Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Hi all,
I currently use DXO for all my RAW conversion and am now in the position to upgrade my machine. Without meaning to start a Mac VS PC discussion, I wondered if there is a performance advantage of using a PC over a Mac or Vice Versa for the RAW conversion.
Many thanks
James
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LargeFormat
old hand
Reged: 24/10/2006
Posts: 1154
Loc: Buckinghamshire and Cumbria
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Depends on what's inside the computer rather than the badge on the outside.
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Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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I was thinking more of library optimisation. For example, does windows have libraries that are more optimal for RAW conversion than OS X ? If not, I would assume that a Windows box using the same CPU and same amount of RAM would be very similar to an OS X box.
James
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davidh
addict
Reged: 08/11/2005
Posts: 553
Loc: Bristol + Farnham
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Don't forget that DxO v5 isn't yet available for the Mac.
As DxO write their own conversion routines, its unlikely that there will be a difference between the two versions in time taken or result.
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David
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Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Thanks for that David. I think I am still leaning towards a Mac so might wait until the new version comes out in a universal binary.
Anyone using version 5 on the PC at the moment? I have been very impressed with version 4 on my old powerbook G4 and can't wait to get my hands on the new version, especially with 9 months worth of travel photos to process.
I quite like the workflow for RAW conversion, but now it will be tested! I can see my storage groaning at the prospect.
James
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Paul_R
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 16/06/2006
Posts: 1960
Loc: Middlesbrough, England.
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I have v5 but haven't had chance to use it anger as it were. When I get my new pc sorted out I hope ti put that right!
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Regards, Paul CRIPN
http://www.pbase.com/exposethelight
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davidh
addict
Reged: 08/11/2005
Posts: 553
Loc: Bristol + Farnham
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I'm currently using v5 - I used it to process my pictures from Portugal last night.
The latest version of v5 certainly seems as fast, if not slightly faster in some instances than v4.5. Its very usable.
The corrections are easy and fairly straight forward to apply, if you have a general set of corrections you'd like to apply then creating your own preset is well worthwhile. Whilst there are some interesting 'quirks' around rotated images and cropping, doubtless they'll be fixed soon.
It likes memory - the more you've got, the better - I have 1gb and it didn't seem to be slow or unresponsive unless doing lots of changes on screen at once in which case pausing whilst it caught up was a good idea.
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David
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Paul_R
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 16/06/2006
Posts: 1960
Loc: Middlesbrough, England.
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Quote:
I'm currently using v5 - I used it to process my pictures from Portugal last night.
I have my Portugal shots to process from when we were there in January 
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Regards, Paul CRIPN
http://www.pbase.com/exposethelight
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Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Ah, my Portugal pics are in the list as well !
So after a bit more digging I joined the DXO forums and found some benchmarking data for Windows. Well it seems that DXO multithreads quite nicely. So the more cores the better.
After pricing up a Mac Pro quad core and a Dell quad core, to find the Dell around half the price, I decided to go back to the dark side. I love OS X, so I may just buy a cheap Mac Mini with the savings and still have enough left for another holiday.
Once the massive Dell beast arrives and I get DXO 4.5 on it (I hear 5 is unstable) I let you know how I get one. 160 GB of RAW images to throw at it. Can't wait !
James
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Paul_R
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 16/06/2006
Posts: 1960
Loc: Middlesbrough, England.
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Look forward to hearing how you get on. I went for the Dell quad core, too
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Regards, Paul CRIPN
http://www.pbase.com/exposethelight
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Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Hi Paul,
Well I have the machine finally working after much swearing at Dell for not including the RAID drivers in the OEM XP install disk. All sorted now.
So DXO is running through a test group of 327 images from my 30D. All RAW, adjusted for white balance, noise, chromatic abbreviations (the DXO lens corrections etc).
Old laptops - Dell D600 and G4 powerbook - 1 image took about 2 mins.
Dell quad core - According to Task manager, CPU usage is at 100% and I see that all cores are fully utilised. Now I am getting 24 images processed in 2 mins ! Insanely fast.
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Paul_R
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 16/06/2006
Posts: 1960
Loc: Middlesbrough, England.
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Glad to hear things are up and running at last I had a similar problem with Dell but wanting them to remove RAID from my machine! Got there in the end.
Interesting to read about the cores being fully utilised. Are you using v4.5 or v5? I ran a few test images through v5 having added a little 'Gadget' to the Windows Sidebar (downloaded off the web) which shows the CPU and core usage and noted that all the cores were running at 100% which quite nice see Didn't realise you could do a similar thing using Task Manager. Will have to try that one, too.In v.4.5 one image at a time was worked on whereas in v.5 more than one is worked on at the same time.
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Regards, Paul CRIPN
http://www.pbase.com/exposethelight
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Gen_bunty
Reged: 25/03/2002
Posts: 687
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Hi Paul,
V4.5 seems to be processing 4 files at the same time. If you click on the Performance tab in Windows Task Manager, then you can see the graphs for the CPU Usage History, with a graph for each core. You will see that when DXO is processing the images with full utilisation. Pretty cool.
James
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Paul_R
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 16/06/2006
Posts: 1960
Loc: Middlesbrough, England.
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Quote:
Hi Paul,
V4.5 seems to be processing 4 files at the same time. If you click on the Performance tab in Windows Task Manager, then you can see the graphs for the CPU Usage History, with a graph for each core. You will see that when DXO is processing the images with full utilisation. Pretty cool.
James
Thanks for the info, James. I'll have a peek next time I'm playing with DxO
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Regards, Paul CRIPN
http://www.pbase.com/exposethelight
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