Single External Rotating Drives Speed Wall

I often have to explain to friends and clients that no matter the connections on your SRHD (Single Rotating Hard Drive), USB 3, Thunderbolt, whatever, the read/write speed is limited by the drive itself.

See this BMD Disk Speed Test on a Thunderbolt connected 2TB LaCie Rugged portable drive. The port is capable of up to 10Gbps, 1250MB/s data transfer speed.

Lame speed due to the limitations of the hard drive itself. It has a USB-C connector as well, and the speed is exactly the same. As of today, single rotating drive won't give you anything above 130MB/s at best.

If you want more speed, you can only get it with a SSD or a Raid drive array.

As a reminder, the max speed of the various connecting protocols are tabulated below:
USB 2.0 480Mbps (60MB/s)
USB 3.0 / USB 3.1 gen1, 5Gbps (625MB/s)
eSATA 1.5Gbps (187.5MB/s), 3Gbps (375MB/s), up to 6Gbps (750MB/s)
USB 3.2 / 3.1 gen 2 / Thunderbolt v1 two channels 10Gbps (1250MB/s)
Thunderbolt v2 20Gbps (2500MB/s)
Thunderbolt v3 40Gbps (5000MB/s)

A single rotating modern drive is the limiting speed factor using all but USB 2.0 protocols. As a reminder USB 2.0 was implemented in 1996!! eSATA in 2004. Hard drives have some serious catch up to do.

Which is faster? Mac mini 2012 vs. classic Mac Pro 2012, Encoding HD 1080 h264 comparison

Encoding a 60min. HD ProRes422 to HD h264 (Best/MultiPass Quality) file on cMP (6 cores Xeon), and on Mac Mini (quad core i7)

1) Using Compressor:

1a) cMP = 210min. Abysmal!

VTEncoder almost never goes over 400% CPU

Using only 6 cores at 70% and 6 cores at 10%. Total never goes over 40% User CPU load.


1b) Mini = 50min. Best results!

VTEncoder barely goes over 200% CPU

Using only 4 cores at 10% and 4 cores at 5%. Total never goes over 40% User CPU load.

2) Using Adobe Media Encoder:

2a) cMP = 90min. Meh.

AMEncoder goes up 750% CPU

Using 6 cores at 80% and 6 cores at 60%. Total goes over 65% User CPU

2b) Mini = 84min. Meh.

AMEncoder goes up 600% CPU

Using 4 cores at 80% and 6 cores at 60%. Total goes over 65% User CPU

3) Machines configs:

cMP 2012 6 cores 3.46GHz, 32GB Ram, Radeon 7950 3GB.

Mini 2012 4 cores i7 2.3GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz), Intel 4000 1.5GB

Conclusion: Even though its specs are underwhelming compared to the cMP, the Mini wins with Compressor.

The cMP is really terrible! (x4 real time!!! What?) The Mini encodes the 60min. file in less than 50min. - under real time. 

On the other end with AME (which is much more power hungry) it's about the same on both machines and it takes longer than real time (x1.5 real time more or less.)

The Mini sports a dedicated h264 encode/decode chip, makes sense that the performance is better, it seems though only Compressor is accessing this added power. Adobe? What the heck??

Have a good day!

Final Cut Pro X is optimized for speed

One thing that often get lost in discussions: in addition to some of its uniqueness (trackless, magnetic timeline, roles...) FCPX is optimized for speed. It uses the hardware better than PP during editing (more of a fluid response) and during export (faster exports.) 

From a 90 min. ProRes Timeline, with ProRes clips, with color correction applied, EQ and compressor applied to audio, FCPX exports a ProRes 422 file in less than 30min. without pre-rendering. It uses at least between 580% and 830% of CPU, most of the time around 750% of CPU, and something like 4.65GB of RAM.

Export from FCPX, six cores in action.

In comparison, Premiere Pro/ Adobe Media Encoder takes 94min. for the same task (again without pre-rendering), and it uses the CPU at under 500% at best, and about 9GB RAM.

Export from Premiere/AME (Queued), same six cores.

Again, a 90min. Timeline exports in 30min. with FCPX. It takes 94min. in PP, THREE TIMES LONGER!

These are my numbers on a MacPro 5,1 mid 2012, 3.46Mhz six core with 32GB RAM, macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and a Sapphire Radeon 7950 3GB VRAM.

Do you have a Nvidia card in a similar specced system? Do you have a system that fares better? Would you be nice enough to send real test numbers my way? Make a HD Timeline with Prores 422 clips, add some color correction and EQ+compressor on audio and Export away to ProRes 422 - no rendering allowed. Start your timer and report in the comments. Thanks!