After running some post-production application render and export tests with an assortment of Apple silicon Macs I thought it might make a good companion to my Speeding Up Avid Media Composer article to run a few renders and exports with … Avid Media Composer!
It’s worth noting that Media Composer is compatible and fully blessed by Avid with Apple silicon and Avid’s matrix of compatibility confirms that to be the case. But Media Composer still isn’t Apple silicon native and neither is any of the supporting applications and processes that run along with a running version of Media Composer.
It’s important to note which chips are which in these four machines. I posted in a recent article comparing these machines in other NLEs, the chip order of power goes like this Ultra > Max > Pro > basic chip.
These are the chip comparisons from Apple’s tech specs for each machine. It’s the video encode and decode engines that are important to have for video post-production. And notice that some chips have more video engines than others.
I had a couple of Avid projects online that I was able to test on these different Apple silicon machines. Since I know there are a lot of Avid editors still running Intel Macs I dusted off my beloved iMac Pro and let it play as well. All of these render and export tests were done on Media Composer 2023.8.2.
Export 8-minute 1080 DNxHD timeline from DNxHD 220 media
| Software | MacStudio M2 Max | MacStudio M1 Ultra | MacMini M2 | 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Max | 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Export to File H.264 .mp4 10.00 Mbps | 2:40 | 2:34 | 2:39 | 3:46 | 1:43 |
| Export to File H.264 .mov 10.00 Mbps | 2:38 | 2:13 | 2:36 | 2:38 | 1:42 |
| Export to File ProRes 422 .mov | 37 sec | 42 sec | 35 sec | 54 sec | 22 sec |
| Export to File MXF OP1a DNxHD HQ | 37 sec | 22 sec | 35 sec | 50 sec | 23 sec |
That is some nice speed improvements with the M3 Max. I’m unaware of any specific tooling Avid might have done for the M3s so I was pleasantly surprised at the speed improvements in Media Composer, as not all NLEs saw those improvements in other M3 Max testing. I actually when back and test the M2 Max outputs again just to make sure they were accurate.
Out of curiosity, and Media Composer’s ease of moving from system to system with good media management, I tried these tests on my 2017 iMac Pro.
| Software | 2017 iMac Pro | with eGPU |
|---|---|---|
| Export to File H.264 .mp4 10.00 Mbps | 1:56 | 1:58 |
| Export to File H.264 .mov 10.00 Mbps | 1:54 | 1:57 |
| Export to File ProRes 422 .mov | 32 sec | 42 sec |
| Export to File MXF OP1a DNxHD HQ | 32 sec | 28 sec |
Neat Video noise reduction applied, multiple 1080 shots in 1-minute timeline, generic profile
| Software | MacStudio M2 Max | MacStudio M1 Ultra | MacMini M2 | 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Max | 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Render In to Out | 1:34 | 1:54 | 1:35 | 1:36 | 1:11 |
| Video Mixdown ProRes 422 | 1:32 | 2:03 | 1:54 | 1:54 | 1:08 |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to DNxHD HQ | 1:44 | 3:04 | 2:11 | 2:06 | 1:21 |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to ProRes HQ | 2:01 | 3:02 | 2:29 | 2:35 | 1:33 |
Those MacBook fans really get to cranking when doing the mixdowns. Those are the most I’ve heard out of an NLE rendering on the Macbook Pro.
And the iMac Pro.
| Software | 2017 iMac Pro | with eGPU |
|---|---|---|
| Render In to Out | 2:34 | 1:50 |
| Video Mixdown ProRes 422 | 2:37 | 1:46 |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to DNxHD HQ | 2:15 | 2:18 |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to ProRes HQ | 2:36 | 2:29 |
Without Neat Video noise reduction applied, multiple 1080 shots in 1-minute timeline
| Software | MacStudio M2 Max | MacStudio M1 Ultra | MacMini M2 | 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Max | 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video Mixdown AVC Long GOP 50 | 14 sec | 12 sec | 22 sec | 19 sec | 10 sec |
| Video Mixdown ProRes 422 | 5 sec | 4 sec | 8 sec | 6 sec | 3 sec |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to DNxHD HQ | 5 sec | 5 sec | 7 sec | 6 sec | 7 sec |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to ProRes HQ | 10 sec | 17 sec | 11 sec | 11 sec | 10 sec |
Again, the iMac Pro
| Software | 2017 iMac Pro | with eGPU |
|---|---|---|
| Video Mixdown AVC Long GOP 50 | 13 sec | 13 sec |
| Video Mixdown ProRes 422 | 6 sec | 7 sec |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to DNxHD HQ | 6 sec | 7 sec |
| OP1a-MXF Mixdown to ProRes HQ | 7 sec | 19 sec |
A few things I learned while doing this:
- Media Composer’s estimated time it gives you in the render or export progress bar box is surprisingly accurate, even though it fluctuates a bit as the operation occurs
- The fan in the MacBook Pro kicked on a lot compared to the MacMini, which never kicked on. But to be fair, the MacBook Pro’s have an M2 Max and M3 Max and the Mac Mini an M2 Pro
- The fan in the M3 MacBook Pro kicked on only during the Neat noise reduction render and outputs
- Don’t tell anyone but even though Avid doesn’t support MacOS Sonoma two of these machines were running it and MC worked just fine but this was only a test 🙄
What conclusions can we take away here? I think it’s a question more than a conclusion:
How much faster will Media Composer be across the board on Apple silicon machines once it becomes a native Apple silicon application?
The M3 definitely was the winner in these render and output tests. But while a lot of the other M-chip machines were faster than the Intel iMac Pro they weren’t all that much faster (and I ran a number of tests against the same iMac Pro when the M1 Max Macbook Pro came out). So if you’re an Avid editor still running an Intel Mac, do you hold on until Avid’s M-chip native Media Composer or spend the money on a new M3 or M2 Mac? If you do any editing outside of Media Composer, an update from Intel Macs will be money well spent and will last you many years.
But I have to wonder … when is Avid going to get Media Composer Apple silicon native? Is their recent sale to private equity going to slow down or speed up this development? I hate to say it, but it’s almost embarrassing for every major non-linear editing editing application running on a Mac is Apple silicon native, except Avid Media Composer. But honestly, I don’t think this surprises anyone. Avid is still in an ongoing saga to fix the title tool in Media Composer.
What about Media Composer 2023.12?
Between writing this article and actually getting around to finishing it up Avid updated Media Composer to 2023.12. I updated a couple of machines and ran a couple of these tests again and didn’t see any difference in speeds.
But speaking of updating Media Composer, the Avid Link management app has the option to update MC from right within the Avid Link app. That’s much easier than logging into Avid’s website and digging deep to find the latest update. But Avid Link has never had much success for me updating from within the Avid Link app. I had given up but tried again recently with the same result.
And I was happy to hear I wasn’t alone as Eddie Hamilton had experienced the same thing.
Same thing happens to me. It should take 10 mins max but hours later… still says installing. I just shut down, restart and bingo, the new version is installed.
— Eddie Hamilton (@eddiehamilton) December 9, 2023
But a few days after this discussion Eddie replied with a fix.
I think I’ve found the culprit which stops the MC install happening via Avid Link. Apple > System Settings > Privacy & Security > App Management > Allow the applications below to update or delete other applications > make sure Avid Link is enabled.
— Eddie Hamilton (@eddiehamilton) December 14, 2023
I’m happy to report that this has worked and I’ve successfully updated Media Composer on two different systems via Avid Link.
I had to manually add Avid Link to the MacOS App Management preference. It will have to restart Avid Link but after that it worked like a charm. I don’t know why Avid Link didn’t add itself to this security preference like other apps do but at least it worked.
