My Smokin' MacPro Is Slow...Render Is Slow...am I being stupid picky?

Hey guys. First post. Great forum!

Just wondering if I'm being picky here, or if something is wrong with my setup, or even maybe, that's "just the way it is". I have nothing to compare this with. First, my machine:

I have a MacPro 5,1 Quad core machine with a SSD PCIe card for my OSX drive. This card also has an eSATA port which drives a SSD external solely for my projects and events so that I can have true 6G throughput.

24 gig of RAM running triple channel.

OSX is Mountain Lion.

Now, I assumed that this would have pretty much great speed for anything I could ever throw at it. But I noticed that with FCPX, it's not as "nimble" as I had hoped it to be. Opening the app even is very slow (like around 32 seconds). Rendering simple tasks is slow (to me)...and working with Magic Bullet Looks and/or Mojo? Geez...forget about it. The words sluggish and heavy comes to mind. It definitely is a workflow stumbler.


I ask, is this normal for a machine of which I have running FCPX? Or is something definitely wrong here.

Thanks a bunch!

Did you try trashing FCP X preference, there is a free app that can help.
www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

Also important what is your GPU, FCP X use GPU for rendering and exporting.

Oops...I forgot to mention the GPU...it's an ATI 5870 card.

I haven't trashed prefs...but is this something that is going to be required on a constant basis?

My 8 core MacPro is not as fast as my MacBookPro at rendering, in fact it's about 2/3 the speed of the MacBookPro, even though the MacPro had RAID0 drives and the MBP has a single drive. Crazy.

I'm pretty sure it's a combination of factors though, including GPU, newer CPU architecture and memory bandwidth on the MBP.

I understand that. I had an MP 2,1 8 core before the one I have now that was slower than an old Quad core MP that was a 1,1 machine...also running RAID 0. I don't get it...but it is frustrating on this new machine that it's not doing what I need it to do with the money I have invested into it. It should destroy my older machines, but it really isn't an eyebrow raising experience...especially when running FCPX.

Curious... what kind of media are you working with? Are you using Event Manager X to keep everything tidy?

I've got a 2011 iMac and it screams with FCPX... provided I don't have too much open at once and am not working in a heavy H.264 timeline (common for us DSLR shooters)

Hello. I'm using FCPX stock out of the box when it comes to media organization.

The clips I'm using are all 1080/30ips files. I imported them in in a mp4 format.

BTW...trashing prefs did nothing.

I guess my BIGGEST complaint is how my Magic Bullet plug-ins are operating. It is the absolute worst. Beach balls all over the place when, for example, trying to review their various looks from the effects tab.

Also, I have virtually nothing else open on the machine when running FCPX. It needs all the help it can get.

Ah, the Mp4 format is probably your culprit. It's highly compressed and the CPU architecture of that machine just isn't great with it.

If you transcode to Optimized or Proxy, your machine will fly.

That could very well be! I'm new to Final Cut in general and appreciate these little tips.

Am I screwed now with my current project that wasn't optimized at time of import? lol Also, I ultimately would like to import MTS files...but I don't see where FCPX can do that? It certainly would be more native to my camera that's for sure. I have to convert to MP4 before importing. I just don't check the box to "optimize" when I did import.

If checking that box "optimize" at import, why isn't it ticked by default if it's the "thing to do"? In tuts, I see a lot of people saying to do that. I just didn't think it would make a difference in working speed of the project.

Select your files in the event browser, right click and choose transcode media.

The check box is a preference you can set (see preferences).

Thanks! It did help when I did convert, but with Magic Bullet, ehh...still pretty heavy and sluggish...but from what I've read, that seems to be the norm. But nonetheless, it did get better. Not as many beach balls flying around.

Hi MTS files ... depend what Camera you are using and if its Compatible .. I use a Sony HDR Sr1 or Sr11 and it appears on the ingest page just like a regular hard drive ... and transfer just as if it was a file from any other connected drive.
Then optimize .. takes a bit longer and uses more disk space obviously but without a doubt the program runs better with than without

Lucky guy! I have a Panasonic HS900. Too bad mine doesn't play as well as yours. The only time I see files pop up like a connected drive is if I shoot in AVCHD. But I shoot in the highest quality setting...which is 1920x108060p.

Sometime for me in FCP X it's faster to do a share (export) without rendering the video first.

A few things on my brain:

- Like I've hard rumblings that Magic Bullet ain't so quick with FCPX. I'll bet you can accomplish 90% of what you need with the built in tools that run very fast. Give them a try.
- You are using 10.0.9 right?
- Unless you have a specific reason to render in FCPX, turn off background rendering. It's just not needed.
- h264 media works, but if things are feeling sluggish, definitely optimize.
- Work in the browser in List view instead of filmstrip.
- It was unclear from your post are you working with 60p media?

talonhead wrote: Thanks! It did help when I did convert, but with Magic Bullet, ehh...still pretty heavy and sluggish...but from what I've read, that seems to be the norm. But nonetheless, it did get better. Not as many beach balls flying around.

Magic Bullet plug-ins are definitely on the slow side. I've used them in several different NLEs and in every case they'd slow things to a crawl.

If you haven't yet dived in to using the colour board in FCPX I suggest you do so pretty quickly. Shape masks, colour masks, multiple layers etc all render pretty much in real time for us. We've had some shots with up to 14 colour adjustment layers with no noticeable slow down in rendering or exporting, whereas Colorista II (a MB product) used to slow rendering down by orders of magnitude.

You are right. Tho built in correctors are definitely pretty nice and quick! Out of the box, they look good standing on their own. I have not yet played with tweaking them though.

But when I heard that Rodriguez's best corrector uses Bullet Looks on his films, I just had to give it a shot! I'm not sure what they're doing to fix that sluggish plug in but it sure would drive me bananas watching it hang up every once in awhile while trying to just see a sample preset.

Maybe I'll just export to Resolve and give that a try. Not run any plug in.

tpayton, I am running 10.0.9 and import in 60p footage. Since FCPX can't import MTS files, I convert them first to MP4...then import those into FCPX.

Thanks guys for all your input! It is very helpful.

talonhead wrote: Since FCPX can't import MTS files, I convert them first to MP4...then import those into FCPX.

If you converted to ProRes in the first place instead of MP4 you could just import and be good to go, instead of going to MP4 and then optimising to ProRes in FCPX.

MTS files should import fine if you plug the camera card in and import from there in FCPX. FCPX needs all the metadata to read those. Best to actually use FCPX's Create Camera Archive.

If not use ClipWrap. Mucho better than others.

www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap

BTW. My students did a rather large student feature. 16 day shoot. All shot on AVHCD. The editor is on a MacPro and editing in Proxy in FCPX. Working great. We'll just switch to original media for final output.