Rendering Speed

I've just updated from a Mid 2012 MacBook Pro to a brand new MacBook Pro (15" Display - Intel Core i7 - 16 GB Memory)

I expected to see a much faster experience on FCP, but didn't notice any difference. If anything it seemed to render a little more slowly than normal!

Should I see a difference in these models? Maybe I'm doing something wrong in FCP itself.

The GeekBench4 database shows a 2012 15" MBP with 2.6Ghz i7-3720QM and GT650M has the following performance:

CPU single/multi thread: 3628/11267
GPU: 11776

The 2016 15" MBP with 2.9Ghz i7-6920HQ and Radeon 460 has the following performance:

CPU single/multi thread: 4129/13396
GPU: 54453

So if you got that GPU option on the 2016 MBP, your GPU performance would be a lot faster but the CPU performance would only be modestly faster.

By "rendering" if you mean exporting, this is typically a more CPU-bound task than GPU.

The SSD disk in the 2016 MBP is a lot faster but rendering or exporting (if H264 or similar codecs) are not I/O bound but CPU bound and to a lesser extent (depending on effects used) GPU bound.

The 2016 MBP should maintain its performance better under high CPU load since it won't thermally throttle like past versions. However you shouldn't expect vastly improved performance for exporting.

In specific GPU-bound cases it may be a lot faster. If you have the old MBP you can run the BruceX benchmark on both and compare the times: blog.alex4d.com/2013/10/30/brucex-a-new-fcpx-benchmark/

When running BruceX, always use a non-rendered timeline (with auto render turned off in Preferences), export to ProRes 422 and ideally restart FCPX before each test:

Great. Thanks.

I do still have the old laptop so I'll run the test on both.

Another factor in this may be that although FCP is on both the laptops, the library and media files for the projects are on an external hard drive. It's a Seagate 1TB that I've had for about a year and half so I'm not sure if it's USB 2 or 3.

Each week I do the same project. I take a 30 minute presentation and add some slides (jpgs) to it and then export it and send to Vimeo.

The media comes from a stationary unmanned camera, so I normally need to crop the shot a little.

The two parts of the process that take a long time are the rendering after the shot has been cropped and the exporting once that's finished. I expected both of those to be a lot faster with the new laptop but neither were

Thanks again for the link to the benchmark test.

Thanks. I do still have the old laptop so I'll check out that benchmark test.

Each week I do the same thing. I take a presentation, add slides and then export it to Vimeo. The media is captured on a single unmanned camera. This means I normally have to crop and resize the screen a little. It is this and then the export that take a long time processing.

Also, I am running the FCP on my internal drive, but storing the media and library on an external drive. I've had the 1TB external for about a year and half now, so I don't know if it's USB 2.0 or 3.0

acedj1 wrote: ...It's a Seagate 1TB that I've had for about a year and half so I'm not sure if it's USB 2 or 3.

If there is any chance it's USB 2 that could smother any performance difference between your old and new MBP. Run the Blackmagic speed test on that drive and check the performance.

acedj1 wrote: ...I take a 30 minute presentation and add some slides (jpgs) to it and then export it and send to Vimeo.

If there is any chance you are sending it to Vimeo as part of the export, this likewise can obscure what the true file export performance is. Upload to Vimeo can be quite slow, even if your ISP is very fast. Evaluate your export performance to a fast local hard drive, independent of Vimeo upload time (if you aren't already doing that).

acedj1 wrote: ...The media comes from a stationary unmanned camera, so I normally need to crop the shot a little...The two parts of the process that take a long time are the rendering after the shot has been cropped and the exporting once that's finished. I expected both of those to be a lot faster with the new laptop but neither were

You don't always need to render the timeline. Normally a simple effect like a crop is not slow. However if you are adding any computationally-intensive effects like video noise reduction, stabilization or flicker reduction, those can be *extremely* slow -- on almost any computer, but especially a laptop.

A fast export option is File>Share>Master File>Settings, then:
Format: Computer
Video codec: H.264 Faster Encode
Resolution: 1280x720

For much web-based content, 720p is adequate and reduces export and upload time significantly. Everything ABC, Fox and ESPN shoots and broadcasts is exclusively 720p. 1080p is OK provided your viewers are using devices that will show the difference and if you were not already trying to expedite the render/export/upload phase.