Extremely high CPU usage and choppy play back even in 720P...

I am on a macbook pro 13 inch 2019, 8gb ram, i7 quad core 2.5ghz. Mavericks, and latest FCPX version. I am chopping up a Twitch Vod of 2.5 hours of gameplay for a stream highlight. Why is it that even when i drop playback to "better performance", and change project temporarily to 720P, is it showing 120% cpu usage and is only playing at like 10-12 fps instead of 60? Is it because it is a long video clip? 2-3 hour clip. Meanwhile quicktime and Finder preview can play the video perfectly normal resolution and full Speed. Final cut Pro X cant simply play back the file normally, even without cuts or effects. even at 720P!

What's the media specs exactly? Changing the project properties won't help at all. Leaving the properties the same as the media is your best chance of good playback. Reducing the size of project resolution means the video has to be scaled in real time. You computer is underpowered for that especially using integrated graphics.

kofman wrote: ... I am chopping up a Twitch Vod of 2.5 hours of gameplay for a stream highlight. Why is it that even when i drop playback to "better performance", and change project temporarily to 720P, is it showing 120% cpu usage and is only playing at like 10-12 fps instead of 60? Is it because it is a long video clip?...

We need to know the properties of the 2.5 hr video. In FCPX click on the clip, then in Inspector click the "i" tab and report the resolution, frame rate, and codec. If it is HEVC play it in Quicktime and do CMD+I which will show whether it's 8-bit or 10-bit.

If it is 8-bit 1080p H264, that machine should be able to edit it smoothly. If it is 4k H264, many machines cannot - regardless of editing software. If it is HEVC there is a lot of variation.

There was a significant performance improvement in FCPX starting with 10.4.7 due to Metal optimization, but I don't remember if that requires Mojave. In general I'd suggest upgrading at least to Mojave which retains 32-bit support. You can get Mojave here: support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190

joema wrote:

kofman wrote: ... I am chopping up a Twitch Vod of 2.5 hours of gameplay for a stream highlight. Why is it that even when i drop playback to "better performance", and change project temporarily to 720P, is it showing 120% cpu usage and is only playing at like 10-12 fps instead of 60? Is it because it is a long video clip?...

We need to know the properties of the 2.5 hr video. In FCPX click on the clip, then in Inspector click the "i" tab and report the resolution, frame rate, and codec. If it is HEVC play it in Quicktime and do CMD+I which will show whether it's 8-bit or 10-bit.

If it is 8-bit 1080p H264, that machine should be able to edit it smoothly. If it is 4k H264, many machines cannot - regardless of editing software. If it is HEVC there is a lot of variation.

There was a significant performance improvement in FCPX starting with 10.4.7 due to Metal optimization, but I don't remember if that requires Mojave. In general I'd suggest upgrading at least to Mojave which retains 32-bit support. You can get Mojave here: support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190

Oh no!!!! so sorry guys i meant to type I am already on MOJAVE. i got it mixed up with mavericks...
I am on FCPX 10.4.5 actually!!! let me grab update to .7 and see if its better with encoding 1080P H264

You mean 10.4.8