Re: after effects future releases and Mac compatability

Hi Anita,

Processor speed doesn't help as much as the number of cores and LOTS of RAM in AE. Obviously a fast core will render that particular frame faster and more AE more responsive, but from what I've experienced there isn't that much difference in a 2.66 vs 3.2GHz machine. I haven't played with the New Nehalem Macs though, which it sounds like what Darby runs..so may make more difference with them?

As for the 10x faster thing...this totally depends on the complexity of the project and certain effects will whip through much faster and others (such as time-based effects: Timewarp, Twixtor, ReelSmart, etc) need to read the frames either side of it to build a render for that frame, so may be just as slow as with 1 x proc. You will DEFINITELY notice a speed increase using more procs though, just not across the board.

One thing I will say though - since using CS4 I have noticed previews, etc much faster than AE7, but the multi-proc option in AE totally hogs your system if you want to do anything else while you're rendering..even if you leave a proc and some RAM free. Nucleo on the other hand seemed to manage this much better.




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