New Apple Laptops Air vs. Pro

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Yes I also think the codec argument is not a strong one. I thought there was gonna be another video or explanation because they had the follow up video the 20th of November, but the 21st of November they said they found out the main issue and were making another video about it. That’s why I thought there was something else coming as well. I guess we’ll see.
I have seen in other videos that the 8GB can be a limit with big renders and people suffering a system overload.

[Jon Dishler]

Just to follow up on my MacBook Pro M1 with 16 GB RAM - running the same clips through the latest version of Resolve, it seems about the same as the FCP findings above, perhaps a little less. I could only get smooth playback of 8k clips using 1/8th resolution, and even with that if adding a few nodes and effects it began to skip frames. I am certainly only a novice at Resolve, but think I set it up correctly. My conclusion is that for 8k footage from Red, it needs to be at high compression to edit smoothly with this computer. For 4k it works fine and even 6k is not bad. Next generation (M2?) is going to be needed for 8k. It might work better on BlackMagic Raw 8k, will try that next.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Thank you for your tests, Jon, very interesting to hear first hand experience!

[Mike P.]

Thanks for the tests Jon.

In Resolve there are actually two places to cut down the resolution for preview/playback; there's the raw file debayer quality, but there's also the timeline "proxy" mode, which allows for half and quarter playback of the timeline resolution (which also helps quite a bit with node/effect playback).

As some of the videos have shown, the GPU seems to tap out the quickest, but RED's Metal support (for decompression) is still pretty meagre (only single threaded or something; Jarred mentioned it when they added it to the SDK almost a year ago, and no further progress has been released since then). Maybe with a bit of tweaking/optimization, they could actually get it to full speed.

How was 8k/12k braw? Was the M1 able to crush that (full-debayer/full-quality 12k in realtime)?

[Jon Dishler]

Hi Mike,

I downloaded two video clips from the Davinci site, a guy and a girl sitting by a pool. They are not very big, but comparable in size to the Red files at high compression. one is 1 GB for 10 seconds the other 0.5 GB for 12 seconds. The Red files are at 16:1 for 8k HD almost the same size/second. For the Resolve files I have set the decode quality to "full resolution" and unchecked both optimized/proxy media for playback. The timeline is only 4k on the free version, and am using Gen 5 color. In "better quality" the Red files as stated will not play in FCP but in Resolve, the BRAW playback is no problem, even when I add multiple effects to them. I have no idea if these are 8k or 12k clips but like I said the files are comparable in data rate to the Red RAW I tried in FCP. It seems Resolve with their BRAW is doing fine on the MBP M1. In Resolve the deliver time for a total of 22 seconds of both clips to 4k h.264 is 1:59 so roughly 6X the timeline duration, and this is comparable to the Red footage when I render 8k directly to 4k h.264.

Like I said, I can use Red RAW up to 8k if I have higher compression (which I use anyway for 4k delivery). They will play fine in "better performance", and on an 8k or 4k timeline even during rendering. Once transcoded to 4k (does not matter if 422 or 4444) that clip can be turned into h.264 in about half the time of the clip, so for a 4 minute clip takes about 2 minutes. This is a whole lot better than my old Mac computers. I think it is really nice with the BRAW at 8k or 12k (I think one clip is each) and maybe Red can tune things up a bit as well. When I run Red clips on Resolve, they seem to behave about the same as in FCP, stutter unless helped with lowering the debayer quality to 1/8, so it seems the Red RAW is not playing well at 8k on either platform, whereas the BRAW is very nice on the new M1 Mac. My overall conclusion from lots of testing is that the new Mac computers work great with 4k media and 8k media if in the Blackmagic ecosystem.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gAjXT7qyw

This was also an interesting comparison, Mac Mini M1 versus Mac Mini i7, with eGPU.
There you also see that R3D seemed to perform the worst, playback-wise of the codecs he tested.

[Blair Thornton]

I'd hope that RED engineers have already been working on tools for RED workflows on ARM ASi Macs. Apple is committed to their new SOC architecture and working with RED to optimize code for it is a win-win. NAB 2021 might be virtual, but I can see Apple announcing the 16" MBP with a higher core count M1 variant - then using RED media metrics to pimp it.

Cheers - #19

Yea, it would be interesting to know if the V17 Apple Workflow "GPU decode (decompression)" option to control Metal GPU decode works with the new M1 Apple CPU's, but as Blair suggests it may need a new version.

[Jon Dishler]

Yea, it would be interesting to know if the V17 Apple Workflow "GPU decode (decompression)" option to control Metal GPU decode works with the new M1 Apple CPU's, but as Blair suggests it may need a new version.

I think this might be right. When looking at iStats while playing FCP with Red RAW, in better performance, it hits up the CPU and the GPU is only about 50% (similar to Resolve) but in better quality mode the GPU is 100% and the CPU is very little used. A new V18 might balance this better.

BTW in the video mentioned by Mathieu where the playback is not optimal, he is using a Red clip that is only 4.5k for testing.

[Mike P.]

The massive delta between what different people are getting (with the same system) is quite annoying. Sure 8gb vs 16gb has a (surprisingly) substantial impact, but I don't get how one person says their MacMini M1/8gb can playback 6~8k WS full-res/full-debayer (Learn Colour Grading), and then another one can't even playback 4k MX footage (PresentDayProductions).

That's kinda why I wondering if output resolution (connected to either a 1080p or UHD monitor) prematurely overtaxes the GPU or something.

Also, why didn't Max Tech attach the eGPU to the M1 to compare its performance?

[Jon Dishler]

I am using an LG Ultrafine 5k monitor that Apple promotes, so probably watching it in 4k/5k resolution, but I get the same results using the screen on the laptop which should be HD only. The M1 is supposed to support a 6k monitor. I admit it is confusing seeing so many different results, these are just mine.

BTW The Learn Color Grading stuff I watched was all on Resolve, and I am not sure on the media he was using but if it was from Black Magic cameras, it would agree with what I found that BRAW works very nicely, it is the Red footage that struggles some.