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GPU Hungry #1
Graham Parker's picture
by Graham Parker
May 4, 2011 - 8:03pm

Hi Joseph

I have heard for what I think is a good source that Aperture 3 is more GPU hungry than memory. I have a Aug 2007 aluminium iMac with 4GB DDR2 SDRAM and a ADI,RadeonHD2600 Chipset.
My iMac has started to beach ball quite a bit recently when running Aperture 3. It may be to do with something else of course as I will have Safari and Mail and Twitter open at the same time.
If , as I hope , I get a new iMac soon what upgrade in the spec of a 27” would you recommend for smooth very fast Aperture 3

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
May 5, 2011 - 7:45am

Graham,

Aperture is one of those rare apps that actually uses pretty much everything in the computer. The GPU is used for processing effects, the RAM is used for keeping current and recent images in fast memory, and the CPU is used for exporting and loads of other things.

The 27” iMac is a dream, and the new ones should be even dreamier. The Thunderbolt I/O is a killer way to go. I envision a not-to-distant future where Thunderbolt equipped 27” iMac, Thunderbolt 11” MacBook Air and a Thunderbolt SSD drive of 250GB or more changes my Aperture workflow dramatically. I’d store the Library (no Masters) on the SSD drive, and be able to carry my entire Library everywhere I go. Super fast (SSD + Thunderbolt, hot damn) and equal access on either Mac… yeah, I’m drooling already.

As far as the current beachballs, dig around in these forums for some great advice on things like clearing cache, trashing preferences, and running Applejack (use those as search terms on this site). You’ll get your speed back, you just have some housekeeping to do.

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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Robert Sfeir's picture
by Robert Sfeir
May 5, 2011 - 8:52am

Did you not notice the new iMacs with Thunderbolt? http://www.apple.com/imac/

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
May 6, 2011 - 12:17am

Robert,

But of course. We’re 1/3 of the way towards what I want :)

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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Robert Sfeir's picture
by Robert Sfeir
May 6, 2011 - 12:22am

Oh, I read it as a this or that, not an all inclusive proposition :)

I’ve had my Mac Pro since 2007, 3Ghz quad core, have 8 gigs of RAM and just last week I actually ran into a situation where I actually didn’t have enough CPU power and RAM was low… (I was working in Pro Tools with a big session). Who knew that 12Ghz of total CPU power wouldn’t be enough only 4 years later?

I have a choice right now to solve one of the problems, and that’s taking my box to 16Gigs of RAM. I can’t solve the quad core problem.

I heard rumors that Apple’s coming with a new MacPro with some serious horsepower avec thunderbolt etc… While i might not jump on the first rev that has that (like I did with first mac pro), I plan on investing on a new tower next year… this time it’s going to be a 12 core.

R

Graham Parker's picture
by Graham Parker
May 6, 2011 - 5:44am

Joseph

Thanks for your responce.
Last night used ONYX andset it to do EVERYTHING it can do. Also I set my iMac in
System Pref-Energy Saver to never sleep and the screen to sleep at 15 mins.
I belive thatmy iMac auto does some housekeeping in the early hours of morning but the way I am thinking if it is asleep then it won’t happen. Am I thinking correct? also if I set up onyx to carry out housekeeping in early hours then it needs to be awake.
Have you any thoughts on this ie how do you set yours.

By the way OMG how fast I have my iMac back. So onyx did something good!!!!

PhotoJoseph's picture
by PhotoJoseph
May 6, 2011 - 1:51pm

Robert,

Yeah that’s my “all inclusive” desire ;-)

Naturally the next Mac Pro and MacBook Air computers will have Thunderbolt. That’s not a question.

Now I just gotta wait!

A 12 core Mac Pro will be a beautiful thing, for sure. Nice setup!

-Joseph @ApertureExpert

@PhotoJoseph
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