How many Mac Pro cores do I need to utilse Adobe Creative Suite CS6

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Level 1

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How many Mac Pro cores do I need to utilse Adobe Creative Suite CS6

Im thinking of upgrading my Mac Pro. I have a 2.1 Mac Pro.

My question is, what configuration of cores (Quad, 8, 12) would work best with the CS6 Adobe Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver and Lightroom. etc. I am not 3d rendering as such, more 2D. I would like to learn Final Cut Pro too.

In my understanding I would not be ulitising 12 cores to run inDesign as an example.

I would like to upgrade to the Quad core One 3.33GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere”. I believe this is the "sweet spot" mac for my kind of work. I know there is a possibility of new ones coming out in the June announcement but I am getting info first.

I am a graphic designer, I enjoy the changeability of a Mac Pro so please don't bring iMacs into this. I use these on various jobs and enjoy them as other peoples machines.

I have already installed a 5780 card into my 2.1 Mac so will be transferring this over if needed. Also I will consider an SSD card too.

Thoughts?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Posted on May 15, 2012 2:00 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 15, 2012 2:03 PM in response to skylarking

It really shouldn't make much difference although for some operations a 12-core will be faster. Rendering will be faster with more cores available.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 15, 2012 2:07 PM in response to skylarking

Yup. Sweet spot. With as much RAM as you may need - 24GB minimum (3 x 8GB) and possible to go with 2 x 16GB (now) and add more later.

More than one processor actually is more complex and has over head and 'sharing' even with Quick-Path (which is where the Xeon E5 improves things and will get more improvements, with large L3 caches and a new ring topology).

MPG does run dual 3.34 12-core but I think better to spend on one of those PCIe SSD controllers (or two).

Some buy the low end 2.8 and do their own $580 W3680 but this is what you get with 6-core BTO

http://ark.intel.com/products/47917/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W3680-(12M-Cache-3_33-G Hz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI)

What would be "nice" but hard to achieve would be to have the 5870, and have GTX 580 dedicated CUDA GPU (the 2.5GB version).

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Answer 3

skylarking Author

Level 1

1 points

May 15, 2012 2:49 PM in response to The hatter

Ok thanks for your help. This is good news as I look forward to the upgrade but can wait until June to see if Apple have anything else to offer.

Sorry could you explain what a dedicated CUDA GPU would give me?

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 15, 2012 2:53 PM in response to skylarking

Try Wikipedia, Nvidia and Adobe on CUDA ( GPGPU ) along with CS6 and Mercury Engine.

And MPG: www.macperformanceguide.com has a lot of upgrade advice and tips on CS and Mac Pro.

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Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 15, 2012 2:54 PM in response to skylarking

CUDA is only usable with Nvidia GPUs. See:

What is CUDA | NVIDIA Developer Zone

CUDA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Answer 6

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 15, 2012 3:14 PM in response to skylarking

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-kepler.html

If you use a Nvidia card, then you also have to install the latest CUDA update as well such as happened with 10.7.4.

OpenCL is suppose to offer some of the same functions. It does, sortof, but harder to implement and optimize which is why Nvidia and even Microsoft have moved forware on parallelism.

http://developer.nvidia.com/what-cuda

http://www.bing.com/search?q=cuda+adobe+mercury+cs6

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Answer 7

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 15, 2012 3:19 PM in response to The hatter

CUDA software is not needed unless one wants to use OpenCL and one has an Nvidia card. Let's make that clear.

And, the ATI cards don't require additional software to use OpenCL if the GPU supports it - like the 5770 and 5780 cards. The 5780 is a waste of money on a 2006 Mac Pro.

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Answer 8

skylarking Author

Level 1

1 points

May 16, 2012 2:56 AM in response to Kappy

I disagree with the 5780 being a waste on a 2006 Mac Pro. I have loaded up windows 7 on another internal disk, this has given me the opportunity to run Battlefield 3 now on the PC-Mac. The sole reason for buying the card.

Thanks for the other links though. 🙂

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Answer 9

skylarking Author

Level 1

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May 16, 2012 2:58 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks both for the links, I have alot to read now.

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 16, 2012 4:31 AM in response to skylarking

Yours is a very legitimate reason, though maybe $449+ isn't for everyone and people play games with PC cards in their Mac Pro or find other solutions.

Barefeats did a number of benchmarks on the 1,1 and looking at the cards available (8800GT, etc)

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Answer 11

skylarking Author

Level 1

1 points

May 16, 2012 3:50 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks, Im looking through the Barefeats website, so many tests!

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