XQD memory cards

[Alister Chapman]

My 4 core i7 iMac led me to sell my 2008 8 core MacPro as it outperformed the MacPro considerably for the types of productions I do. My 4 core i7 MacBook Pro also out performed the older MacPro.

The new i7 processors are very powerful and with openCL support in CS6 it doesn't matter whether you have Nvidia or ATi graphics as the hardware mercury engine works with both.

Expansion is harder, but that's getting easier as more thunderbolt stuff comes out. The great thing is that if I buy a IO device or adapter for the iMac, I can also use it with the laptop.

[Doug Jensen]

My wife has an iMac and it is not an option for the work I do and the monitor configuration I need.

The more I hear about the new MacBook Pro the less I like it. No 17", no firewire, no optical drive, no ethernet, no eSATA, no SxS port. First Apple slaps the face of professional video producers with FCPX, and now they don't have an acceptable laptop either. I'm tempted to sell my stock in protest. :-)

[Jack Zhang]

Doug, just an update, were you on EX1 Firmware 1.30 when you made the incompatibility with the EX1 statement?

Sony quietly released the 1.30 Firmware for the EX1 and EX1R, and it is said to add XQD support (along with Histogram improvements)

[Steve Kalle]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

My 4 core i7 iMac led me to sell my 2008 8 core MacPro as it outperformed the MacPro considerably for the types of productions I do. My 4 core i7 MacBook Pro also out performed the older MacPro.

The new i7 processors are very powerful and with openCL support in CS6 it doesn't matter whether you have Nvidia or ATi graphics as the hardware mercury engine works with both.

Expansion is harder, but that's getting easier as more thunderbolt stuff comes out. The great thing is that if I buy a IO device or adapter for the iMac, I can also use it with the laptop.

EDIT: apparently, you can enable the non-certified AMD cards with Premiere CS6, but it appears to have issues on some iMacs and work flawlessly on others.

Ask my business partner why he regrets getting his i7 iMac and he will complain that my 3yr old PC (quad-core) took only 3 minutes to render a 5 minute timeline when his iMac took 25 minutes (this happened a few hours ago).

To those who stick with a Mac and NO acceleration in Premiere Pro, I can't do the same and wait for things to render whether its a preview (like it was for my biz partner since he couldn't play in real-time like me) or export a file to upload or burn/copy to a DVD/HDD. When there is a tight deadline, my 12-core Z800 has paid for itself over and over (ie, exporting to MPEG2-DVD took 6hrs versus 16hrs on my i7 PC). There are too many times where a client wants 1 more small change and 1 more and 1 more until there is literally no time left and the video must be rendered for delivery. I love the extra speed I get from Premiere Pro and CUDA on a PC for little money. And when I need the speed, my options are wide open, plus I can build/buy a 16-core PC that can be packed with multiple x16 and x8 cards (Raid, Gfx, BMD/Aja I/O, USB 3, FC, etc) whereas the Mac Pro is greatly limited by Apple (on purpose to force more purchases) to only 2 PCIe x16 slots and 2 x4 slots.

[Alister Chapman]

One important thing people forget is that the GPU acceleration is only for image manipulation, for example rendering an effect. The decoding and re encoding of the file is still done by the CPU.

Sorry Steve, but I do have hardware mercury acceleration on my iMac. CS6 does support open CL acceleration with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M and AMD Radeon HD6770M graphics cards. My year old iMac has a 1GB 6770M and I get lovely hardware GPU acceleration.

[Steve Kalle]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

One important thing people forget is that the GPU acceleration is only for image manipulation, for example rendering an effect. The decoding and re encoding of the file is still done by the CPU.

Sorry Steve, but I do have hardware mercury acceleration on my iMac. CS6 does support open CL acceleration with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M and AMD Radeon HD6770M graphics cards. My year old iMac has a 1GB 6770M and I get lovely hardware GPU acceleration.

Here is directly from Adobe's website:

"Supported AMD graphics cards for GPU acceleration

AMD Radeon HD 6750M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)
AMD Radeon HD 6770M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)"

[Jack Zhang]

Anyways, any reports of EX1 and EX1R users on Firmware 1.30 having success with the XQD card adapter?

[Alister Chapman]

Originally Posted by Steve Kalle

Here is directly from Adobe's website:

"Supported AMD graphics cards for GPU acceleration

AMD Radeon HD 6750M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)
AMD Radeon HD 6770M (only on certain MacBook Pro computers running OS X Lion (10.7.x) with a minimum of 1GB VRAM)"

Yep thanks for confirming what I already said Steve, many of the graphics cards in the current iMacs are supported. My iMac has the 1GB 6770M and I get full hardware mercury acceleration.

Under Mountain Lion I also get full open CL acceleration on my MBP which only has a 512GB card, so the list appears to be out of date anyway.

[Steve Cahill]

I pretty much do all my editing on the new MacBook Pro Retina. Doug I must admitt screen size is an issue, however with a iPad and the app called Air Display, not found I have a 2nd monitor for the footage bins. Works great and it's a touch screen. For the person on the go, deadlines and travels, I do not have the luxury of a edit suite. It has been redefined with technology along with all the camera choices.

When a 2nd monitor is nessary, generally the hotel can supply one and now I have 3 displays that can be configured to edit with. On another note the iMac are very fast for rendering. USB 3.0 drives are cheap and fast . I use them to edit with. No more FireWire. Thunderbolt is ok but generally a power supply is needed to run the drives, which is a pain when your on the road or on a airplane.

[Phil Goetz]

PXW-Z100 uses this series cards...

Sony 32GB XQD Memory Card S Series
Mfr # QDS32/T

Sony 64GB XQD Memory Card S Series
Mfr # QDS64/T

[Jack Zhang]

I have confirmed with someone (James from this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...-ex3-ex1r.html ) that even the old EX3 with the latest firmware supports XQD cards. Tests have proven that it can support the maximum overcrank rate throughout the entire card. Bodes good for my EX1R and potentially for EX1 owners too.

[Bill Rankin]

I just recieved an email from BH Photo that the XQD 64Gig cards are discontinued...did I miss something? Why would they be discontinued? Only SxS cards are being used in the field?

Edit:
A new series "N" is coming out....