June 15 2006
Final Cut Pro 5.1.1 and QuickTime 7 speed comparisons: Intel vs PPC
For the past three years or so, I wasn’t able to have the processing power required for professional editing in a portable enclosure and therefore used a stationary G5 for editing and a Titanium PowerBook for just about everything else.
Finally, Apple has released the 17” MacBook Pro, which promised to merge the power of a G5 with the portability of a PowerBook. So when I got my hands on the MacBook Pro, I ran some thorough tests across these three generations of Apples, comparing processing power as well as graphics performance.
Finally, Apple has released the 17” MacBook Pro, which promised to merge the power of a G5 with the portability of a PowerBook. So when I got my hands on the MacBook Pro, I ran some thorough tests across these three generations of Apples, comparing processing power as well as graphics performance.
Tasks:
HDV to DV: 60 sec of 1080i video converted to DV Anamorphic
DV to H.264: 60 sec of DV exported using Apple’s QT “Broadband High” preset (same parameters on all 3 tested compters. Video: H.264, High Quality, Key frame rate 150, 672kbits/s, reordering yes, multi-pass, 480x360, Audio: AAC, Sample rate 48kHz, Stereo, 128kbps))
Motion Blur: 60 sec DV clip in timeline rendered with motion blur applied (500%, 4 samples)
Random Wipe: A 60 sec (!) wipe applied at maximum settings onto DV clip (-90°, width 100)
ALL FILES RENDERED FROM AND TO SAME LACIE 1000 BIGGER DISK RAID
HDV to DV: 60 sec of 1080i video converted to DV Anamorphic
DV to H.264: 60 sec of DV exported using Apple’s QT “Broadband High” preset (same parameters on all 3 tested compters. Video: H.264, High Quality, Key frame rate 150, 672kbits/s, reordering yes, multi-pass, 480x360, Audio: AAC, Sample rate 48kHz, Stereo, 128kbps))
Motion Blur: 60 sec DV clip in timeline rendered with motion blur applied (500%, 4 samples)
Random Wipe: A 60 sec (!) wipe applied at maximum settings onto DV clip (-90°, width 100)
ALL FILES RENDERED FROM AND TO SAME LACIE 1000 BIGGER DISK RAID
Computers:
G5 1.8 GHz Dual PPC (2 GB RAM @ 400MHz , 900MHz Bus, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 64MB)
MacBook Pro 17” 2.16GHz Intel CoreDuo (2 GB RAM @ 667MHz, 667 MHz Bus, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB)
PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz Titanium (1 GB RAM @ 133MHz, 133 MHz Bus, ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 64MB)
G5 1.8 GHz Dual PPC (2 GB RAM @ 400MHz , 900MHz Bus, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 64MB)
MacBook Pro 17” 2.16GHz Intel CoreDuo (2 GB RAM @ 667MHz, 667 MHz Bus, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB)
PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz Titanium (1 GB RAM @ 133MHz, 133 MHz Bus, ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 64MB)
On average, the 17” MacBook Pro outperformed the G5 by 20.7% and the Titanium by 239.8%.
BUT: Before you go and swap your G5 for a MacBook Pro there are things to consider. Editing and playing back the same FinalCut Pro project from the same LaCie drive connected via FW800 on the MacBook Pro resulted in plenty of dropped frames during playback, whereas the G5 handled it fine. (The project contained some 14 hours of DV footage, but the drop-outs not only occured while playing complex edits, but also within longer clips).
Also, please be aware that Apple dropped support for After Effects plug-ins in the Final Cut Studio version for Intel based Macs.
Best of luck,
Daniel