Final Cut Pro X is killing my mac....

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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Installed FCPX 1.2 just before Christmas. I ran fine, although a little jerky on more intensive tasks like groups of transitions and effects. However, it's gotten worse and even an update to 1.3 (latest version) hasn't improved things. Now I'm just getting the beach ball every time i do some major like import files, move files into a new project, exporting.

My MBP (4GB ram/500GB HD/2GHz i7/384mb graphics) isn't a slow machine - LR3 and Photoshop run excellent - but FCPX just takes the biscuit. I know that video is very processor intensive and I should really get 8GB of RAM, but at the moment it's unusable.

I'm trying to do some time-lapse stuff, importing 500-600 JPEGs (about 1.3mb each) into a project but it's going into meltdown. The fans are going wild and it's just unresponsive.

Anyone suffering the same and have you found any remedies?
 
can I suggest that for most basic stuff, you use 'timelapse assembler' (free app) for doing the initial timelapse assembly?

should be ok most of the time on your mac though... :/
 
You aren't the only one suffering Pat. The same has happened to a couple of people on my course. No idea what the cure could be if the recent update from last month didn't help.


**looks smug with Win7 & Premier** :lol:
 
WHAT????????????????

Two Mac users converting to Windows?????

Right boys, you're moving to Canon next, whether you like it or not...

...I'm on a roll here!!! :lol:
 
Im running it on a Macpro 2.1 with 12gb of ram and it's fine. A laptop is never going to give you top notch speed, especially as most of the processing is done through the graphics card, I dont know wether you have tried turning off back ground rendering and using proxies but it may speed things up a little.
 
DemiLion said:
WHAT????????????????

Two Mac users converting to Windows?????

Right boys, you're moving to Canon next, whether you like it or not...

...I'm on a roll here!!! :lol:
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:lol:
 
Yep, same issues here with 4Gb RAM 500Gb HD running PS, LR, FCP etc on my Macbook. I chucked another 4GB in from PC world and wished I had done it sooner. SUPER FAST...for now anyway.....
 
Right boys, you're moving to Canon next, whether you like it or not...
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hah, now you mention it, I did buy a Canon 550D this evening....
 
Your HDD must be the bottle neck, my 1.8Ghz i7 MacBook Air with SSD and 4Gb RAM runs it fine, created projects over 30min long complete 1080p30 video.
 
Digitalize said:
Your HDD must be the bottle neck, my 1.8Ghz i7 MacBook Air with SSD and 4Gb RAM runs it fine, created projects over 30min long complete 1080p30 video.
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It seems SSDs are a very option to go down if video is your main thing. Have read some really good reports of them being lightning quick compared to standard drives.

Anyway, spoke to the boss and there's 16GB of RAM on its way so once that's fitted then hopefully it'll resolve the issue.... I'll keep you posted :)
 
was going to also mention HD, seriously lets mine down...noticeable now ive gone to 8gb of ram. its holding it back! SSD is defo next on the cards for me!
 
Yeah it's odd I would have never gone for one on my own because of cost but the MBA has no option and I love it! I couldn't have a machine without one now, considering an iMac next especially if my video work gets heavier and I'll have to look into the dual drive option!

Good news on the extra RAM though, should help compensate for the slow HD
 
FCPX not only kills my machine, it also kills my head. The magnetic timeline is an complete and utter disaster. What were they thinking?
 
oldnick said:
FCPX not only kills my machine, it also kills my head. The magnetic timeline is an complete and utter disaster. What were they thinking?
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It does have some weird nuances..... I'm getting more used to it but with the speed issue, it's just plain frustrating
 
I was considering buying a Mac but reading all this i'm not sure now! :s

Is it better to spend 1.5k on a MacBook or to use that money to buy a super Windows laptop?
 
Icey said:
I was considering buying a Mac but reading all this i'm not sure now! :s

Is it better to spend 1.5k on a MacBook or to use that money to buy a super Windows laptop?
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You'll get different opinions.

For me, there's nothing I'd want other than a MBP as a portable computer. The build and quality if the screen alone are amazing. I also prefer OSX as an everyday operating system to window. Plus, I've been using macs for nearly 20 years so its kind of ingrained in me :)

The main problem with the new Final Cut is they took a winning formula and changed it to look more like the consumer software and didn't bother sorting the bugs. Also, it apparently relies more on your graphics card memory than physical RAM than previous versions.
 
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Since the upgrade to 1.03 my system has been a lot slower. It was manageable before, but I think I'm going to have to buy some more memory.
 
specialman said:
Also, it apparently relies more on your graphics card memory than physical RAM than previous versions.
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That can't be true as it runs really well on my MBA and that has 346mb of video RAM, I think a lot of its the hard drive access speeds
 
Digitalize said:
That can't be true as it runs really well on my MBA and that has 346mb of video RAM, I think a lot of its the hard drive access speeds
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Only what I've read on Mac forums. Of course, hard drive speeds and the amount of physical RAM will be important. BTW, I have the same graphics card as you :)
 
Yep, more ram the better I think. I don't think running Lion is helping either, as every machine that has had it installed has suffered performance issues.
 
Digitalize said:
Well obviously it's the more the merrier on everything, but I do think HD speed is probably the limiting factor for most
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Out of interest, what spec is your machine and what OS are you running? :)
 
Finally got 16GB of RAM fitted and it makes a big difference. Not only is the software less jerky on playback (no jerk at all), but adding transitions and effects is much smoother. Plus, everything else runs like a dream - web pages load quicker than I can press the button!!! :)
 
specialman said:
Out of interest, what spec is your machine and what OS are you running? :)
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1.8Ghz i7, 4Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD, Intel 3000, 10.7 fully up to date. Running a 23" 1920x1080 screen.

It's not blazing fast, but I have zero complaints, it doesn't hang etc, just processing takes a while
 
Digitalize said:
1.8Ghz i7, 4Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD, Intel 3000, 10.7 fully up to date. Running a 23" 1920x1080 screen.

It's not blazing fast, but I have zero complaints, it doesn't hang etc, just processing takes a while
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Thats typical of video editing imo. You could improve your overall editing speed by upgrading to a newer i7 that is around 3ghz and putting 8-16gb of ram in there. You would possibly also benefit from a discrete graphics card rather than the built in one.
 
jacob12_1993 said:
Thats typical of video editing imo. You could improve your overall editing speed by upgrading to a newer i7 that is around 3ghz and putting 8-16gb of ram in there. You would possibly also benefit from a discrete graphics card rather than the built in one.
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Okay, how do I do that on a MacBook Air? ;)

I'm not fussed by processing speed, I just do rendering when I grab a coffee and processing over night. If I get into video properly I'll upgrade to an iMac when funds allow, but for now my MBA is all I need.
 
Digitalize said:
1.8Ghz i7, 4Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD, Intel 3000, 10.7 fully up to date. Running a 23" 1920x1080 screen.

It's not blazing fast, but I have zero complaints, it doesn't hang etc, just processing takes a while
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Very much the same spec as mine, albeit a MBA, although I have a slightly faster processor (2.0ghz) but don't have the benefit of SSD - I have the stock 500GB drive in MBPs, which I think is a standard 7200rpm unit.

Reading more about SSDs, it seems they are a key to making machines unlock more of their power, once RAM has been maxed out.

With 16GB fitted mine is now unbelievable quick at everything but I'm now intrigued about how an SSD could fit into the equation, although I don't fancy the cost for a 100GB+ unit :)
 
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Digitalize said:
Okay, how do I do that on a MacBook Air? ;)

I'm not fussed by processing speed, I just do rendering when I grab a coffee and processing over night. If I get into video properly I'll upgrade to an iMac when funds allow, but for now my MBA is all I need.
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You will probably struggle, but then again a MacBook air is not really designed for intensive video editing in the first place so you will always see it taking longer
 
Yeah my Macbook pro can take 8gb according to apple but 16gb from what Ive been reading.

Did you go from 4 to 16?
 
konastab01 said:
Yeah my Macbook pro can take 8gb according to apple but 16gb from what Ive been reading.

Did you go from 4 to 16?
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Yep, had 4GB installed as standard and got 2x 8GB sticks fitted the other day. No issue whatsoever. It recognised the RAM fine.

Web pages load in milliseconds, LR3 works soooooo much smoother in terms of flitting between the library and develop modules, especially when loading previews. Photoshop works great, albeit CS3, but I comped together 55 10mb JPEGs in a strailtrail plugin and it did it in no time. Layer work in PS is as smooth as I've eve seen.

FCPX is not instant because of the file sizes it works with, but there's no beach balling when I try to drag transitions in or apply music, which is what it was doing before. It still has its little glitches every mow and then but it's actually nice to use now.
 
just skimming this thread so might have missed if you said so but I'm wondering - are you running with an attached drive at all?
I use a 2008 mbp, core 2 duo, 4gb and have a firewire drive attached, I've been chewing through movie files fine so can't see where you're going wrong other than this. Put your movie files on the external drive, make a folder called "Final Cut Pro Documents" (case sensitive) in the same place as your files and then point final cut there in the preferences/set up options next time you start final cut.
If you rely on the internal drive only, the way FCP works by swapping information, you're causing a bottleneck. If the program is on the internal and reading files held externally it runs much more efficiently in a sort of information flow, otherwise it's trying to read and write to the same drive at the same time = slow down. So yes more ram would help on the face of it but you're basically backing up into the ram. with an external I bet you'll be screaming along!
Check out GTech's G-raid or G-raid mini's. Good sturdy (industry standard!) drive solutions.


p.s. I even run firewire and a couple of extra internal drives on my 8-core, 6gb mac pro...it whistles along merrily.
 
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Ive read the same about my macbook, meant to only take 8 but can take 16 no problem!
 
shiato storm said:
just skimming this thread so might have missed if you said so but I'm wondering - are you running with an attached drive at all?..../SNIPPED/....
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Using the internal HD on my mac. I do have some FW drives so I'll try that. :thumbs:

The machine is running fine now but any speed increase will be beneficial :)
 
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