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How the memory size affects the workflow on Apple Silicon devices ?

ClemClemClemClem
in MAIN

Hello,

I would like to change my 10 years Retina MBP with a MBP M4 Pro, and I hesitate between 24 and 48 GB ( price... ).

I know that the standard 24 GB is already great for most of the uses, but for future and potential projects, is there a big difference with 48 GB ?

More RAM means I can play more movies simultaneously, is there a way to calculate it ? Is it the same for applied effects ?

How the 2 available outputs affect graphics performance when they are both connected ?

And how many resources are used if I add a live camera in the timeline ?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Comments

  • MilluminMillumin

    Hello @ClemClem,

    In contrary of Intel machines, the Apple Silicon machines shares the memory between the CPU and the GPU : it means that the RAM is used as a video memory by the GPU. This is quite powerful.

    If you plan to use only Millumin on this machine, 24GB should be sufficient, as it is optimized to preload/unload movies automatically. This is impossible to calculate exactly how many movies you can play at the same time, because there are too many factors, but this amount of RAM should be enough.

    However, if you want to use it to create movies, sound or images, more RAM would be a good investment I guess. Maybe purchasing the previous generation (M2 or M3 Pro/Max) with 32 or 36GB.

    Please keep in mind that we are not a hardware reseller, so this is just our opinion.

    Best. Philippe

  • ClemClemClemClem

    Thank you Philippe for your answer.

    I thought it was easier to determine what I could and couldn't do in Millumin depending on the amount of RAM, but like you said the memory is shared between the CPU and the GPU, so the process is certainly more complicated.

    All the best.

  • ectoplasmosisectoplasmosis

    Would it be possible to re-implement the manual 'Force media preload' option?

    For some large shows, we are seeing momentary stuttering at the start of large video medias. I'm assuming this is related to SSD read latency when loading and caching very large files.

    In these circumstances, having a machine with a large amount of memory (192GB for example), and an option to manually preload all media to RAM, would eliminate the stuttering at the beginning of playback.

  • MilluminMillumin

    Hello @ectoplasmosis,

    Sorry, this option will not be back (many reason, the main one : this option was not doing much any more because a change in the architecture).

    If you have stutters in your project, be sure to press the "Optimize" button to have a first diagnostic, then contact us, so we could study this issue. Thank you.

    Best. Philippe

  • ectoplasmosisectoplasmosis
    edited February 11

    The stuttering only happens for less than a frame (~15ms if running at 60Hz), mostly when triggering high-bitrate media items (we only use ProRes on Apple Silicon, no other codecs). We also only use 10-bit colour depth, never 8-bit. As mentioned, this looks like an SSD read latency issue.

    The stuttering is also evident if playing back multiple laters of high-bitrate ProRes content in separate layers inside a timeline, especially when triggering and looping this timeline.

    This happens on all Apple Silicon hardware that we have tried (M1 Max, M2 Pro/Max/Ultra etc). Hardware specs do not make a difference.

    Would it be possible to include an option to pre-cache the first few frames of all video media items, instead of the entire contents? This would eliminate the stuttering.

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