Mac Pro Afterburner Accelerator Card
In June 2019, Apple launched a ‘game-changing accelerator card.’ Started and now the Afterburner Accelerator card is here, it is surrounded by many questions: What is it? Why and when would someone need it? Is it really worth the price? Can it change the game?
Well, we can have the answer to this and some other questions related to Apple Afterburner. On paper, it is a hardware accelerator card that can ‘change the workflow for film and video professionals.’ Now, let us see what it can do with paper.
What Is A Mac Pro Afterburner Accelerator Card And Why Do You Need It?
Built with programmable ASIC and over a million logic cells, Afterburner can process up to 6.3 billion pixel / second. This discounts the proxy workflow, allowing you to start working on 8K or 4K files extracted directly from the camera.
It is a specially designed accelerator card that can encode video using Apple’s ProRes and ProRes RAW codecs. When installed, your Mac Pro can handle 6 streams of 8K ProRes RAW or 23 streams of 4K ProRes RAW.
Does it really mean what we think? Yes, the card takes care of this aspect, freeing up your core (up to 28 cores) and applying and processing for more creative effects and processing. To simplify, an important part of the process involved in video editing and rendering is taken by the Afterburner accelerator card.
This can relieve your GPU from excessive pressure, otherwise it makes for an overall smooth, fast and efficient workflow. However, it is not just this. Afterburner is a better way to edit video than a proxy file.
Ditch Proxy Workflow With Mac Pro Afterburner
If you are not familiar with the concept, let us tell you in detail. Videos made using high quality cameras are heavy, making direct editing difficult and slow. Traditionally, the original file formats were converted to lightweight proxy files to make things smoother.
Upon editing, the proxy files are transferred to the original native files for final render. While this certainly makes things easier, this method undoubtedly has some significant difficulties. First and foremost, you’re not actually editing actual 4k or 8k videos; You are basically providing a copy with a lower resolution.
In addition to the precious time spent transcoding, there are a million things that can go wrong from codec to storage overheads in the final rendering. Afterburner is thus such a success for video editors. You can blast ‘through 8K video’ and do real-time color correction, effects and more.
As stated by Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design, “The new Mac Pro is the fastest way to easily edit, grade, and finish TV shows.”
Cost vs Impact: Should You Buy One?
The $ 2000 price tag is enough to raise some eyebrows and raise questions about cost effectiveness. Also, note that Afterburner is only compatible with the Mac Pro. So, it’s not just $ 2000; You have to do a lot for this masterpiece.
In all honesty, if you are a professional video editor who works with Prores or Prores RAW, this one is worth taking. You can return the investment soon, save all time and effort, and great work can be done. However, for someone else, this accelerator card is virtually useless, whether you’re a content creator using an iPhone or DSLR video.
Well, that’s what it is right now. as of right now?? Does our eyes get anything more than an afterburner? There will always be a world full of possibilities; Let’s check some of them.
What Happens In The Future?
As mentioned, the Mac Pro Afterburner is built with a programmable ASIC, ie, FPGA (field-programmable gate array). This means that the card has reusable digital circuits. Simply put, an FPGA can be programmed for a specific task, for example, a GPU for video editing purposes.
Now that the flood gates are open, we can expect that over the years, there may be more use cases with this smart, programmable excellence card. Who knows, one day we can all be custom afterburners, who can help make music, mining cryptocurrencies or running complex algorithms. I can only dream of better possibilities.
Is Mac Pro Afterburner A Match For You?
The Mac Pro claims ‘power to change everything’. And besides with the Afterburner accelerator card, it can definitely do for video editing professionals. If you are one of them, Afterburner, expensive, is a great match. What are your thoughts on the matter? Please share your queries with us in the comment box below.
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