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Mac Pro 2019 config for Millumin

LudoNicoLudoNico
in MAIN

Hello Millumin team,


We plan to buy a Mac Pro 2019 to run Millumin 3 on futur opera projects.

Mac Pro config : 12 cores, 48go ram, radeon pro Vega II and a Blackmagic Decklink 8k pro card.

Before to buy this pretty expensive config, we would like to be sure Millumin will work well with that.

We plan to use multiple 4k outputs, and sometimes 4k inputs.

So did you make some test with with card (radeon pro Vega II)?

If we have budget, is the radeon pro Vega II DUO is worth it? And did you try it?

Can we put a second Blackmagic Decklink 8k pro card in the futur? (to have 4 4k output and 4 4k inputs for example or 8 outputs 4k)

Just to understand how Millumin works with hardware, tell me if I'm wrong, in this config, we're going to use the Blackmagic card outputs SDI and the radeon pro Vega graphic card will do the processing.

On this config, on witch card we need to outputted the Millumin interface?

Thank you very much for your time and your answers.


Nico

Comments

  • MilluminMillumin
    edited February 2021

    Hello @LudoNico,


    So did you make some test with with card (radeon pro Vega II) ?

    Not this particular GPU (the graphic card I mean), sorry.

    But its benchmarks are very close from other GPU we tested (such as the Radeon RX Vega 56 and Radeon RX 5700 XT) , so for sure it is a good GPU and able to handle most projets easily.


    If we have budget, is the radeon pro Vega II DUO is worth it? And did you try it?

    Millumin will only use one GPU to process all the rendering, thus the second GPU will only be used to get more outputs (fortenatly, thanks to the technology FabricLink between the 2 GPUs, they can exchange dat pretty quickly). Indeed, realtime applications (not only Millumin) can hardly parallelize computations between several GPUs (see this post).

    For this reason, unless you use applications such as Cinema4D or FinalCut (that are not realtime), I think the Duo version is not really an improvement.


    Can we put a second Blackmagic Decklink 8k pro card in the futur? (to have 4 4k output and 4 4k inputs for example or 8 outputs 4k)

    Yes you can (since you can open the lid of your MacPro and insert a new PCIe card).

    From our tests, macOS is supporting correctly 2 x Decklink 8K Pro. This could output up to 8 x 4Kp60 YUV, but we didn't run enough tests to confirm this strongly. Two things that lets me think it is possible : the motherboard of the MacPro is very good (so it should be able to deal with so such an important data flow) and Millumin has been optimized for the Decklink 8K Pro last year (being as efficient as possible to send the data from the GPU to the Decklink 8K Pro).


    Just to understand how Millumin works with hardware, tell me if I'm wrong, in this config, we're going to use the Blackmagic card outputs SDI and the radeon pro Vega graphic card will do the processing.

    Only the Radeon will be rendering. The Decklink 8K Pro will not improve your machine. If you output via HDMI or DisplayPort (not SDI), you can only use the Radeon's outputs.


    On this config, on witch card we need to outputted the Millumin interface?

    The Decklink 8K Pro will not extend your macOS desktop : this is just an interface to input/output video, exactly like an audio interface. Thus, you will not be able to display Millumin's interface on the Decklink 8K Pro via SDI. In brief : you need to connect a monitor to the graphic card, so macOS desktop can be shown on at least one display (and Millumin's interface as well).


    Best. Philippe

  • LudoNicoLudoNico

    Hello Philippe,

    Thank you. very much for your detailed answers. I will tell you if we go in this solution the results of our tests with this config.


    Thanks again.


    Best

    LudoNico

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