How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[RuleBreaker01]

Also, we'd normally say the that h.264 export is accelerated by quick sync, giving the regular iMac a clear advantage; however, the iMac Pro doesn't have a iGPU with quick sync, yet it is way faster. My Macbook Pro 13 inch is also much faster, with the RX580 attached as an eGPU in Davinci Resolve.

On laptop, Apple never uses the discrete GPU for encoding. Always the iGPU (hence why your MBP 13" does a great job)

It is entirely possible the iMac Pro is using the Vega for that work, however I didn't find any evidence of this during the time I played with the iMac Pro (10 cores, with Vega 64), it was all software based.

There is something weird happening with this hackintosh configuration, the iMac Pro 10 cores beats the hackintosh I built (18cores), even though the later explodes the first in benchmark scores.

My guess is that you're ultimately comparing Vega 56/64 and your RX580.

 

[macjai]

On laptop, Apple never uses the discrete GPU for encoding. Always the iGPU (hence why your MBP 13" does a great job)

It is entirely possible the iMac Pro is using the Vega for that work, however I didn't find any evidence of this during the time I played with the iMac Pro (10 cores, with Vega 64), it was all software based.

There is something weird happening with this hackintosh configuration, the iMac Pro 10 cores beats the hackintosh I built (18cores), even though the later explodes the first in benchmark scores.

My guess is that you're ultimately comparing Vega 56/64 and your RX580.

I see. Yeah, maybe the Vega is doing something special that my RX580 and 1080ti aren't. Too bad I can't just buy an Vega 56/64 to test - well, at a reasonable price, that is.

 

[macjai]

Maybe someone can download the free version of Davinci Resolve 14 and test h.264 encoding? You can download sample RED footage in 4K or 8K (just google and it should pop up immediately) or just do a screen recording in Quick Time to use as test material. Nothing I'm doing is resulting in a sustained and normal encoding speed.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

I see. Yeah, maybe the Vega is doing something special that my RX580 and 1080ti aren't. Too bad I can't just buy an Vega 56/64 to test - well, at a reasonable price, that is.

Define reasonable

Newegg in the US has the Vega Frontier Edition for $999..

If there are things you want me to try with available tools, I'm happy to give it a go on my box. So at least you'd get confirmation that the Vega would solve your problem.

What does your "System Information" gives about the vega in Graphics/Displays and in the PCI section?
While at it, any chances you could export the SSDT/DSDT and the IORegistryExplorer output?

I didn't do so while I had mine at hand unfortunately...

 

[macjai]

Define reasonable

Newegg in the US has the Vega Frontier Edition for $999..

If there are things you want me to try with available tools, I'm happy to give it a go on my box. So at least you'd get confirmation that the Vega would solve your problem.

What does your "System Information" gives about the vega in Graphics/Displays and in the PCI section?
While at it, any chances you could export the SSDT/DSDT and the IORegistryExplorer output?

I didn't do so while I had mine at hand unfortunately...

Could you give me a quick explanation on how to export SSDT/DSDT on the iMac Pro? I've never found reason to do this (probably should already know how). I can give you everything else for now.

 

[RuleBreaker01]

Thanks.
Forgot that IORegExplorer is unable to open the file it saves... Try IOJones instead: https://sourceforge.net/projects/iojones/

 

[RuleBreaker01]

For extracting the DSDT/SSDT the easiest is to install clover as a boot loader and type F4 at the prompt.

This will save all the dsdt/ssdt aml file to EFI\CLOVER\ACPI\original

I found that the easiest to install clover on a real iMac Pro is to first install rEFInd (you need to boot in the recovery mode to do so as the EFI partition on the boot drive is locked by default)

 

[macjai]

Define reasonable

Newegg in the US has the Vega Frontier Edition for $999..

If there are things you want me to try with available tools, I'm happy to give it a go on my box. So at least you'd get confirmation that the Vega would solve your problem.

What does your "System Information" gives about the vega in Graphics/Displays and in the PCI section?
While at it, any chances you could export the SSDT/DSDT and the IORegistryExplorer output?

I didn't do so while I had mine at hand unfortunately...

If you can, I'd love for you to try the following:

1). Download and install a free copy of Davinci Resolve 14. Enter any credentials when prompted. It will start downloading the file immediately.

2). Open up Quick Time Player and do a 30 second screen recording. You'll have to time it yourself, as there is no on screen counter for screen recording. Remember to "save" the file and give it any name you want.

3). Open Davinci, create a new project, go to the "Edit" window by clicking the "Edit" icon at the bottom of the Davinci Resolve window. Drag your screen captured footage directly onto the timeline, starting from the very beginning of the timeline.

4). Go to the "Preferences" dropped down from "Davinci Resolve" task bar item in the upper left corner. Make sure you are set to OpenCL and that your GPU is manually selected.

5). Go to the "Deliver" window, which is the indicated by Rocket Ship icon on the bottom of the Davinci Resolve window, and change the render setting (in the "Render Settings" box on the upper left side) to use the YouTube preset for 2160p.

6). At the bottom of the "Render Settings" box, click "Add to Render Queue." Choose the destination for where the file is going to be outputted.

7). Once it is in the queue (right side of Davinci Resolve Window), push "Start Render" to begin the h.264 encoding. Once it is done, report pack with the time it took for the render.

On my iMac Pro, exporting a screen recording to h.264 4K took 24 seconds to complete.

If you finish your test within a margin of a few seconds, give or take, then I'd consider that normal. If it takes you anywhere north of 1 minute, then I think there is an issue.

 

[macjai]

Thanks.
Forgot that IORegExplorer is unable to open the file it saves... Try IOJones instead: https://sourceforge.net/projects/iojones/

Here is the updated file through iojones.

 

[macjai]

Everyday some new conspiracy theories right here... Please stop it.

@macjai

The Vega works perfectly I don't know what you guys are doing...

I did the test which you recommend @macjai and I'm faster with my build - 22 Seconds.

Just by the way - I am running 10.13.3 - 17D2102

I don't have a Vega card to test. Maybe it's what I'm missing. Thanks for the test results, they are reassuring.

EDIT: OpenCL performance using my RX580 is consistent but not that quick. Switching the hardware preferences to use CUDA and throwing in my 1080ti results in a much higher performance for the first few seconds, but it drops considerably within a few seconds of rendering. Tested Davinci Resolve in Windows with the 1080ti using CUDA and same footage, and its insanely quick by comparison. Maybe it's something on the developer's end, and nothing wrong with my Hackintosh. A possible shame, because the 1080ti with CUDA performs a lot better in Davinci than any AMD card using OpenCL in Windows and in Mac (except that it exports to h.264 slower in Mac).