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Hardware requirements for Capture One

Dennis Beyer
Hello from Switzerland!
I`m currently planning to buy new Apple hardware, since my current MacPro (early 2009) and MacBookPro (Mid 2010) are not getting any younger...
Unfortunately, I`m not an computer hardware expert. My last information was, that most photography related software does profit more from less cpu cores but with higher clock speed per core, than from more cores with lower speed per core. I know it`s a different thing with video software, where apparently more cores are better.
I`m using Capture One 10 Pro, and I also run software like PTGui and Photoshop. File sizes are very big, since I also use my Phase One IQ250 for multirow panorama photography.
So what is the recommended hardware philosophy regarding CPU layout these days for software like Capture One (Photoshop, PTGui)?
Less cores and higher speed, or more cores regardless of the lower speed per core?
I`m thinking of waiting for the new iMacPro, in case it will be the better tool for the work mentioned above, than, let`s say, a current 27" iMac with an 4.2 Ghz i7 Quad Core CPU.

Thank you kindly for your help!
Dennis
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Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • craig stodola
    I'm set up a thread on the Capture One 10.x Software for Windows message board, where people post a little 12 file RAW export to JPEG benchmark - one export with CPU only, one export with GPU acceleration.

    Capture One Pro seems to crave more cores. I'd love to see what a 2017 5k i7-7700k iMac would do with a 24MP, 36MP, or 42MP files.

    Right now 8-core Ryzen 1800x CPU only export is 3x faster than my 2009 2.66Ghz Quadcore Mac Pro with GPU acceleration enabled - and I have the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. Ouch! That's painful to see.

    Even the Ryzen 1700 CPU only, exporting 36MP Sony a7r files, is a good bit faster than my GPU accelerated export.

    If you do get an 8-core CPU, you'll want a GPU fast enough to chew through the data fed by the CPU. The new RX 580 8GB video card is going to be beastly with Capture One Pro. The RX Vega 56 will be a monster - IF....the processor can feed it enough data...

    The 8-core iMac Pro will be wicked fast with Capture One Pro to be sure. But there's no way I'm spending $5,000 on that machine.

    Will be interesting to see Apple will price next year's Coffee Lake iMac. But that's 'IF' apple produces a 2018 6-core Coffee Lake iMac - considering they'll need new motherboards. Prices will probably go up again...
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  • photo by FA
    I have read somewhere here that, somebody experienced a laggy masking operation with iMac 2017 and 8GB GPU. For some reason, CO doesn't like Apple's mobile GPU offerings.
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  • Dennis Beyer
    Thank you so far. I even got an answer from Phase One. They recommend basically both: Many cores, as C1 apparently profits from many cores during export operations, and high clock speed, which were useful for creating previews. Also, I was told that when a current iMac is paired with 1 or even 2 additional 4k displays, that powering that many pixels would slow down the iMac significantly. I never heard something similar before. I won`t use the machine for tethered shooting, it`s for editing only. Phase One recommended a Mac Pro for several reasons, but this is an outdated machine and with Thunderbolt 2 only, so no option. Well, laggy masking operation, I know a thing or two about it: When I perform masking on my 2009 Mac Pro with 2x 2.26 Ghz Quad Core CPU`s, 48 GB RAM and an GeForce GTX680 installed (with GPU acceleration enabled), masking is extremely laggy. It can take up to 4 seconds before a painted mask actually visibly appears. So here I have many cores, but the low clock speed seems to be the bottle neck.
    So, with the current MacPro being no option, the question is: Is a 2017 iMac with maxed out specs really such a subpar machine that waiting for the much more expensive iMacPro were the right thing to do? I like to invest in a solidly performing machine, but it doesn`t have to feature the last 10% top speed.Sure, I work with large amount of files, and big files too, upgrading to the IQ 3-100 will come soon, so it must be a solid performer, but I can skip the last 10% performance when this means the machine will be 20% oder 30% cheaper.
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  • photo by FA
    If I were you, I'd wait for new Mac Pro until you really really need a new machine.
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  • craig stodola
    If you can wait a year, you might want to wait to see if Apple releases a 6-core Coffee Lake iMac in 2018. I wouldn't be shocked if they did, as Apple has received a LOT of flack for their lack of updating their machines.

    But I also wouldn't be shocked if Apple didn't offer a new iMac in 2018, as they do have a good of a history of long waits on updating their desktop computers. So it's a bit of a gamble.

    It sounds like some of the 2013 Mac Pros have a GPU bug Apple hasn't been able to solve, so you're in the silicon lottery with that one. It wasn't worth the risk for me.
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  • Dennis Beyer
    No, waiting for the new MacPro, whenever this one might come out, is not an option. The new computer must be ready for work from January 10th 2018 on, and the new MacPro won`t come out until 2019 I guess. Maybe the coming iMacPro might be the best option then.
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  • craig stodola
    I would say, if you have the $5,000 budget, then the iMac Pro would be ideal for Capture One Pro - an 8-core CPU with a Vega video card. That thing should crush Capture One Pro.

    Will be interesting to see how the iMac Pro does with single core/threaded applications (read adobe photoshop).

    One other thing to think about. Even when Apple officially announces the iMac Pro later this year (November or December?), it may not ship until early 2018 - which means you might not get it in time for your January target date.
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  • Eric Nepean
    It depends on what you want do with COP and your Mac - How many images in a catalog, raw or jpeg, how big are they, a lot of processing on each image or just a little, how time critical is the work (hobby? small business?).

    I have a late 2015 iMac 27" with 4GHz i7, Radeon R9 M390 2GB video, 24GB ram and 1 TB fusion drive.

    The only thing I would change on this iMac is to have an internal 512GB or 1TB SSD drive instead of the Fusion drive (Failing that get at least 2TB Fusion). I got a very good deal on the this configuration, and have added external SSD - fast, but not as fast as an internal SSD.

    This serves my needs quite well for Capture One Pro
    • COP start up time, opening the big catalog showing a small album is 9 seconds

    • Opening the all images album (15453 images) of the big catalog for the first time is about 27 sec, the second time is just under 10 seconds

    • Opening any other album with less than 1000 images is instantaneous

    • Converting a RAW to JPG for output takes less 2 seconds per image

    • Disabling the GPU adds about 20% to the output conversion time.

    With a large catalog, in the all images album, the filters tool creates a very heavy load on the CPU (related to the structure of the metadata), so I have removed the Filters tool from the Library tab.

    I am a hobbyist with about 15453 images in one catatalog, a mix of JPGs and RAWs, mostly 16MP images from Olympus and Panasonic cameras.
    I have 200 + hierarchical keywords, and other metadata attached to each image.

    A few images get a lot of processing, most of them just a bit.

    For an iMac Pro, I would have to pay double the cost of the iMac I now have. For me, it would not be worthwhile.
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