Optimizing late-2013 iMac for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Question

Optimizing late-2013 iMac for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Hi everyone,

I currently have a late-2013 iMac running OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 and am trying to optimize it for running the latest version of Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015.4

I am looking for any recommendations, tips and how-to’s. Any and all Adobe Expert users also welcome to add their recommendations on this subject.

I have attached various screengrabs: the first one is from Adobe’s latest optimization for running Premiere Pro CC on Mac OS. Below that, I have included some overview specs from my iMac, on:

RAM: 8GB in two memory slots (but wondering how I can get to 16GB as recommended)

GPU: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB (can this be swapped out or maybe an external GPU to augment?)

HDD: 1TB, 5400 Rotational

(see below) Thanks!

iMac, iOS 10.1.1, Optimizing iMac for Premiere Pro CC

Posted on Oct 31, 2016 5:22 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 1, 2016 8:42 AM in response to david_designs

A couple things:

RAM:

Good news - You have a model which the RAM can be upgraded and

it is not soldered in place.

Bad News - You basically need to completely tear it down to change it

(see this video https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_21inch_late_2013_mem/)

HDD:

Good News - It can be replaced with much faster SSD

Bad News - Same issue as RAM

Alternative - Since your system has Thunderbolt and USB3 ports,

you can use higher speed HDD or SSD over these ports

and get much, much better performance over the internal

drive without ripping the iMac apart.

Graphics:

Good news - None

Bad news - Stuck with what you have.

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Answer 2

Nov 2, 2016 12:46 PM in response to woodmeister50

Cheers! Very helpful reply.

I watched + bookmarked that video on upgrading RAM in iMac—will be able to accomplish that with the help of an engineer friend (has the right work area and tools).

Now with Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C, I will need to think about adapters and hubs to connect peripherals such as external SSD or RAID 1.

I knew it! For the GPU: What worries me most is this excerpt from Adobe’s Optimization and Hardware Performance White Paper from 2016:

“Significant portions of Adobe software have been written to run on your computer’s GPU rather than CPU to take advantage of this processing power. Therefore, it is often possible to realize a specific performance boost just by replacing your video card.”

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Answer 3

Nov 3, 2016 4:25 PM in response to david_designs

FWIW, I don't use Premier but I do use Photoshop which heavily leverages

GPU. Turning of GPU acceleration has a very significant effect on processing

time for many of the filters.

If you seriously want to start doing moderate to heavy duty video work,

you may want to consider getting a more powerful machine. Your current machine

is still new enough to fetch a reasonable price on the used market. Just something you

may want to consider.

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