Tag Archives: Workstations

Puget Systems Debuts Custom Laptops and SDS Storage

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Puget Systems has expanded its product offerings beyond custom desktop workstations into the mobile computing market with the introduction of an entirely new category of custom mobile workstations.

Debuting at this year’s HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, the new Puget Mobile 17-inch will feature high-performance hardware with Intel’s Core i9 14900HX CPU and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 mobile GPU, all built into a notebook chassis. The 17.3-inch QHD screen has a 240Hz refresh rate and high color accuracy. This combination of high-performance components makes the Puget Mobile 17-inch a  good solution for content creators who demand performance, reliability, quality and ultra-smooth workflows in a mobile form factor.

According to Puget Systems, this move signals the expansion of its strategy to provide broader, more comprehensive solutions for its users’ workflow and performance requirements as they continually seek more flexible, reliable and powerful systems. Based on customer feedback Puget is looking to partner with companies its users trust for white-glove service, support and industry-specific expertise.

Throughout the early development process of the new Puget Mobile 17-inch, the Puget Labs and R&D teams worked closely with select users from multiple industries to collect feedback and ensure they were on track.

“This laptop is about as close as you can get to the performance of a PC tower while actually having something that still works as a laptop,” reports Niko Pueringer, the co-founder of Corridor Digital, who has been using Puget computers for years. “And it provided all the qualities I’d expect out of a Puget system. Oh, and I also like that it’s not loaded up with promotional bloatware…

“There are a lot of machines out there with high specs. Anyone (with enough money) can buy a 4090 and sling it in a case,” continues Pueringer. “What makes Puget special is that all the supporting pieces get the attention they deserve. With Puget, I know that I don’t have any hidden compromises or bottlenecks. All my USB ports will work at the same time. The heat management is capable of handling 100% loads for extended time. I know that all the pipes between the shiny GPUs and CPUs are big and beefy and ready to handle anything I throw at it. This laptop was no exception.”

The Puget Mobile 17-inch custom laptops will be available for configuration for a wide range of applications beginning in Q2.

Embracing Storage, MAM and Archiving
At HPA, Puget has also debuted a new family of custom software-defined storage (SDS) solutions. The new Puget Storage solution— in partnership with OSNexus — uses OSNexus’ QuantaStor platform to provide scalable and agile media asset storage for both on-site and remote users.

Available in a 12-bay and a 24-bay 2U form factor, Puget Storage solutions are capable of up to 1.5TB of RAM and provide growing and established studios with simple, flexible storage with end-to-end security. These scalable, agile media asset storage solutions are ideal for post workflows, media asset management applications and archival services with stringent requirements for the ideal combination of capacity, performance, security and scalability.

Partnering with OSNexus to integrate its QuantaStor platform provides Puget Storage users with a number of key benefits, including:

  • Storage grid technology: Grid technology unifies management of QuantaStor systems across racks, sites and clouds.
  • Security: Advanced RBAC, end-to-end encryption support, complies with NIST 800-53, 800-171, HIPAA, CJIS, and is FIPS 140-2 L1 certified
  • Hardware integration: QuantaStor is integrated with a broad range of systems and storage expansion units, including Seagate, Supermicro and Puget Systems rackmount storage platforms for media and entertainment.
  • Scalable: Integrated with enterprise-grade open storage technologies (Ceph and ZFS)
  • Unified file, block and object: All major storage protocols are supported, including NFS/SMB, iSCSI/FC/NVMeoF and S3.

The new Puget Storage SDS solutions will be available for configuration for a wide range of applications beginning in Q2.

 

 

 

Precision

Review: Dell Precision 5480 Mobile Workstation

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By Mike McCarthy

It has been a few years since I’ve tested and reviewed a laptop. Technology has progressed a lot since then, and systems are dramatically more powerful than they were just four years ago — and GPUs have improved more than CPUs by most measures.

Precision

I recently had the opportunity to test out the Dell Precision 5480. This is Dell’s highest end small-form-factor laptop. It is a 14-inch system packed with a 14-core, 13900H CPU; 64GB of DDR5 memory; and an Nvidia RTX 3000 Ada generation GPU. There are lots of laptop options out there with a 13900H CPU, six hyperthreaded performance cores and eight efficiency cores (for a total of 20 processing threads), but not very many of those are in a small, 14-inch frame. And the RTX 3000 Ada is even harder to come by. With 4,608 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and nearly 20 teraflops of processing power, the RTX 3000 GPU is the physical equivalent of the GeForce 4070 Mobile, but with professional-level drivers. This little laptop system packs a punch.

The Display
Now there is no getting around the fact that 14 inches is a very small screen. Personally, I like huge screens, so even an 18-inch laptop screen would seem small to me, but much of my time using any laptop is likely to be spent with it connected to a larger display, whether in the office or at home. For times when I am using it on the move, or at the kitchen table from time to time, this 2560×1600 WLED screen is a good resolution for its 14-inch size. It can be set to 100% scale by eagle-eyed users who covet screen real estate, but most people will have a good experience at 150%.

The Dell Precision 5480 is advertised as supporting 500 nits, which can be helpful when using it outdoors, but it is a glossy screen. Windows reports that the display supports HDR video streaming, but there is no “Use HDR” option for the UI. I am still trying to figure out the logic behind Microsoft’s support for HDR monitoring. The screen also supports blue light filtering at a hardware level to reduce eye strain, which should be better than Windows’ night light software solution. It is also a touch screen, which can be a useful feature on occasion.

The Internals
I am always interested in fitting the maximum amount of useful computing power into the smallest possible package. Back in the day, I remember testing the PNY Prevail Pro, which, at 15 inches, was the smallest VR-capable system. Beyond that, I still have my 13-inch Sony Z1 with a quad-core, 3GHz CPU and GeForce 330M and dual SSDs. Back in 2010, it could run Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 with full CUDA acceleration in a 3-pound package. (The Dell Precision 5480 is actually very similar to that one in terms of size and weight, but, of course, the Dell is far more powerful.)

Any system smaller than 15 inches with a discrete GPU is usually hard to come by, which is why my HP ZBook X2 with Quadro GPU and a 14-inch, 10-bit display was so unique. But that system is five years old, with no direct replacement available, so I was very excited to see that Dell was stepping up to the plate with a powerful 14-inch pro workstation in a 3.3-pound package and under ¾ of an inch thick. And with a 13th Gen Intel CPU supporting 20 threads, paired with a new Ada based RTX GPU with 20 teraflops, the Dell Precision 5480 is not lacking in power.

The machine has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, which are all power-delivery-capable, plus an analog audio jack and a MicroSD reader. It comes with a small USB-C device that offers a USB-A port and an HDMI 2.0 output. The keyboard seems solid, with half-size up and down arrows and a fingerprint-enabled power button in the upper right corner, which will be natural for Mac users.

In my initial demo unit, the touchpad had a sticking issue with the click mechanism, but it turned out to have just been a defect. Once replaced, the touchpad worked great. This process did highlight to me just how important a touchpad is on a small laptop, even as a mouse user. Anytime I am using the laptop on the go (which is the point of a small laptop), the touchpad is the main pointing device, so I use it far more than I originally recognized.

The system comes with a USB-C-based power supply, rated for 130 watts, as well as the previously mentioned adapter for HDMI and USB-A ports. It comes packaged in a molded cardboard container inside a folded cardboard packing box for good product protection — and more ecofriendly than the older Styrofoam-based packaging.

A small laptop offers flexibility. In the office, you can use it with a full set of peripherals. When at home, you can plug in your monitor and accessories, and pick up exactly where you left off.

With virtual desktops, you can get a similar experience by working in the cloud on various systems at different locations, but that doesn’t allow you full access when you are in transit or when you are in places with limited internet access. The Dell Precision 5480 seems like an ideal system for anyone who needs editing power on the go and has monitors to plug in to in their primary work environments. (And they don’t need a larger laptop display on the unit itself.)

Battery Life
Admittedly, the configuration of this particular model should be expected to have the worst possible battery life (most powerful CPU and GPU available with a high-resolution-screen), but it’s not as bad as you’d think. I used this system when I attended the Adobe Max conference, and I did not bring the charger with me during the day. The only time I regretted that is when I accidentally left Adobe Photoshop running in the background for a few hours. Otherwise, I was able to do basic tasks all day long with no issue.

For non-work-related activities such as gaming, I typically got about two hours of usage when playing a 3D game before needing to plug it in. Dell has done a great job of saving power when it is not needed. Power-hungry, performance-based tasks will drain the battery… which is to be expected. But when just doing simple browser-based tasks, I was able to use it all day without issue.

Software
The unit comes with Windows 11 Pro installed. Even after 18 months, I still have not “adapted” to Microsoft’s newest OS, and I prefer Windows 10. But, based on my performance tests, the thread director in Windows 11, which is aware of the difference between the performance cores and the efficiency cores on Intel’s newest chips, does make a difference. (Windows 10 assigns hard tasks to the efficiency cores, and it takes longer to finish them, decreasing overall performance.)

One way around this is to disable the E-Cores in the BIOS and stick with Windows 10, but especially on a laptop, that negates much of the power efficiency of the newer designs. So you are pretty stuck with Windows 11 on these newer systems. But besides that, the Dell Precision 5480 comes with very little bloatware — just drivers and utilities for the various hardware devices and some Dell performance and configuration optimization tools.

The Graphics Processor
The RTX 3000 GPU is the physical equivalent of the GeForce 4070 Mobile, with 4608 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and nearly 20 teraflops of processing power. It benchmarks with about 25% of the performance of my giant GeForce 4090 desktop card, which is to be expected based on the paper specs. This is actually fine in most cases since I rarely need to harness the full power of that GPU when doing regular editing tasks. And 20 teraflops is twice the performance of the top-end GeForce 2080/RTX 5000 from two generations ago, and it’s now available in a 14-inch laptop.

PrecisionKey for professional use of a model this size, I also tested the Dell Precision 5480 with a number of external displays, up to and including the Dell UltraSharp UP3218K monitor, which was supported in its full 8K at 60fps resolution by using two USB-C-to-DisplayPort cables. The last HP mobile workstation I tested required a docking station for full support of that display, and my Razer is limited to 30fps unless I use an external GPU. It’s good to see that Dell fully supports its own display range on its own system, but I do recognize that’s really a function of the GPU and supported output ports. Nonetheless, you can use this system with an 8K monitor if you so desire.

Storage
The hard drive reports 4.5GB/s write and 4.8GB/s read in AJA System Test, which isn’t the fastest PCIe 4.0 speed but more than enough for 99% of power users. Dell offers SSDs in sizes from 256GB to 4TB with self-encrypting models at 512GB and 1TB for users with those requirements.

Performance
CPUs are much harder to compare on paper, which is why tools like Maxon’s Cinebench are so valuable. Blender also has a benchmarking tool for comparing system performance. And performance is always a relative measure since we are comparing a specific system (this one) to other potential options.

Usually, reviewers compare systems to others that are very similar, but in this case, I took a different approach for two reasons. First, I don’t have similar current options to compare to. Second, there is value in comparing what you are sacrificing when you scale down to a small laptop. Which tasks can you do effectively on a mobile system, and which can wait until you are in front of (or remoting into) a powerful desktop workstation?

The 13900H, with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, has 20 threads available to the OS. My desktop with a 12700K CPU also has 20 threads, coming from eight performance cores and four efficiency cores. In most synthetic render tests, this little laptop has about 70% of the CPU processing power of my consumer desktop tower.

PrecisionIn real-world tests, exporting cinema-quality files out of Premiere, my tests were frustratingly inconsistent. This appears to result from a combination of both Intel’s new power-saving technology and Adobe’s software optimizations. I ran my entire suite of standard test exports multiple times and got widely varying results. I then reran them repeatedly on my 12700K-based desktop and also got less consistent results than I recall in the past. Most of the time, I test repeatedly with slightly different settings so that I don’t repeat the exact same test a number of times. This has really shifted my view on quantifying performance in Premiere.

The best tests would be a live-playback test and potentially a latency test to see how long it takes playback to begin after you press the space bar. But due to the playback optimizations within the program, this is no longer a good way to compare different systems. Puget Systems, which does work in benchmarking, detail the challenges of quantifying performance in Premiere in this great article that dives even deeper into the topic than I have. Regardless of those limitations, here are the raw numbers from my Media Encoder benchmarks for you to evaluate compared to my other systems.

Summing Up
Suffice it to say, this machine can edit and play back nearly any sequence due to Premiere’s optimizations, and it can export high-quality output files with decent performance. But for longer renders and Red source footage, it might be best to render on your desktop workstation. This is totally reasonable for a portable laptop — no one should expect a 14-inch notebook to replace server level hardware. But the Dell Precision 5480 can accomplish most editing tasks with ease.

Mike McCarthy is an online editor/workflow consultant with over 15 years of experience on feature films and commercials. He has been involved in pioneering new solutions for tapeless workflows, DSLR filmmaking and multi-screen and surround video experiences. Check out his site.

 

Lenovo Adds Tower and Mobile Workstations for Hybrid Work

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Lenovo has introduced its latest ThinkStation and ThinkPad workstations. Users can configure systems that include the latest components, such as 13th Generation Intel Core processors and professional Nvidia RTX GPUs. They support the latest operating systems, including Windows 11 and several distributions of Linux.

An all-new tower form factor targets designers and engineers. The ThinkStation P3 Tower, with its expanded chassis, supports larger power supplies up to 1100W to handle more demanding configurations and multiple storage options up to 26TB for data-heavy applications. ThinkStation P3 Ultra offers power and performance in a space-saving chassis that is less than 4 liters in volume. The compact P3 Ultra is designed to handle demanding workflows and easily adapt to changing hybrid workspaces. ThinkStation P3 Tiny is engineered to go where other workstations can’t.

The latest ThinkPad P Series mobile workstation models are designed for hybrid work and feature high levels of power and performance, allowing users to do more from any location. ThinkPad P14s i Gen 4 and P16s i Gen 2 target mobile pros who need a mix of performance and power at an affordable price.

According to Lenovo, ThinkPad P16v i is designed to close the gap between entry-level and high-end workstations. Made for content creators who require more power to handle large workloads and multitask easily, it includes Intel Core H-Series processors, advanced graphics and the latest security features to protect data and identity.

Lenovo offers high-end mobile workstation performance in the ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 and ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 workstations, allowing users to do complex workflows such as high-definition rendering and high-end VR on the go. The P16 Gen 2’s performance approaches that of some desktop workstations, with the highest class mobile CPUs, pro Nvidia RTX GPUs and Lenovo’s highest ever memory capacity in a mobile workstation (as much as 192GB). ThinkPad P1, now in its sixth generation, focuses on producing top performance in a thin and light form factor.

M2 Max

Apple’s New MacBook Pros Feature Speedy M2 Pro, M2 Max Chips

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Apple has introduced its new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, Apple’s next-gen pro silicon that offers increased power-efficient performance and battery life to professional users. According to Apple, artists using the new MacBook Pros will experience faster effects rendering (up to six times faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro) and color grading (up to two times faster). Battery life on MacBook Pro is now up to 22 hours — the longest battery life ever in a Mac, according to Apple.

M2 Max For enhanced connectivity, the new MacBook Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E, which is up to twice as fast as the previous generation, as well as advanced HDMI, which supports 8K displays for the first time. With up to 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model, creators can work on very large scenes. The new MacBook Pros feature Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR display, an extensive array of connectivity, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a six-speaker sound system and studio-quality mics.

The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro can be ordered now, with availability beginning January 24. The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $1,999, and $1,849 for education; and the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro starts at $2,499, and $2,299 for education.

M2 Pro

MacBook Pro with M2 Pro features a 10- or 12-core CPU with up to eight high-performance and four high-efficiency cores for up to 20% greater performance over M1 Pro. With 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — double the amount in M2 — and up to 32GB of unified memory, users can tackle large projects and run multiple pro apps with what Apple calls “blazing” speed. According to Apple, a next-generation GPU with up to 19 cores offers up to 30% more graphics performance, and the Neural Engine is 40% faster, speeding up machine learning tasks like video analysis and image processing. The powerful media engine in M2 Pro “also tears through the most popular video codecs, dramatically accelerating video playback and encoding while using very little power.”

 

Apple says that with M2 Pro on MacBook Pro:

  • Rendering titles and animations in Motion is up to 80% faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 20% faster than the previous generation.
  • Compiling in Xcode is up to 2.5x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and nearly 25% faster than the previous generation.
  • Image processing in Adobe Photoshop is up to 80% faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 40% faster than the previous generation.

MacBook Pro with M2 Max features a larger GPU featuring up to 38 cores and offering up to 30% greater graphics performance over M1 Max. It also includes 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — twice that of M2 Pro. With up to 96GB of unified memory, MacBook Pro again pushes the limits of graphics memory in a laptop to enable intensive graphics workloads, such as creating scenes with extreme 3D geometry and textures or merging massive photographic panoramas. M2 Max has a next-gen 12-core CPU with up to eight high-performance and four high-efficiency cores that deliver up to 20% greater performance over M1 Max. It also has a more powerful media engine than M2 Pro, with twice the ProRes acceleration to dramatically speed up media playback and transcoding.

According to Apple, with the M2 Max on MacBook Pro:

  • Effects rendering in Maxon Cinema 4D is up to 6x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30% faster than the previous generation.
  • Color grading in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve is up to 2x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30% faster than the previous generation.

In addition to Wi-Fi 6E for faster wireless connectivity, these MacBook Pros feature more advanced HDMI to support 8K displays up to 60Hz and 4K displays up to 240Hz. These new capabilities build on the connectivity options already in MacBook Pro, including three Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed connection to peripherals, an SDXC card slot and MagSafe 3 charging.

 

Nvidia Introduces Ada Lovelace GPU Architecture

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By Mike McCarthy

Nvidia has announced its next-generation GPU architecture named after Ada Lovelace, who is an interesting figure in early computer programming (check out her Wiki). Nvidia’s newest Ada Lovelace chips have up to 18,432 CUDA cores and up to 76 billion transistors at 4nm sizes. This will of course lead to increased processing performance at lower prices and power usage.

Ada Lovelace

The new changes in the SDK and rendering level encompass DLSS 3.0 for super sampling; RTX Remix for adding new rendering features to mods on older games; shader execution reordering for improved performance; displaced micro-meshes for finer shadow detail; opacity micromaps for cleaner raytracing; and Nvidia Reflex for coordinating the CPU with the GPU. The biggest render function unique to the new generation is optical flow acceleration, which consists of AI-generated frames for higher frame rates.

Ada Lovelace chips have optical flow accelerators in the hardware, and Nvidia is training the AI models for this technology on its own supercomputers. Raytracing is now far more efficient with the newer-generation RT cores. RTX Racer will be a tech demo application released later this year for free and will leverage all these new technologies. RTX Remix can extract 3D objects right from the GPU draw cards and create USD assets from them. It also adds raytracing to older games by intercepting draw calls from DirectX. Users can further customize any RTX mod in real time by adjusting various render settings. As someone who usually plays older games, this is exciting, as I suspect it will lead to all sorts of improvements to older titles.

New GeForce Cards
The main products headlining this announcement are the new GeForce 4090 and 4080 cards, which should far outclass the previous generation released two years ago. Also, contrary to numerous rumors, they should consume less energy than the existing, power-hungry Ampere cards. The 4090 will have 24GB of memory like the previous generation, while the 4080 will come in 12GB and 16GB variants, with the 16GB version offering a more powerful chip and not just more RAM. Even the lower class of 4080 outperforms the existing 3090 Ti in most cases.

The new cards will have a PCIe Gen5 power connector, which offers up to 600W of power, but the cards draw much less energy than that. They do not have PCIe Gen5 slot connectors, and this is because they have yet to saturate the bandwidth available in a PCIe Gen4 slot.

AV1 Encoding
One of the other significant new features in this generation of chips is the addition of hardware acceleration for AV1 encoding. AV1 decoding support is already included in the existing Ampere chips, but this is the first hardware encoder available outside of Intel’s hard-to-find discrete graphics cards. AV1 is a video codec that claims to offer 30% more efficient compression than HEVC while being open-source and royalty-free.

Ada Lovelace

Netflix and a few other large tech companies have been offering AV1 as a streaming option for a while now, but it has not been much of an option for smaller content creators. That is about to change with new software coming, like a hardware-accelerated AV1 encoding plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve. Integrated AV1 streaming support that will use the new hardware acceleration is also coming to OBS and Discord.

Resolve now uses GPU for RAW decode, AI analysis and encoding, making it a real GPU computing powerhouse. I imagine that YouTube will soon have a lot of AV1 content streaming through it soon. The new cards have dual encoders that work in parallel by dividing each frame between them, allowing up to 8Kp60 encoding in real time. I assume that in the future, lower-end cards will have a single encoder for 8Kp30, which should be good enough for most people.

Professional RTX
Ada LovelaceThere is a new RTX 6000 professional GPU coming in December, not to be confused with the identically named Turing-based card from two generations ago. Nvidia’s product naming has really gone downhill since they dropped the Quadro branding. But regardless of what it is called, the new RTX 6000 should be a very powerful graphics card, with Nvidia claiming up to twice the performance of the current A6000. It has a similar underlying Ada Lovelace chip to the 4090 but with a lower 300W power envelope, a more manageable size with a two-slot cooling solution.

So there is a whole new generation of hardware coming, and it will get here soon. Both Intel and AMD are releasing their next generation of CPUs, and we will have new graphics cards to go with them. Even if you can’t afford a new high-end Ada Lovelace GPU, hopefully this will drive down the prices for the previous-generation cards that have been so difficult to find up to this point due to the cryptocurrency craze. One way or another, faster GPUs are coming, and I am looking forward to all that they bring to the table.

Mike McCarthy is a technology consultant with extensive experience in the film post production. He started posting technology info and analysis at HD4PC in 2007. He broadened his focus with TechWithMikeFirst 10 years later.

single-socket

Review: Single-Socket Workstations from Boxx and Lenovo

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By Mike McCarthy

I have had the opportunity to test the two most powerful single-socket workstations available on the market today. Last year’s review of the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 looked at what is still the only new desktop workstation to be released by a major system vendor since 2017. It’s Threadripper Pro 3995WX 64-core processor is the pinnacle of AMD’s Threadripper CPU lineup and the only Threadripper-based system available from a major manufacturer. The Threadripper Pro lineup has since been refreshed to the 5000-series CPUs, and while they are slightly faster, they still use the same architecture, motherboards and chipsets.

I had a chance to test out Boxx’s Xeon W-3300-based Apexx Matterhorn workstation. With 38 cores, eight channels of memory and 64 PCIe lanes, the Xeon W-3375 processor is the single-socket version of Intel’s newest “Ice Lake” Xeon chips.

Each system design has its strengths, and each system has a few caveats I have discovered. Some of these features and issues are a result of Intel and AMD, and others are from the implementations by Lenovo and Boxx, which based its system on a Supermicro motherboard. I have had a year to find all of the peculiarities on the P620, while I have only had the Boxx system for about two months. Even so, I have compiled as much data as I can on each one to make as thorough of a comparison as possible.

I have both the GeForce 3090 and A6000 Nvidia GPUs to test with, as well as a few others, so I was able to swap between them to see whether the A6000 was any faster than the GeForce and how much the GPUs impacted the performance measurements. While there are surely cases where the A6000’s professional drivers would offer better performance in certain 3D applications, I did not see a major performance difference between them in any of my tests.

single-socketThis means that a) I recommend the cheaper GeForce option for most users, and b) I didn’t publish separate benchmarks for both GPUs since the results were within a couple percentage points of each other. The only notable difference I did find is that the boot problems I have with the AMD system when an 8K display is attached are solved when I use the A6000 instead of the GeForce card.

The Lenovo system was shipped to me with 32GB of RAM, only using two of the eight memory channels, which is likely capping performance in certain cases. It also has a PCIe 3.0 SSD since the 4.0 ones were harder to come by back then. The Boxx has 64GB of memory spread across all eight channels, which should help. It also has a PCIe 4.0 SSD, which has twice the peak transfer rate for high-resolution uncompressed playback tests. So those are some of the configuration-based limitations that could impact the results, which might not apply if you configure and buy a new system.

Benchmark Boxx Apexx Matterhorn Lenovo P620 Threadripper Pro
Cinebench R15 Multi-Core 6215 9649
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core 40040 60120
Puget AE Benchmark 1773 1151
Adobe Media Encoder (HEVC-Nvenc) 10:03 11:02
Adobe Media Encoder (HEVC-10-bit Software) 41:22 39:19

Both systems play back my 8K assets and various camera Raw files in Adobe Premiere Pro in real time without issue. The Xeon plays back 8K DPXs, but I am confident the Lenovo could do that too if it had a PCIe 4.0 SSD. Both have integrated 10GbE ports with support for NBase-T, although the Boxx system has an extra Gigabit Ethernet port. The Boxx system supports IPMI system management, but Lenovo has its own set of system management tools that I am less familiar with.

The AMD system has the option for Thunderbolt 3 support via an add-in card, but due to motherboard limitations, the Intel system does not. This is ironic considering Intel created Thunderbolt. There might be other motherboard choices that do support Thunderbolt, but I can’t find any online.

Here is a point-by-point comparison of some of the differences:

Boxx Apexx Matterhorn Xeon W-3375 Lenovo P620 Threadripper Pro 3995WX
38 Cores from 2.5-4.0Ghz (10nm) 64 Cores from 2.7-4.2Ghz (7nm)
8 Channels of DDR4-3200 ECC Memory 8 Channels of DDR4-3200 ECC Memory
64GB RAM (16 Slots, 4TB Max) 32GB RAM (8 Slots, 2TB Max)
64 PCIe 4.0 Lanes, 7 x16 slots, 4 M.2 Slots 128 PCIe 4.0 Lanes, 7 x16 Slots, 2 M.2 slots
Liquid Cooling, 5 Fans, 1600Watt Power Supply Air Cooling, 5 Fans, 1000Watt Power Supply
Requires High Power performance profiles Throttles up properly in Balanced profile
160-240Watts at idle, 250-420Watts at Load 240Watts at Idle, 400-500Watts at Load
No sleep or hibernate options (Supermicro) Sleeps and hibernates well
Runs either A6000 or GeForce 3090 well Has boot issues with 8K display on some GPUs
Opens apps much faster Takes over a minute to open Adobe apps
Runs smoothly in my experience Has issues creating folders, zipping files, saving AI files
No Thunderbolt option (Supermicro) Has Thunderbolt add-in card available
Faster AE Benchmarking Faster Cinema4D Benchmarking

Neither is a clear winner over the other, and different motherboard manufacturers might deliver different results for certain functionality. The AMD processor is better for animation rendering, but the Xeon performs better in Adobe After Effects. The difference is negligible in Premiere Pro, which is my primary application, so there is not much distinction there.

Lenovo

Although I don’t recommend updating to Windows 11 without a specific reason to make that change, I did investigate it for these systems. The Boxx system requires that you install a TPM 2.0 card to support Windows 11. This will, of course, be included once Boxx starts supporting Windows 11, but it didn’t come in my review system. The P620 does support upgrading to Windows 11, and the trick there was to avoid it until I was ready. I put off all of Microsoft’s promptings until I was finished with all my other tests in case anything went wrong. I usually don’t recommend upgrading an OS compared to a fresh install, but I figured I would give it a try. The operating system updated fine, but I did have some issues in Adobe Media Encoder and a few other apps that weren’t ready for the transition, so I recommend that most professional users stick with Windows 10 for now.

With the Threadripper system, I did have a lot of delays when making new folders, but that appears to have been helped by turning off “Show frequently used folders in Quick Access” in File Explorer Options. It still struggles with certain folders, and I haven’t found the cause. Other basic tasks have given me issues, like zip files and Illustrator save actions hanging for 60 seconds intermittently. But then it goes and plays back 8K HDR footage flawlessly from the AJA Kona 5 card.

I also had lots of problems with the Premiere interface for a month or two, but it turns out they were caused by a bug in Premiere 15 that only kicks in when a control surface is connected. So plugging in the Loupedeck+ console was the cause, not the change to an AMD-based system. It is so much quieter and more efficient than my rack-server-based beast of a home-grown workstation, and unlike the server or the Boxx workstation, it can be put to sleep or hibernated.

It you want a system from a larger system vendor, the P620 was the only game in town, being the first workstation from HP, Dell, or Lenovo, to support PCIe 4.0, among other features.  Dell has since then released the similar Precision 7865.  If you include smaller manufacturers in your search, that opens up options based on Intel’s Ice Lake Scalable Xeons and AMD Epyc CPUs, but the single-socket Xeon W chips are probably a better fit for most workstation users, like those featured in the Apexx Matterhorn.

Boxx

My Findings
If I had to buy a system for myself in that class today (presumably for PCIe lane reasons), I would buy the Lenovo P620 with the 16-core option and add a GeForce 3070 if I couldn’t use my existing parts. This is because it is cheaper and scales down farther than the Xeon option. (It sleeps and offers nearly instant boot so you can get back to work quickly.)

That said, many Adobe users would probably be better served by a system a few steps down from the ones covered here. The first step down would be the standard Threadripper processors, with half the channels of RAM and PCIe lanes of the Pro series. This actually isn’t a huge cost savings because Lenovo has put the Threadripper Pro into a well-designed and reasonably cost-effective package. Below Threadripper, there are Core X-based HEDT systems from Intel, which are placed firmly between these systems and consumer-level options. But the Core X299 platform was released in 2017 and lacks basic features like PCIe 4.0, among other things. I have set up HP Z4 systems that have worked well for clients who edit 4K projects, but that was years ago. Below that, we have consumer-level Core i9 and Ryzen systems that now feature up to 16 cores and 128GB RAM. These probably could meet the needs of more users than you would expect.

Looking upward, the Boxx solution supports four full, double-wide GPUs plus a sync card, which clearly exceeds the Lenovo if your application can use that much processing power effectively. So the Boxx clearly scales higher and can be much “faster” than the Lenovo if you add enough GPUs. That helps in maximizing potential performance before you need to jump to the next tier with a dual-socket system, which increases the price even more substantially, but the Lenovo design might appeal to a broader set of users. There is a much wider variety of workstation options available than there used to be, but you really need to understand your own processing needs, based on your target applications and workflows, to find the right solution for you. These systems are clearly the fastest single-socket systems available today, but they aren’t necessarily the best solution for every user.

Mike McCarthy is a technology consultant with extensive experience in the film post production. He started posting technology info and analysis at HD4PC in 2007. He broadened his focus with TechWithMikeFirst 10 years later.

 

 

 

 

Dell XPS 17 Creator

Review: Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition Mobile Workstation

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By Brady Betzel

High-powered and color-accurate mobile computers are exploding in the market as we try to find the balance between hybrid workflows in the office, at home or even at the beach. It seems that even though these new systems are incredibly powerful, there are two questions to ask when you are looking to purchase:

1) Do you want macOS or Windows?
Dell XPS 17 Creator2) What’s your budget?

Apple’s latest MacBook Pro with M1 Max chips is great if you like the macOS ecosystem and have between $4,000 and $5,000 to spend. The Windows-based personal computer market is a little more jam-packed with options thanks to Windows being available to so many manufacturers.

Typically, enterprise clients look for officially labeled “workstations” due to their commitment to 24/7 uptime, top-notch security features and support. But what if you are looking to build your own social media community, Twitch stream, YouTube channel or professional mobile video-editing infrastructure and don’t need an official “workstation”? Well, Dell has an affordable and highly efficient option with its XPS 17 Creator Edition laptop, which offers you the flexibility of working wherever you like.

The Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition laptop falls into Nvidia’s Studio Laptop category. To me it’s Nvidia’s way of labeling a high-end mobile computer as being almost workstation-class without the official title. It’s for users who don’t need an Nvidia Quadro GPU but still want the high-end features found in the RTX line of GPUs. To be honest, that’s probably 80% of their users.

Digging In
I was sent the Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition laptop, technically labeled the 9710, packed with the following components:

  • 11th Generation Intel Core i7-11800H (24MB cache, up to 4.6 GHz, 8 cores)
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 (70W)
  • 16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4, 3200MHz RAM
  • 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
  • 17-inch 3840×2400, InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 500-nit display
  • 4-Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1-Universal audio jack
  • 1 SD-card slot
  • 720p 30fps webcam
  • Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.1
  • 6-Cell battery, 97WHr (integrated)

The Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition I am reviewing retails for $2,499.

The Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition is a workhorse. It hits all the major points I would want if I was looking to purchase an affordable mobile computer. The processor feels fast enough when working in apps like Maxon Cinema 4D and Adobe Premiere Pro, the GPU and memory can crunch through color correction and OFX plugins like Neat Video noise reduction inside of Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 17.4.3, and the display is beautiful. Apparently, I am a sucker for Dell’s displays; every time I get one to review, I love it. They are sharp and color-accurate, and the bezel is super-thin — and it can still keep the webcam in the bezel without adding a notch in the middle of the screen (sorry, I had to do it).

Testing
When testing, I ran a bunch of benchmarks and exported my favorite one-minute sequence of CPU/GPU-intensive clips — with and without Neat Video noise reduction — from within Resolve.

Here are my benchmark results:

  • Cinebench R23
    • CPU (multi-core): 11358
    • CPU (single-core): 1509
      • MP Ratio 7.53x
    • Corona 1.3 benchmark
      • Render Time: 02:04
      • Rays/sec: 3,909,260
    • Blender 3.0, Gooseberry Render Test
      • Time: 20:27.57
    • LuxMark v3.0
      • Hotel Scene – OpenCL CPU + GPU: 7320
      • LuxBall Scene – OpenCL CPU + GPU: 33,761
      • Mic Scene – OpenCL CPU + GPU: 22,680
    • NeatBench 5
      • 1080p Best Combination: CPU (8 cores) & GPU (RTX 3060): 32.3 fps
    • Octane Bench 2020.2.3
      • Score: 281.37
    • PugetBench
      • PugetBench After Effects 0.95.1: 643
      • PugetBench Photoshop 0.93.3: 770
      • PugetBench Premiere Pro 0.95.4:
        • Standard: 588
        • Extended: 536
      • PugetBench DaVinci Resolve 0.92.3: 953
    • RealBench 2.56
      • Image Editing: 210,864
        • Time: 25.2675
      • Encoding: 167,759
        • Time: 31.7598
      • OpenCL: 184,951
        • KSamples/sec: 34046
      • Heavy Multitasking: 115,514
        • Time: 66.0695
      • System Score: 169,772
    • Superposition Benchmark
      • 1080p Extreme: 4247
        • FPS: Min 24.62, Avg 31.77, Max 37.97
        • GPU °C: Min 46.0, Max 70.0
        • GPU Utilization: Max 100%
      • 4K Optimized
        • FPS: Min 35.27, Avg 41.74, Max 50.55
        • GPU °C: Min 42.0, Max 72.0
        • GPU Utilization: Max 99%
      • V-Ray 5.0.20
        • V-Ray: 8,589 vsamples
        • V-Ray GPU CUDA: 670 vpaths
        • V-Ray GPU RTX: 1,069 vrays

In some real-world testing, I used the following clips in a 3840×2160 UHD sequence to run export tests in both Premiere 2022 (22.1.2) and Resolve 17.4.3:

  • ARRI RAW: 3840×2160 24fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
  • ARRI RAW: 4448×1856 24fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
  • BMD RAW: 6144×3456 24fps – 15 seconds
  • Red RAW: 6144×3072 23.976fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
  • Red RAW: 6144×3160 23.976fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
  • Sony a7siii: 3840×2160 23.976fps – 15 seconds

Adobe Premiere 2022 (22.1.2)
Dell XPS 17 Creator

I exported 3840×2160 UHD files in a few different flavors: DNxHR HQX 10-bit, H.264 and a DPX image sequencer via Adobe Media Encoder. These exports came from two versions of the sequence: 1) basic color correction and 2) 110% scale, basic color correction and Gaussian Blur set to 20. I didn’t run the Neat Video noise reduction because I don’t own the Premiere version; the trial only works on a 1280×720 section, and even with the trial, I was getting four-plus hours of export time, which is unusable.

Adobe Premiere Pro 2022 Sample Sequence Export Time
DNxHR HQX 10-bit .mxf H.264 DPX
Basic Color Correction 02:15 01:24 03:27
Basic Color Correction

110% Scale

Gaussian Blur: 20

 02:21 01:15 04:01

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 17.4.3
I used the same clips as I used in Premiere but added the Neat Video noise reduction export. Noise reduction is one of the most taxing processes you can perform on a CPU/GPU when working with multimedia, so it lends itself to really pushing a system to its limits. Inside of Resolve, I ran the Neat Video benchmarking process and in 1080p, Neat’s Best Combination: GPU only (Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU): 27.1fps in 3840p the Best Combination: CPU (7 cores) and GPU (Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPU) – 6.03fps.

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 17.4.2 Sample Sequence Export Time
Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition DNxHR HQX 10-bit .mxf H.264 DPX
Basic Color Correction 01:34 01:16 01:24
Basic Color Correction

110% Scale

Gaussian Blur: 20

 01:18 01:40 01:38
Basic Color Correction

Neat Video Noise Reduction

 08:48 08:46 08:34

Physical Details
Physically, the Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition weighs around 5.3 pounds and has a modern matte silver finish. It measures 0.77 inches by 14.74 inches by 9.76 inches — about the same footprint as most other 17-inch laptops — but it’s very thin.

The touch-screen monitor can reach a brightness level up to 500 nits, which isn’t the brightest it can be, but it is still very bright for everyday use. The aspect ratio is 16:10 but feels natural and not out of place. The Dell XPS 17 Creator Edition monitor comes pre-color-calibrated from the factory — reaching 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut and 94% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Around the outside are four Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SD card slot and a headphone/microphone jack. The Dell XPS 17 comes with a Thunderbolt 4 mini-dock that has a USB-A port and an HDMI output port. The mini-dock is a little annoying; it would be nice to have a USB-A port right in the laptop for my Resolve dongle or iLok. But the mini-dock is helpful, and it really isn’t that big.

Room for Improvement?
Some things that I would like to see improved are the hard edge under the touchpad mouse and the smaller/tighter keyboard. The edge along the bottom of the laptop can dig into your wrist a little bit if you use it for an extended period of time. It isn’t terrible because it is a soft/matte plastic, but still, it can dig in a little.

The keyboard takes getting used to (at least for me). The keys feel a little closer together than what I’m used to, so I found myself hitting the wrong keys or caps lock instead of the letter “A” a lot. But fear not; eventually, I got used to it.

Summing Up
Overall, the Dell XPS 17 Creators Edition is a great middle-of-the-road laptop. It isn’t going to beat out some 32-core Threadripper or even the MacBook Pro with M1 Max, but at $2,500, you wouldn’t expect it to. I would suggest spending the extra $200 to upgrade the 16GB of RAM to 32GB. But other than that, it is a great machine, complete with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060.

And if you don’t care about a 3840×2400 resolution touch screen, then save yourself another $400. You’ll still get 500 nits 1920×1200 of brightness. Find out more about the Nvidia Studio series of notebooks, including using the Nvidia Studio Omniverse, Broadcast and Canvas apps.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on shows like Life Below Zero and Uninterrupted: The Shop . He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.

Apple Boosts Mac Pro Power With New Radeon Pro Graphics Cards

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Apple has introduced three new graphics card modules designed to boost the performance of Mac Pro’s graphics horsepower. This addition is designed for those working in GPU-heavy applications such as Octane X, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Maxon Cinema 4D and Apple Final Cut Pro.

The new modules are based on AMD’s next-generation graphics processor the Radeon Pro W6000-Series GPU and come in three flavors — the Radeon Pro W6800X MPX, Radeon Pro W6800X Duo MPX and the Radeon Pro W6900X MPX.

— Mac Pro supports two MPX modules, and when populated with two W6800X Duo cards delivers 60 teraflops of graphics performance and 128GB of memory.
— These GPUs also feature Infinity Fabric Link, now allowing up to four GPUs (two Duo modules) to connect at 84GB/s per link in each direction (168GB/s bi-directional bandwidth) — 5x faster than the PCIe bus.
— The Radeon Pro W6000-series MPX modules each feature four additional Thunderbolt 3 ports and an HDMI 2 port, so as users add more graphics, they also get more connectivity with up to 12 Thunderbolt 3 ports.
— These new GPUs replace the AMD Vega II MPX modules available with the current Mac Pro and will be offered both as configure-to-order options for new Mac Pro orders as well as kits for existing customers looking to add more GPU performance to their Mac Pro.

Apple says that when running Octane X, there is 84% faster performance; when doing realtime 3D interaction in Cinema 4D there is up to 26% increase in frame rate; and up to 23% faster performance when using DaVinci Resolve.

The AMD Radeon Pro Vega II MPX module and AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX module will no longer be available as a configurable option but will remain available as a standalone kit to existing customers.

Lenovo’s ThinkStation P620 features AMD Threadripper Pro’s 64 cores

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AMD and Lenovo have teamed up on a powerful new workstation that targets those working on data-intensive projects in media and entertainment.

AMD has introduced the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processor lineup built with enterprise-grade AMD Pro technologies. AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors offer full-spectrum compute capabilities with up to 64 cores for multi-threaded workloads, plus high-frequency, single-core performance for lightly threaded workloads.

The first workstation to be announced using these new pro processors is the Lenovo ThinkStation P620, which is due to ship in late September. The entry-level system — featuring AMD Threadripper Pro W3945W, 16GB RAM, 256GB M.2 PCIe 3×4 SSD, Nvidia Quadro P620 GPU, keyboard and mouse, Windows 10 Pro and a three-year on-site warranty — will sell for $4,599.

The ThinkStation P620 tower houses AMD’s new 64-core Ryzen Threadripper Pro processor in a single-socket CPU platform. Until now, the max core count that a single-CPU system could handle was 18, while the highest a dual-processor system could support was 56. The workstations provide seamless 8K streaming in real time, reduced render times, ultra-fast simulation solving, quick assembly rebuilds and smooth interactivity with 3D assets, all without having to scale to a dual-socket system.

The Threadripper Pro processors allow for rendering and editing in 8K and complex visualizations and simulations. AMD says that 3D modeling/design, rendering and post/editing will all benefit from this new processor. The company lists Adobe After Effects and Premiere, Avid Media Composer, Autodesk Maya, Boris FX and Blackmagic Resolve as part of the Threadripper Pro ISV ecosystem, with many more to come.

Where else can users find the new pro-line of processors? “The only way to get Threadripper Pro is to purchase the Lenovo P620,” says AMD’s VFX/media & entertainment director, James Knight. “We have been working with and supporting Lenovo as they get early samples of the P620 to many world-class studios, VFX houses and post houses. When those pros see the genuine and gigantic leap in performance, they will understand why Lenovo is the only choice.”

Jellyfish Pictures CTO Jeremy Smith, who has been beta-testing the Lenovo P620 says, “The Threadripper Pro processor has been providing us with transformational effects on our content creation workloads.”

With flexible GPU configurations, faster memory, quicker storage transfer speeds, 10GB of built-in Ethernet, support for up to two Nvidia Quadro RTX 8000 or four RTX 4000 graphics cards, up to 1TB of memory, 20TB of storage and twice the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0, the new ThinkStation P620 gives 3D artists and game developers a single machine on which to create, edit and build content. Even users working in artificial intelligence and virtual reality can now take advantage of the ThinkStation P620, as it redefines the segment and allows them to get even the most complex jobs done faster.

Threadripper Pro processors are equipped with AMD Pro technologies that offer a variety of enterprise-grade features:
• AMD Pro security – layers of built-in security features to help protect sensitive data.
• AMD Pro manageability – simplified deployment, imaging and management compatible with user’s current infrastructure.
• AMD Memory Guard – full memory encryption to help prevent physical attacks on sensitive data.
• AMD Pro Business Ready – 18 months of planned software stability and 24 months of planned availability.

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Boxx’s Apexx SE capable of 5.0GHz clock speed

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Boxx Technologies has introduced the Apexx Special Edition (SE), a workstation featuring a professionally overclocked Intel Core i7-8086K limited edition processor capable of reaching 5.0GHz across all six of its cores.

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Intel 8086 (the processor that launched x86 architecture), Intel provided Boxx with a limited number of the high-performance CPUs ideal for 3D modeling, animation and CAD workflows.

Available only while supplies last and custom-configured to accelerate Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya, Adobe CC, Maxon Cinema 4D and other pro apps, Apexx SE features a six-core, 8th generation Intel core i7-8086K limited edition processor professionally overclocked to 5.0GHz. Unlike PC gaming systems, the liquid-cooled Apexx SE sustains that frequency across all cores — even in the most demanding situations.

Featuring a compact and metallic blue chassis, the Apexx S3 supports up to three Nvidia or AMD Radeon pro graphics cards, features solid state drives and 2600MHz DDR4 memory. Boxx is offering a three-year warranty on the systems.

“As longtime Intel partners, Boxx is honored to be chosen to offer this state-of-the-art technology. Lightly threaded 3D content creation tools are limited by the frequency of the processor, so a faster clock speed means more creating and less waiting,” explains Boxx VP, marketing and business development Shoaib Mohammad.

NextComputing, Z Cam, Assimilate team on turnkey VR studio

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NextComputing, Z Cam and Assimilate have teamed up to create a complete turnkey VR studio. Foundation VR Studio is designed to provide all aspects of the immersive production process and help the creatives be more creative.

According to Assimilate CEO Jeff Edson, “Partnering with Z Cam last year was an obvious opportunity to bring together the best of integrated 360 cameras with a seamless workflow for both live and post productions. The key is to continue to move the market from a technology focus to a creative focus. Integrated cameras took the discussions up a level of integration away from the pieces. There have been endless discussions regarding capable platforms for 360; the advantage we have is we work with just about every computer maker as well as the component companies, like CPU and GPU manufacturers. These are companies that are willing to create solutions. Again, this is all about trying to help the market focus on the creative as opposed to debates about the technology, and letting creative people create great experiences and content. Getting the technology out of their way and providing solutions that just work helps with this.”

These companies are offering a few options with their Power VR Studio.

The Foundation VR Studio, which costs $8,999 and is available now includes:
• NextComputing Edge T100 workstation
o CPU: 6-core Intel core i7-8700K 3.7GHz processor
o Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM
• Z Cam S1 6K professional VR camera
• Z Cam WonderStitch software for offline stitching and profile creation
• Assimilate Scratch VR Z post software and live streaming for Z Cam

Then there is the Power VR Studio, for $10,999, which is also available now. It includes:
• NextComputing Edge T100 workstation
o CPU: 10-core Intel core i9-7900K 3.3GHz processor
o Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM
• Z Cam S1 6K professional VR camera
• Z Cam WonderStitch software for offline stitching and profile creation
• Assimilate Scratch VR Z post software and live streaming for Z Cam

These companies will be at NAB demoing the systems.

 

 

Configuring an iMac Pro for video editing

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By Larry Jordan

Ever since Apple released the iMac Pro, my inbox has been clogged with people asking advice on how to configure their system. This article is designed to help you make more informed decisions when you don’t have an unlimited budget. Also, while the iMac Pro is designed for many different markets, I’m focusing here on digital media.

If money is no object, buy the top of the line. It will be blindingly fast, it will work great and you’ll have enormous bragging rights. But… if money IS an object, then you need to make trade-offs, balancing the performance you need with the money you have. The good news is that you don’t need to buy the top-of-the-line to get a system today that can meet your editing needs for the next several years.

Some background
When Apple rebuilt Final Cut to create FCP X, they focused on upgrading its underlying architecture to take advantage of coming advances in hardware. This includes an all-64-bit architecture, optimization for core technologies including Metal, tight integration with both CPU and GPU and the ability to take advantage of faster I/O — both to the processors and storage.

There are no optimizations in Final Cut, Motion or Compressor that focus specifically on the iMac Pro. Instead, Apple’s media apps take advantage of whatever technology or performance benefits are provided in the hardware. In other words, there are no new features in FCP X that appear if it is running on an iMac Pro. What does appear is faster performance.

This is from the Apple website, comparing the iMac Pro to the fastest Quad core iMac:

“The iMac Pro takes Mac performance to a new level, even when compared to our fastest quad-core iMac.”

  • Photographers can work with enormous files and perform image processing up to 4.1 times faster.
  • Music producers can export massive multi-track projects up to 4.6 times faster and use up to 12.4 times as many real-time plug-ins.
  • Video editors can edit up to eight streams of 4K video, or edit 4.5K RED RAW video and 8K ProRes 4444 at full resolution in realtime without rendering. The iMac Pro can also export HEVC video three times faster.

Keep in mind that Apple reports these performance numbers are based on: “Testing conducted by Apple in November 2017 using pre-production 2.3GHz 18-core Intel Xeon W-based 27-inch iMac Pro systems with 128GB of RAM and pre-production 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W-based 27-inch iMac Pro systems with 64GB of RAM, both configured with Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB of HBM2.”

Do You Really Need an iMac Pro?
Well, “need” is a relative term. If you principally work with SD or HD material, an iMac will be perfectly fine. The performance benefits of the iMac Pro don’t justify the expense. If you are hobbyist, no, you don’t need an iMac Pro. You might “want” one, but you don’t “need” one.

However, if the bulk of your work involves 4K or greater frame sizes, 360-degree VR, RAW files, or HDR, the performance benefits of this new system make it worth considering, because the design of the iMac Pro significantly speeds working with larger frame sizes, faster frame rates, more effects and more processor-intensive codecs (such as HEVC).

With that being said, let’s take a look at the specific components to see which ones make the most sense for video editing.

Display
The iMac Pro uses the same display technology as the 5K iMac. So everything you see on a current iMac looks the same on the iMac Pro:

– 5K display
– One billion colors
– P3 wide color gamut
– 500 nits

But, while the display of the iMac Pro is the same as an iMac, the display capability of the iMac Pro is greater:
– It can drive two other 5K displays or up to four other 4K displays.
– It has enhanced external connectivity and more Thunderbolt 3 ports (so you still have Thunderbolt ports left over for other accessories after connecting a display).

CPU
Before the shouting starts, let me say again that if money is no object, buy the top-of-the-line iMac Pro. However, for most of the editing that most of us are doing, we don’t need to buy the top-of-the-line system to get significantly improved editing performance.

The 8-core system is fine for most editing and compression. For example, H.264 compression takes advantage of a hardware encoder that is built into all current Macs. This hardware encoder is independent of CPU cores. However, there are benefits to more cores, especially when decoding and encoding heavily threaded codecs like ProRes or HEVC. Also, the 10-core system offers a higher Turbo Boost speed of 4.5GHz versus 4.2GHz for the 8-core CPU. This additional speed benefits rendering and exporting.

The 14- and 18-core systems are designed for applications other than video editing. I would invest my money elsewhere in the system because video editors will see greater benefits in upgrading RAM and GPU when using Final Cut Pro on an iMac Pro.

An exception to staying within a 10-core system is that editors using Red Raw media or working with multiple streams of ProRes — for example, multicam work — will see improved performance with higher-core systems.

I recommend 8 cores for general editing and 10 cores for multicam editing and RAW video workflows.

Performance vs. Heat 
One of the issues I’ve heard about the current Mac Pro is that it has a problem with heat under heavy load. What I discovered is that, even more than the Mac Pro, the iMac Pro internals are designed specifically to dissipate heat under heavy load.

Outside, the iMac Pro is millimeter for millimeter the same size and shape as a standard 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display; outside of the space gray color and a few extra vents on the back. But, on the inside, it’s radically different.

One of the key things Apple was able to do is make the system all flash-based; 3GB/s of fast SSD is pretty darn fast! Switching to all flash allowed Apple to remove the 3.5” hard drive and use that large space for a dual blower design and a massive heatsink and heat pipe architecture.

This delivers 75% more airflow and 80% more thermal capacity, enabling far more CPU and GPU power in the box over a traditional iMac. It is also worth noting that it does all this while still being super quiet (it is an iMac, after all), letting you focus on your work.

GPUs
In general, cutting video tends to use more of the CPU while effects and graphics tend to rely more heavily on the GPU. Increasingly, both FCP X and Premiere rely on the GPU for more and more tasks. Also, the greater the VRAM, the better the GPU performance. Whether you use Motion, After Effects, Premiere or Final Cut, investing in the best GPU will be a wise choice.

While VRAM is important, it is not the only determinant of a superior graphics card. For example, the Vega 64 is significantly faster in addition to the larger amount of VRAM. Also, more VRAM offers benefits when working with large frame sizes, multiple video streams (i.e. multicam), multiple displays and complex motion graphics.

RAM
The 32GB default RAM is fine for virtually all editing. If, on the other hand, you run multiple applications at once — say FCP X, Motion, Compressor, Photoshop and a web browser — 64GB of RAM is better.

While there is value in more RAM beyond 6GB, you won’t get enough bang for your buck to justify the additional cost.

Storage
The iMac Pro ships with a 1TB SSD. I haven’t measured it, but it is probably way past blindingly fast. (Apple says 3GB/second!) The problem is that most media projects today far exceed 1TB in storage. You will need an external high-speed, Thunderbolt 3 RAID system for even medium-sized projects.

Video Compression
Unlike video editing, video compression has its own requirements for system resources. While this is worth its own article here are some thoughts.

Both H.264 and HEVC are relatively highly compressed formats. This compression, of course, leads to smaller file sizes, but the resulting compression requires more processing power. With H.264 and HEVC, decoding and most encoding actions are processed via dedicated H.264 hardware within the system.

A select set of custom H.264 encodes in Compressor may use the H.264 software encoder, which is threaded across multiple cores. So while ProRes encoding benefits from faster, higher-core CPUs, H.264 and HEVC are not similarly CPU bound. Also, it’s important to note that video compression often includes other operations including retiming, scaling, and color conversion — all of which use the GPU.

If you are interested in HDR, 8-bit HEVC does, in fact, support HDR. Still, 10-bit encoding is recommended for the highest quality HDR output when using the HEVC codec. The reason this is important is that current Macs only support hardware acceleration of 8-bit HEVC. This makes the iMac Pro about 3x faster in HEVC encoding than an iMac.

For 10-bit encoding, the HEVC software codec is threaded and can therefore take advantage of multiple CPU cores when encoding; more cores means faster video encoding.

Wait, What About the Mac Pro?
First, Apple has announced and reiterated that they are working on a new, modular Mac Pro. However, they haven’t announced specs nor a release date.

The current Mac Pro is getting long in the tooth. In terms of performance, the iMac Pro is a better choice.

That being said, there are still two reasons to consider the existing Mac Pro:
– You can add any monitor you want
– Many of the components inside are upgradeable

For me, while these benefits are not trivial, the hardware inside the system has not be upgraded in several years. If you are focused on video editing, the existing Mac Pro is not the best current choice.

Summary
Here are my two recommendations for an iMac Pro for video editing: A budget version and a top-of-the-line version for editors. (The mouse and keyboard come standard, so I make no recommendations about either of these.)

Budget Version:


Top of the Line

Here are two other configuration articles you may find useful:

Larry Jordan is a trainer, writer, editor, producer and director who’s been explaining technology since, well, forever.This article first appeared in his website: LarryJordan.com. 

Review: Boxx’s Apexx 4 7404 workstation

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By Brady Betzel

The professional workstation market has been blown open recently with companies like HP, Apple, Dell, Lenovo and others building systems containing i3/i5/i7/i9 and Xeon processors, and  AMD’s recent re-inauguration into the professional workstation market with their Ryzen line of processors.

There are more options than ever, and that’s a great thing for working pros, but for this review, I’m going to take a look at Boxx Technologies Apexx 4 7404, which the company sent me to run through its paces over a few months, and it blew me away.

The tech specs of the Apexx 4 7404 are:
– Processor: Intel i7-6950X CPU (10 cores/20 threads)
– One core is overclocked to 4.3GHz while the remaining nine cores can run at 4.1GHz
– Memory: 64GB DDR4 2400MHz
– GPUs: Nvidia Quadro P5000 (2560 CUDA cores, 16GB GDDR5X)
– Storage drive: NVMe Samsung SSD 960 (960GB)
– Operating system drive: NVMe Intel SSDPEDMW400 (375GB)
– Motherboard: ASUS X99-E WS/USB3.1

On the front of the workstation, you get two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, audio out/mic in, and on the rear of the 7404 there are eight USB 3.0, two USB 3.1, two Gigabit Ethernet, audio out/mic in, line in, one S/PDIF out and two eSATA. Depending on the video card(s) you choose, you will have some more fun options.

This system came with a DVD-RW drive, which is a little funny these days but I suppose still necessary for some people. If you need more parts or drives there is plenty of room for all that you could ever want, both inside and out. While these are just a few of the specs, they really are the most important, in my opinion. If you purchase from Boxx all of these can be customized. Check out all of the different Boxx Apexx 4 flavors here.

Specs
Right off the bat you will notice the Intel i7-6950X CPU, which is a monster of a processor and retails for around $1,500, just by itself. With its hefty price tag, this Intel i7 lends itself to niche use cases like multimedia processing. Luckily for me (and you), that is exactly what I do. One of the key differences between a system like the Boxx workstation and ones from companies like HP is that Boxx takes advantage of the X or K series Intel processors and overclocks them, getting the most from your processors all while still being backed by Boxx’s three-year warranty. The 7404 has one core overclocked to 4.3GHz which can sometimes provide a speed increase for apps that don’t use multiple cores. While this isn’t a lot of cases it doesn’t hurt to have that extra boost.

The Apexx 4 case is slender (at 6.85-inches wide) and quiet. Boxx embraces liquid cooling systems to keep your enterprise-class components made by companies like Samsung, Intel, etc. running smoothly. Boxx systems are built and fabricated in Texas from aircraft grade aluminum parts and steel strengthening components.

When building your own system you might pick a case because the price is right or it is all that is available for your components (or that is what pcpartpicker.com tells you that is what fits). This can mean giving up build quality and potentially bad airflow. Boxx knows this and has gone beyond just purchasing other companies cases — they forge their own workstation case masterpieces.

Boxx’s support is based in Austin – no outsourcing — and their staff knows the apps we use such as Autodesk, Adobe and others.

Through Its Paces
I tested the Apexx 4 7404 using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder since they are really the Swiss Army knives of the multimedia content creation world. I edited together a 10-minute UHD (3840×2160) sequence using an XAVC MP4 I shot using a Sony a6300. I did a little color correction with the Lumetri Color tools, scaled the image up to 110% and exported the file through Media Encoder. I exported it as a 10-bit DNxHQX, UHD, QuickTime MOV.

It took seven minutes and 40 seconds to export to the OS drive (Intel) and about six minutes and 50 seconds to go to the internal storage drive (Samsung). Once I hit export I finally got the engines to rev up inside of the Boxx, the GPU fans seemed to kick on a little; they weren’t loud but you could hear a light breeze start up. On my way out of Premiere I exported an XML to give me a headstart in Resolve for my next test.

My next test was to import my Premiere XML into Blackmagic’s Resolve 14 Studio and export with essentially the same edits, reproduce the color correction, and apply the same scaling. It took a few minutes to get Resolve 14 up and running, but after doing a few uninstalls, installing Resolve 12.5.6 and updating my Nvidia drivers, Resolve 14 was up and running. While this isn’t a Boxx problem, I did encounter this during my testing so I figured someone might run into the same issue, so I wanted to mention it.

I then imported my XML, applied a little color correction, and double checked that my 110% scaling came over in the XML (which it did), and exported using the same DNxHQX settings that I used in Premiere. Exporting from Resolve 14 to the OS drive took about six minutes and 15 seconds, running at about 41 frames per second. When exporting to the internal storage drive it took about six minutes and 11 seconds, running between 40-42 frames per second. For those keeping track of testing details, I did not cache any of the QuickTimes and turned Performance Mode off for these tests (in case Blackmagic had any sneaky things going on in that setting).

After this, I went a little further and exported the same sequence with some Spatial Noise Reduction set across the entire 10-minute timeline using these settings: Mode: Better; Radius: Medium; Spatial Threshold: 15 on both Luma and Chroma; and Blend: 0. It ran at about nine frames per second and took about 25 minutes and 25 seconds to export.

Testing
Finally, I ran a few tests to get some geeky nerd specs that you can compare to other users’ experiences to see where this Boxx Apexx 4 7404 stands. Up first was the AJA System Test, which tests read and write speeds to designated disks. In addition, you can specify different codecs and file sizes to base this test off of. I told the AJA System Test to run its test using the 10-bit Avid DNxHQX codec, 16GB file size and UHD frame size (3860×2140). I ran it a few times, but the average was around 2100/2680 MB/sec write and read to the OS drive and 1000/1890 MB/sec write and read to the storage drive.

To get a sense of how this system would hold up to a 3D modeling test, I ran the classic Cinebench R15 app. OpenGL was 215.34 frames per second with 99.6% ref. match, CPU scored 2121cb and CPU (single core) cored 181cb with MP Ratio of 11.73x. What the test really showed me when I Googled Cinebench scores to compare mine to was that the Boxx Apexx 4 7404 was in the top of the heap for all categories. Specifically, within the top 20 for overall render speed being beaten only by systems with more cores and placed in the top 15 for single core speed — the OpenGL fps is pretty incredible at over 215fps.

Summing Up
In the end, the Boxx Apexx 4 7404 custom-built workstation is an incredible powerhouse for any multimedia workflow. From rendering to exporting to transcoding, the Boxx Apexx 4 7404 with dual Nvidia Quadro P5000s will chew through anything you throw at it.

But with this power comes a big price: the 7404 series starts at $7,246! The price of the one I tested lands much higher north though, more like just under $14,000 — those pesky Quadros bump the price up quite a bit. But if rendering, color correcting, editing and/or transcoding is your business, Boxx will make sure you are up and running and chewing through every gigabyte of video and 3D modeling you can run through it.

If you have any problems and are not up and running, their support will get you going as fast as possible. If you need parts replaced they will get that to you fast. Boxx’s three-year warranty, which is included with your purchase, includes getting next day on-site repair for the first year but this is a paid upgrade if you want it to continue for years two and three of your warranty. But don’t worry. If you don’t upgrade your warranty you still have two years of great support.

In my opinion, you should really plan for the extended on-site repair upgrade for all three years of your warranty — you will save time, which will make you more money. If you can afford a custom-built Boxx system, you will get a powerhouse workstation that makes working in apps like Premiere and Resolve 14 snappy and fluid.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on Life Below Zero and Cutthroat Kitchen. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.

Choosing the right workstation set-up for the job

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By Lance Holte

Like virtually everything in the world of filmmaking, the number of available options for a perfect editorial workstation are almost infinite. The vast majority of systems can be greatly customized and expanded, whether by custom order, upgraded internal hardware or with expansion chassis and I/O boxes. In a time when many workstations are purchased, leased or upgraded for a specific project, the workstation buying process is largely determined by the project’s workflow and budget.

One of Harbor Picture Company’s online rooms.

In my experience, no two projects have identical workflows. Even if two projects are very similar, there are usually some slight differences — a different editor, a new camera, a shorter schedule, bigger storage requirements… the list goes on and on. The first step for choosing the optimal workstation(s) for a project is to ask a handful of broad questions that are good starters for workflow design. I generally start by requesting the delivery requirements, since they are a good indicator of the size and scope of the project.

Then I move on to questions like:

What are the camera/footage formats?
How long is the post production schedule?
Who is the editorial staff?

Often there aren’t concrete answers to these questions at the beginning of a project, but even rough answers point the way to follow-up questions. For instance, Q: What are the video delivery requirements? A: It’s a commercial campaign — HD and SD ProRes 4444 QTs.

Simple enough. Next question.

Christopher Lam from SF’s Double Fine Productions/ Courtesy of Wacom.

Q: What is the camera format? A: Red Weapon 6K, because the director wants to be able to do optical effects and stabilize most of the shots. This answer makes it very clear that we’re going to be editing offline, since the commercial budget doesn’t allow for the purchase of a blazing system with a huge, fast storage array.

Q: What is the post schedule? A: Eight weeks. Great. This should allow enough time to transcode ProRes proxies for all the media, followed by offline and online editorial.

At this point, it’s looking like there’s no need for an insanely powerful workstation, and the schedule looks like we’ll only need one editor and an assistant. Q: Who is the editorial staff? A: The editor is an Adobe Premiere guy, and the ad agency wants to spend a ton of time in the bay with him. Now, we know that agency folks really hate technical slowdowns that can sometimes occur with equipment that is pushing the envelope, so this workstation just needs to be something that’s simple and reliable. Macs make agency guys comfortable, so let’s go with a Mac Pro for the editor. If possible, I prefer to connect the client monitor directly via HDMI, since there are no delay issues that can sometimes be caused by HDMI to SDI converters. Of course, since that will use up the Mac Pro’s single HDMI port, the desktop monitors and the audio I/O box will use up two or three Thunderbolt ports. If the assistant editor doesn’t need such a powerful system, a high-end iMac could suffice.

(And for those who don’t mind waiting until the new iMac Pro ships in December, Apple’s latest release of the all-in-one workstation seems to signal a committed return for the company to the professional creative world – and is an encouraging sign for the Mac Pro overhaul in 2018. The iMac Pro addresses its non-upgradability by futureproofing itself as the most powerful all-in-one machine ever released. The base model starts at a hefty $4,999, but boasts options for up to a 5K display, 18-core Xeon processor, 128GB of RAM, and AMD Radeon Vega GPU. As more and more applications add OpenCL acceleration (AMD GPUs), the iMac Pro should stay relevant for a number of years.)

Now, our workflow would be very different if the answer to the first question had instead been A: It’s a feature film. Technicolor will handle the final delivery, but we still want to be able to make in-house 4K DCPs for screenings, EXR and DPX sequences for the VFX vendors, Blu-ray screeners, as well as review files and create all the high-res deliverables for mastering.

Since this project is a feature film, likely with a much larger editorial staff, the workflow might be better suited to editorial in Avid (to use project sharing/bin locking/collaborative editing). And since it turns out that Technicolor is grading the film in Blackmagic Resolve, it makes sense to online the film in Resolve and then pass the project over to Technicolor. Resolve will also cover any in-house temp grading and DCP creation and can handle virtually any video file.

PCs
For the sake of comparison, let’s build out some workstations on the PC side that will cover our editors, assistants, online editors, VFX editors and artists, and temp colorist. PC vs. Mac will likely be a hotly debated topic in this industry for some time, but there is no denying that a PC will return more cost-effective power at the expense of increased complexity (and potential for increased technical issues) than a Mac with similar specs. I also appreciate the longer lifespan of machines with easy upgradability and expandability without requiring expansion chassis or external GPU enclosures.

I’ve had excellent success with the HP Z line — using z840s for serious finishing machines and z440s and z640s for offline editorial workstations. There are almost unlimited options for desktop PCs, but only certain workstations and components are certified for various post applications, so it pays to do certification research when building a workstation from the ground up.

The Molecule‘s artist row in NYC.

It’s also important to keep the workstation components balanced. A system is only as strong as its weakest link, so a workstation with an insanely powerful GPU, but only a handful of CPU cores will be outperformed by a workstation with 16-20 cores and a moderately high-end GPU. Make sure the CPU, GPU, and RAM are similarly matched to get the best bang for your buck and a more stable workstation.

Relationships!
Finally, in terms of getting the best bang for your buck, there’s one trick that reigns supreme: build great relationships with hardware companies and vendors. Hardware companies are always looking for quality input, advice and real-world testing. They are often willing to lend (or give) new equipment in exchange for case studies, reviews, workflow demonstrations and press. Creating relationships is not only a great way to stay up to date with cutting edge equipment, it expands support options, your technical network and is the best opportunity to be directly involved with development. So go to trade shows, be active on forums, teach, write and generally be as involved as possible and your equipment will thank you.

Our Main Image Courtesy of editor/compositor Fred Ruckel.

 

Lance Holte is an LA-based post production supervisor and producer. He has spoken and taught at such events as NAB, SMPTE, SIGGRAPH and Createasphere. You can email him at lance@lanceholte.com.

A look at HP’s new entry-level Z240, Z240 SFF

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By Nam Tran

If you’ve been thinking about building your own PC workstation, you might want to consider two new options from HP in the form of the HP Z240, which comes in two flavors: the bigger ToweHP Z240 SFF Workstation and HP Z240 Tower Workstationr workstation and the Small Form Factor workstation (SFF). The only real differences between the two are size and fewer expansion slots on the SFF, so if you’re looking for a future-proof system, and size is not an issue, the bigger Tower workstation will be the better choice.

HP touts the new HP Z240 as the company’s “most affordable workstation.” Although the only price point known so far is $879, I’m willing to bet editors will need a minimum of a $1,300 configuration, if we use its predecessor, the HP Z230, as reference. Even then, you will probably also need to include a graphics card — either a workstation card or the much more affordable Nvidia gaming card (not included in the factory installed configurations).

The HP Z240 Tower and Z240 SFF offer a choice of future Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v5 product families, Intel Core, or Intel Pentium processors (three) and two ultra-fast HP Z Turbo Drive G2s. The Z240 offers a choice of Windows 7, Windows 10 or Linux operating systems.

HP Z240 SFF's Interior

HP Z240 SFF’s Interior

Features of the HP Z240 include:
– A 100 percent increase in max RAM at 64GB DDR4 ECC memory.
– An M.2 slot, which allows the user to attach small form factor devices or SSDs, freeing up a PCIe slot for other parts.
– A USB 3 charging port that you can use even when the workstation is turned off.
– An amazingly convenient dust-filter that you can easily pop off the machine to clean, and then plop it back on.
– Up to 92 percent energy efficient power supply options.

I tried using the $949 configuration of the HP Z230 to estimate what we might expect in the HP Z240 at $879. With only an integrated Intel HD graphics P4600, a 3.3GHz 4-core Intel Xeon proc, and 4GB of ECC RAM, it’s just not quite enough of a starting point for entry level editors. If the new HP Z240 starts out with at least 8GB of ECC RAM for $879, I think that would instantly upgrade the machine to the best workstation for the price point. But you would still need to install your own GPU in order to make it a real workhorse.

Nam Tran is a New York City-based colorist, editor and motion graphic design artist.

 

 

Quick Chat: ProMAX’s Jess Hartmann on purchase of Cache-A

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By Randi Altman

ProMAX Systems, makers of high-performance video storage servers and editing workstations, this week announced its purchase of Cache-A, providers of network-attached video archive libraries and appliances. The deal has been in the works for the past few months.

According to ProMAX CEO Jess Hartmann, “This acquisition builds on our strategy of improving the content creation process by developing a unified and integrated toolset for our clients. More efficient, connected workflows enable our clients to improve project timelines and deliver better content for their customers.”

While ProMAX will continue to sell the Cache-A appliances — including Prime-Cache, Pro-Cache, Power Cache as well as the associated libraries and expansion chassis — independently, Continue reading →