CPU

I am now working on a project with lot of overlays and effects, mostly light effects.When I play the in timeline it stutters a lot (unrendered) and Activity monitor does not show much activity in CPU. Is this mostly GPU issue or CPU. Since I am hobbyist I am not sure abour this. Is this normal on new Mac Pro 6 core ? I would be thankful of some explanation.

Makki

What I noticed on my amateur (you're an hobbyist with a MP? woo.. perspective shift ) set-up :
the bottleneck is drives.

I made a test with four 4k-streams as Multicam on my MacMini - with the Angle Viewer open = stutter, just using the Preview window = no stutter.

I assume your 'light effects' are basically video-overlays, not generators? So, your brave Mac has to display severals clips simultaneously ... keep your materials external, on 'mechanically different' drives. ...

Thanks Karsten. I have my Library on external LaCie SSD Thunderbolt, so it should not be the issue. But I was expecting more activity in CPU when I play the timeline, the activity is very little. No I do not use generators. After been using my old Mac Pro 2006, I found the New One was the right computer.

What format are the files you're importing?
Are they managed or external?
What is the duration of your Timeilne?

I have pro maintenance tool from Digital Rebellion. There was a big update recently for FCPX 10.1.2. So i ran the Housekeeping utility which is part of the application. It cleaned up huge amount of files. After restart the playback stutter is completely gone. I can now use high qulity and the playback is now smooth even over unrendered clips with lot of effects and overlays.

Hi Makki,
You asked..." Is this mostly GPU issue or CPU. Since I am hobbyist I am not sure abour this.", Yes effects are GPU not CPU for the most part. The new MP GPUs should have no issues driving effects.
Glad you found your answer to the problem, and thanks for posting here so others can learn. Keeping up with updates especially with 3rd party plugins and after FCPX updates is essential.
Hope this helps, Greg

Ben I convert my JVC EXDCAM EX 35 to Pro Res 422 before import though it is native, but I find Pro Res much better to work with. My timline is seldom more than 5 minutes long. External LaCie SSD Thunderbolt with my library and media.

Greg Thank you for your reply and explaining GPU versus CPU. Maybe I have over estimated the new Mac Pro performance but now all is is fine. Actually I have found that many third party effects are the bottleneck. Many of them seems never have benn updated since 10.0. I have had problems with Slice Ex and Sugarfx Light pack and some others. Orginal Apple effects are much better to work with. So I am more and more sticking to the Apples plugins.