2013 Mac Pro, Xeon E5 8 core...

[TKolb]

...I'm curious if anyone has tried to run the 2022 version of PPro on this system on Catalina?  Big Sur?

It would appear the CPU is significantly earlier than minimum spec, but we have a series of these 'coffee cans' we'd like to stretch just a bit more service out of as we continue with hardware upgrades.

(Curious if any limitations caused by that CPU setup would be more specific than just speed of computation...)

Thanks for any thoughts.

Tim

[Ann Bens]

2013 hardware with 2022 software?

I am no computer expert, but I am guessing this will be a painful process.

https://helpx.adobe.com/nl/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

[TKolb]

Hi Ann,

Yes, I have read the system requirements, thanks.

 As I learned from the days when I was very active in the pre-release activities for Premiere and PPro, and the Chief product guy for Digieffects, and extremely involved with CineForm in the pre GoPro days...minimum system requirements are based on practical user expectations and what hardware fits into the practical bandwidth for QA to test.

The OS requirements can be met on these machines, and while they're ready for replacement, we have to cover some time until the replacements arrive.  While I am certain that 2022 version Adobe applications won't be as responsive as they are on all our M1 based machines, my question was whether anyone has actually tried this and had any notable malfunctions (vs just overall computational speed on an older system).

I am running Creative Cloud 2022 apps on an older i7 Mac laptop running Catalina with very little (or really any) issues, so my question is whether anyone has tried it, and if they have seen notable malfunctions, as opposed to whether it's recommended by Adobe.

Thanks

Tim Kolb

2013 hardware with 2022 software?

I am no computer expert, but I am guessing this will be a painful process.

https://helpx.adobe.com/nl/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html

By @Ann Bens

[Ann Bens]

I know who you are: been around for quite a while too.

Quite a lot of engineers moved on.

Dont think the OS is the culprit but rather the CPU.

Dont know what kind of format is used but most likely you need to use Proxies.

[TKolb]

I know...we both go back to Creative Cow early days.  Since this was posted from my day job Adobe ID, it shows me as a newb from a status perspective I think...getting notifications that I just got some credit for my 'first post'.

We currently use the machines with 2160p...we have a 10 G network that plugs us into a media storage system that will run about a half-petabyte by the end of the year with online and nearline storage between two facilities.  The workflows and resource loading are well-known as we got these machines new.  We also have multiple M1 machines and are simply trying to cover the gap in the short term until the rest arrive...one coffee can is running Adobe 2021 and two are running 2019, so it's not as if we're trying to leap 9 years from a software perspective.

What I was looking for specifically was anyone's experience who might have actually tried running this setup.  I am aware that it won't be powerful...I was simply interested in anyone who happened to have experience with specific failures (not disappointing hardware speed, actual functional failures).

I will be setting these up anyway, I was just checking in to see if anyone might have blazed this trail already and had observations.

[Ann Bens]

Dont think there are much users around with a Xeon.

Those forum credit are imo dumb. Btw I still have your Titler presets. Back in the days I used them quite a bit.

[TKolb]

Yes, I know the Xeon based Macs are now in the past...they were good machines.  I have a couple massive Windows workstations in storage that have some pretty beefy Xeon CPU sets in them,,,can't bring myself to dispose of them.  The M1 performance certainly seems to be very good from what we've seen thus far on the day job/Mac side of things.  

I'm glad those titler presets got used by a few folks anyway...they were almost packaged with PPro in the last version before the essential graphics redesign came out.  Didn't work out unfortunately, but if they ever packaged that old Title Designer as a stand alone package, I'd definitely buy it.  It was really a fun tool.

[Warren Heaton]

The 2013 Mac Pro officially supports up to macOS 12 Monterey.  

I have a 12-Core D700 running macOS Big Sur 11.6.5 with Creative Cloud 2020, 2021, and 2022 installed.  I usually use 2021 on it.

I think these machines have about two to three more years of use as far as just being functional.  A thing to consider is that the M1 Mac mini outperforms the 2013 Mac Pro in just about everthing for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator and Audition.

[TKolb]

Yes, thanks for sharing your experience with the 2013 system.  That is what I'm curious about.

While I appreciate the system capability advice, within the thread I noted we have M1s in the fleet now.  My forum ID must show me as a newbie because I started a second account for my day job email.  I am a 25+ year user/trainer of Premiere/PPro.

I understand M1s are faster because we have them.  I am asking what I am asking as we are trying to cover a gap until we receive the units to replace the remaining machines.

So, again, thanks for the response.

The 2013 Mac Pro officially supports up to macOS 12 Monterey.  

I have a 12-Core D700 running macOS Big Sur 11.6.5 with Creative Cloud 2020, 2021, and 2022 installed.  I usually use 2021 on it.

I think these machines have about two to three more years of use as far as just being functional.  A thing to consider is that the M1 Mac mini outperforms the 2013 Mac Pro in just about everthing for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator and Audition.

By @Warren Heaton

[Warren Heaton]

Update the 2013 Mac Pros to macOS Big Sur 11.6.5 or macOS Monterey 12.4 and do a clean install of Creative Cloud 2022 and you’re good to go back and forth to M1 based Macs or to switch over entirely; however, on the off chance you’re using Go Pro Cuneform, that's not supported on the M1 yet.  

If you are running third party plug-ins, add ons, extensions, or scripts, verify that they are M1 compatible ahead of time.

[TKolb]

Anyone who knows me knows that not being CineForm compatible is a serious grievance for me.

[Warren Heaton]

Losing support for a CODEC - especially one that's been around for a long time - can be frustrating.

If you open the Apple Silicon version of Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Media Encoder using Rosetta, you can still use Go Pro CineForm.  

Be sure to vote for Apple Silicon M1 CineForm support here if you have not already: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/44735200-cineform-codec-sup...

Of course, since it's a macOS-based issue, I cannot recommend transcoding to Apple ProRes highly enough.

I haven't tried them, but there's Influx for import (https://www.autokroma.com/Influx) and AfterCodecs for export (https://www.autokroma.com/AfterCodecs).  Free trials are available for each.

[TKolb]

We are primarily ProRes mastering at my day job, which is entirely Mac-based. 

My personal work has been on Windows for the last couple of decades and old habits...

[Bruce285015457imf]

I've been running Premiere Pro 2023 on a 12-core 2013 Mac Pro for the last 6 months. It works pretty well but can bog down with complex effects. We mostly shoot UHD and most codecs will play smoothly, even with a few effects applied.

I recently tried running a 4-core 2013 Mac Pro and was shocked how poor the performance was. It was able to play UHD smoothly only at 1/4 resolution. When I made a simple color change in Lumitre, it takes 4-5 seconds for the screen updates. On the 12-core, it updates in a tenth of a second or less. We also have a 6-core 2013 Mac Pro which is usable in Premiere. The 6-core has the optional GPU upgrade. I'm not sure that makes much difference, but performance really drops off the cliff when you go from the 6-core down to the 4-core.

As many other have said, the Apple M1 (and M2, etc) are much better in terms of performance. You just have to get the right adapters to connect multiple monitors and other peripherals since the Minis have a limited port count.

Bruce

[MantraRay360]

Hi, I am interested in running an older machine for photoshop. 

Do you know if your 2013 mac pro would run photoshop without crashing, even if slower than a new machine. And also would it be able to use the new Ai features?

Also one more question, by mac pro, do you mean a macbook pro, or a desktop machine?

Thanks for your input!   : )

[Warren Heaton]

I keep my 2013 Mac Pro running under macOS 10.13 High Sierra for when I occasionally need to launch older software (mainly for modernizing legacy QuickTime files).  I can use it for 9GB keyart files in Photoshop, but it is a turtle compared to my 2019 Mac Pro and 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro.  3840-by-2160 graphics intended for After Effects or Premiere Pro are still fairly responsive on the 2013 Mac Pro.

As far as running Photoshop beta, as of version 25.0.0, the following message appears for anyone running an older macOS:  Mac OS X version 13.4.0 or later is recommended for maximum performance and correct operation of Adobe Photoshop 2024. An earlier version of Mac OS was detected.

Being that the 2013 Mac Pro only goes as high as Mac OS 12 Monterey, you’ll have to click OK to that message and not have “maximum performance”.

[Cesar3747270576m9]

Jumping in a little late, but wanted to add that  you are facing incompatibility on three fronts. The first, and most significant is the OS version. The second is the Xeon. I believe that some of the current versions of CC require more recent CPUs because of the change in CPU instruction set. Lastly, many plugins won't work because the xeon is too old.

I have your model Mac, but not your CPU - mine is an E5, but 12 core. I can confirm that you can run more recent versions of the Creative Suite provided you can upgrade your OS.  I have been able to succesfully run the following on mine:

Ai version 28.7.1

Ps version 25.12.0

Id version 19.5

Ae version 23.6.9

Pr version 23.6.9

Acrobat version 2024.0.03.20121

I have, however, recently upgraded to Sonoma, so you'll also have to deal with that if you want to run more current version.

[Warren Heaton]

@Cesar3747270576m9 

Good information.

The 2013 Mac Pro is officially no longer compatible as of the 2024 release of Adobe video and audio software.  Up to 2023 is officially supported.

[RjL190365]

That is correct. The Xeon CPUs that are inside the 2013 Mac Pro predate the Haswell microarchitecture, and therefore does not support AVX2 instructions at all. And the 2024 and newer versions of the Adobe video programs require AVX2 hardware support just to even install at all (let alone run).