MacPro. After I posted an article reference in this forum, someone asked for the link to the article. I could not find the exact article (searched for some time but I had cleared my history over the weekend so it was not available). By Googling some of the key words that I remembered using in my first search I came upon the article I shared which was similar in its findings, but did not, as you point out, specifically mention Adobe PP. I so wish I could find the original article as it was extremely detailed on comparing NIVDIA GPUs with AMD Fire Pro DXXX series.

I have decided to buy a PC for my video editing.

Report · Mar 11, 2015

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that CC isn't optimized for dual GPU use since it's an Apple design, and Apple wants you to use FCPX.

One AMD FirePro is much faster than my old nvidia. Would be nice to get two though

--

Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

www.worldtreefilms.com

Report · Mar 12, 2015

I have had a new Mac Pro; 8 cores, D700s, 32GB RAM for over a year and have been running CC for all that time. I use it for editing and motion gfx. On the whole it's been a pretty good experience. I am still running Mavericks 10.9.4 (managed to dodge the 10.9.3 bullet)... resisting the temptation to go to Yosemite which I had hoped would solve the problems we have all been experiencing, but that appears a dream at this stage

I'm working only in 1080 HD, so no direct experience with 4K. Footage comes from C300 or F55s. I also work in a facility on a PC which is the latest HP Z820 with a nVidia Quadro 4000 video card. On the whole I think the Mac Pro performs slightly better than the PC with regards to Premiere... I'm able to get better play back with layered colour correction fx and generally require less rendering for previews and the output renders seem slightly faster.

The thing I have struggled with mostly is the dynamic linking which seems to cause problems on both machines; on the PC if I have AE open when rendering outputs it seems to cause Premiere to hang or crash. On the Mac it has been known to cause problems and the initial fix was to close AE when working with linked comps, which defeats the purpose. I have found a better work around. If Premier is slowing rendering previews or not playing linked comps properly switching back to AE and then back to Premiere (the Command/Tab key combination is most efficient) it generally clears the blockage and things happen much faster.

The other thing I find is that rendering AE using AME is faster and I think uses the GPUs were AE can only access the CPU for any rendering. Maybe someone from Adobe can confirm this.

Finally the stability thing is also pretty similar although I think the PC tends to crash more frequently, but it only has 16GB RAM... I'm pushing for 32 which I hope will solve the problems.

Hope something in here will help those having problems.

cheers

Pete

Report · Mar 12, 2015

Hello Brian,

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that CC isn't optimized for dual GPU use since it's an Apple design, and Apple wants you to use FCPX.

That's incorrect. Premiere Pro does use the dual GPUs for a number of operations. We work with Apple on a lot of things, including Adobe pro video applications.

Thanks,
Kevin

Report · Mar 12, 2015

Hi Kevin!

Does Adobe have any benchmark data with the new Mac Pro?

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Brian Nunes

Worldtree Films, LLC

www.worldtreefilms.com

Report · Feb 22, 2015

Why doesn't someone from Adobe chime in on this?

Report · Feb 22, 2015

+1

Report · Feb 26, 2015

Just a little update: I managed to struggle through my 4K RED RAW project using Software Only rendering. Now I'm cutting a 1080p project (raw files from Sony a7s). I'm getting choppy playback at 1/2 resolution with a single video stream. That's using GPU Acceleration (OpenCL). Switching to Software Only rendering yields better results. I can only conclude that Premiere Pro CC 2014 (8.2.0) on 10.10.2 flat out DOES NOT WORK WITH MACPRO HARDWARE -- 4K or otherwise. Really disappointing. If you're on the fence between an iMac and Mac Pro and you edit exclusively with Premiere, buy the iMac. As for me, I'm making the switch to Final Cut X. This marks the second time I'll switch back to a Final Cut Pro product after making the transition to Adobe.

I love the usability, the interface and the features of Premiere, but for me, it's just not solid/stable enough for professional use. Please get your act together Adobe...or at the very least, issue some kind of response to this major, major problem.

Report · Feb 26, 2015

+1

yeah, I thought getting a loan and buying mac pro was gonna be the answer.

feel like I've been screwed over either by adobe or mac or both.

distinct lack of comment from adobe here.

Somebody should press charges against that adobe sponsored video of the the bloke whizzing happily through his editing with Mac Pro.. Scandal.

Report · Feb 26, 2015

I'm in the same boat. I ultimately decided not to return my Mac Pro because it is clearly a superior piece of hardware to the iMac and, since I want to keep this computer for 3-5 years, I figured it was better to retain the firepower and hope these conflicts get sorted out. In the meantime, I'll (hopefully) find refuge in Final Cut X. Will report back with my findings here...

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Premiere Pro CC and the New Mac Pro (2014)