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BlackMagic eGPU - Yes, I Know It's Mentioned In Other Threads... BUT!


DBounce
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This is a big enough deal for Mac users that it frankly deserves it's own thread. The new BlackMagic eGPU has the potential to allow Apple's MacBook Pro to be a viable proposition for editing 4k video on a 2016 and up MBPs using Resolve. This is a pretty big deal, as even the latest 2018 MBP fails to meet the requirements to do this in and of itself. The addition of the official eGPU means plug and play easy of use, with quiet operation. 

Needless to say, I order one shortly after learning about it. From the reviews I have seen, it will be a game changer for those of us that have been using MBPs to edit in Resolve. Oh, about that... At no point did I envision using a MBP to edit 4k files on a MPB in DR. But after acquiring the Canon C200 I soon realized that Resolve offered more control with Canon RawLite files than did FCP. And so, I made the switch back to Resolve... and then the pain started. Editing these files on the MBP in Resolve is trying. The playback is abysmal. I estimate 15 frames per minute... Yes, it's that bad. So bad in fact that I render the timeline and then go back into Resolve to figure out where to cut by referring to the rendered footage. 

After a conversation with BMD, they revealed to me that working with these files would be doable with the eGPU attached. So for me, and I suspect many others in a similar position, it will be a major upgrade.

So here's a question: The Radeon RX580 GPU that is inside the BMD eGPU supports HDR. So with the eGPU connected will the MBP be able to output HDR if connected to a HDR monitor?

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40 minutes ago, DBounce said:

switch back to Resolve... and then the pain started.

I made an initial effort to edit 4K source footage with Resolve using their proxy workflow and it was a crash-and-burn for me.  Wanted it to work and it just didn't inspire confidence out of the gate so I bailed on Resolve.

This was 2 years ago.  Can anyone vouch for Resolve in fixing this aspect of their software?  If yes, any explanation on how/why it's robust would be appreciated.

I'd like to get off of Premiere moving forward, but would like some assuring testimonials before doing so.

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Also worth mentioning, the new MBP are really fast. The high end model as better single core CPU performance than the best IMAC PRO. 
The overall performance jump both in CPU and GPU vs 2017 models is enormous. 

The new DDR4 memory is very fast. And the faster SSD are out of this world. 
In fact PC manufacturer should feel ashamed, as seen in the attached picture. 

 

image.png.51710ef7617c981dbbfb0befc5da67e5.png

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23 minutes ago, wolf33d said:

Also worth mentioning, the new MBP are really fast. The high end model as better single core CPU performance than the best IMAC PRO. 
The overall performance jump both in CPU and GPU vs 2017 models is enormous. 

The new DDR4 memory is very fast. And the faster SSD are out of this world. 
In fact PC manufacturer should feel ashamed, as seen in the attached picture. 

 

image.png.51710ef7617c981dbbfb0befc5da67e5.png

Yes indeed, I plan to get a maxed out 15” once they are in stock at BH.

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I remember long ago Louis CK mentioned editing his RED footage for his TV show LOUIE using just his MacBook Pro. Looking at these details it says the source format was 4k REDcode RAW. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492966/technical

What was different about that media that allowed him to edit on his 2010 MacBook ?

 

https://gizmodo.com/5658621/how-louis-ck-shoots-and-edits-his-own-show

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34 minutes ago, jonpais said:

 

So a decidedly mixed bag in terms of performance. Not particularly surprising as an egpu provides a mixed bag of results on the Windows side too.

Of course we are bound to see a lot of evidence about how Blackmagic's egpu improves performance in Resolve in a 13 inch Mac Book Pro which doesnt have a dedicated GPU.

592757663_ClipboardImage(176).thumb.jpg.867e47e44175347f0ef16a70eaf31cd8.jpg

But as Resolve actually needs a GPU to meet its system requirement all you are really seeing is how badly Resolve works without a dedicated GPU.

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4 minutes ago, Robert Collins said:

So a decidedly mixed bag in terms of performance. Not particularly surprising as an egpu provides a mixed bag of results on the Windows side too.

Of course we are bound to see a lot of evidence about how Blackmagic's egpu improves performance in Resolve in a 13 inch Mac Book Pro which doesnt have a dedicated GPU.

592757663_ClipboardImage(176).thumb.jpg.867e47e44175347f0ef16a70eaf31cd8.jpg

But as Resolve actually needs a GPU to meet its system requirement all you are really seeing is how badly Resolve works without a dedicated GPU.

No I think you are seeing how terrible an Apple laptop is LoL.

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5 hours ago, Inazuma said:

I remember long ago Louis CK mentioned editing his RED footage for his TV show LOUIE using just his MacBook Pro. Looking at these details it says the source format was 4k REDcode RAW. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492966/technical

What was different about that media that allowed him to edit on his 2010 MacBook ?

 

https://gizmodo.com/5658621/how-louis-ck-shoots-and-edits-his-own-show

Doesn't make much sense to be honest. Like I said in a thread Red sold the Red Rocket video card thingy just to do it on a PC! Kind of hard to believe. It would be a ball buster today to do it. No info in that link I see.

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2 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Doesn't make much sense to be honest. Like I said in a thread Red sold the Red Rocket video card thingy just to do it on a PC! Kind of hard to believe. It would be a ball buster today to do it. No info in that link I see.

Actually I dont think this is true. I just downloaded some 4k REDcode RAW applied a bunch of color grading in Premiere and rendered it out. (As an aside, wow it is great fun to color grade with raw footage.)

But the footage with edits played back flawlessly in Premiere. It also rendered out in real time - essentially 20 seconds in 20 seconds. That is at least 5 times faster than my Mavic Pro 4k footage.

The problem a lot of us face is that we are dealing with heavily compressed codecs which massively slows down our video editing...

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50 minutes ago, Robert Collins said:

Actually I dont think this is true. I just downloaded some 4k REDcode RAW applied a bunch of color grading in Premiere and rendered it out. (As an aside, wow it is great fun to color grade with raw footage.)

But the footage with edits played back flawlessly in Premiere. It also rendered out in real time - essentially 20 seconds in 20 seconds. That is at least 5 times faster than my Mavic Pro 4k footage.

The problem a lot of us face is that we are dealing with heavily compressed codecs which massively slows down our video editing...

Hmm that is really interesting info.

From Red's website.

"REDCODE RAW (.R3D) is a proprietary file format that efficiently encodes measurements from a camera’s digital sensor in a way that maximizes post-production capabilities. It achieves this in part by storing each of the sensor’s color channels separately, prior to conversion into a full color image. Similar to the advantages that RAW files brought to stills photography, this improves control over white balance, exposure and grading in post-production. Furthermore, since such settings are appended to the file as metadata only, grading is completely non-destructive."

And this Red Calculator.

http://www.theblackandblue.com/2011/03/12/how-to-calculate-red-camera-data-rates/

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I believe this will be good eventually, but I guess there need to be some software updates before this gets stable and shows the benefits. I see a lot of people buying RAW cameras, but fail to see that you need a iMac Pro (or high end PC)  to run these things smoothly. If using FCPX, the cheapest thing is just to create proxies. The problem is that if you even are able to run the timeline with 4k, as soon as you start colour you footage you need more power. So even if people invest in the latest MacBook Pro model, one can easily get issues. You may need to create proxies anyway. That way I am happy with my iMac Pro. On the laptop I create proxies.

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