Macintosh Benchmark & Multi-core Questions
 

More Newbie Questions:

1) When comparing benchmark info from Macworld reviews (like this one:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/07/revi...pro8/index.php ), which of the following is most indicative of HDV editing / rendering fades / etc: Cinema Render score, Compressor MPEG-2 score, and iMovie Aged Effect.

I ask because the only huge lead the 8-core has over the 4-core is on the Cinema 4D render time (nearly cuts time in half). But if this is not such an important score, then the advantage of the 8-core is only marginal (compared to the price increase).

2) Which of Apple's HDV editing software products (iMovie '08, HD Express 3.5, Final Cut Studio 2) makes good use of all 8 processor cores on the 8-Core Mac Pro?

Thanks,
-Hans.

It's compressor. But there's been quite a lot of discussion (and proofs) that the benchmarks in this review are not entirely accurate. When setup properly, you'll get almost twice the rendering performance on the 8-core as the quad-core (in compressor).

yes, you're right. Except, see argument above.

Only compressor 3 (part of FCS2) allows you to tweak system settings in a way that you can max out usage of all available 8 cores during transcoding and compressing footage.

Here's a link to a discussion on apple's web site that explains it very well:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....05378&#4605378

I'd say it depends on what's limiting for you. If it's always and mostly transcoding and compressing, then a properly setup compressor/qmaster on an 8-core will make a significant difference.

Best,
Dino

Very interesting, Dino. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

I wonder if multi-core use will be significantly improved in Leopard. It would be great if the operating system were smart enough to distribute processing and efficiently use all the available CPU cores/cycles with every cpu-intensive program!

Best,
-Hans.

You may not be able to tweak rendering settings in FCP, the timeline, but it shows roughly 500% on the activity monitor which you obviously can't do with a 4 core (400% max) Macpro....

:)

Scott