Is FCPX Still a Memory Hog!

I was wondering if people think that FCPX is still as much of a memory hog as it was when it first launched.

First off here's my system specs...
• Original MacPro 1,1 2.66 (I know this is an older system, but it still runs like a champ.)
• Radeon 5770 HD graphics card
• Black Magic Intensity Pro card
• 8TB (WD Caviar Black drives) of storage, with media on non OS drive

• When working in FCPX ONLY the Event and Project I am working on are visible
(Event Manager X used)
• All video is ProResLT 720P 59.94 and all audio is AIIF.
• Waveforms are set to OFF, Playback is set to Better for optimized (Not BEST).
• All preferences are fresh, and just to double check, were run through Preference Manager.


I know there was an issue early on with FCPX and a memory leak, where FCPX wouldn't release the RAM being used, and as a result the program might hang or bomb. This was especially relevant to those on Lion (which is a memory hog itself), and not so much for those running on Snow Leopard.

I'm asking because I just did a fresh install of Lion on another drive, and at the same time installed the FCPX 1.0.3 update. They just so happened to coincide with each other on the same day.

I have been running FCPX on Snow Leopard and never really paid attention to my memory, as I never really had many hangups as others were reporting. Recently though the drive that had FCPX on it started developing a beep, when ever I was working in FCPX only. So I decided to not risk anything and installed Lion on a new drive to test it out.

Well last night for the first time I had my first 2 bombs of FCPX, where I was working had the spinning beach ball came out, then FCPX quit. Both times I was working on a multiclip, which BTW was working fine with no issues.

After my 2nd bomb I decided to open the Activity monitor and noticed that 10GB of my 14GB of RAM were being used. I then stated up FCPX again and my memory usage immediately went from 10GB being used to 12GB. And steadily increased as I was working.

I quit FCPX, downloaded FREE Memory from the AppStore, and my memory went from 12GB used down to 3GB. I then relaunched FCPX and my memory instantly went up to 4.25GB used and of course slowly started to climb as I worked in FCPX.

So since I don't have a reference using Lion and FCPX, what are peoples impression of the latest updates of Lion and FCPX together. Any improvements in memory and hangups.

Lion getting better with memory allocation?

FCPX getting better with it's memory allocation?

I haven't tested out the 1.0.3 update yet, but I will say that I had a very similar memory hog issue and I think it was caused by corrupted fonts / video from non standard sources. FCP would start a loop that would eat up all my memory, eventually consuming all my HD space too (I don't notice the speed slowdown as much since I use SSD).

I would open the console and see if there is anything suspicious going on there... particularly related to playing back of certain media (maybe something you added recently in your cut).

I am using 10.0.3 on Lion latest version on a fairly stout Mac Pro. For the most part, things run pretty well. Especially after taking a lot of advice found on this forum about what to do and not to do with fcpx.

I've been monitoring RAM usage with Activity Monitor, I don't have any of these issues. In fact, no matter how many projects I open, Lion always maintains a minimum of about 9.5 GB RAM free. If I open a large Motion project, Color, and other apps, it seems to actually take some away from FCP X on the fly, and going back to some previously opened Projects causes them to have to reload into RAM again. I'm not seeing it. And the moment FCP X closes, all that RAM is instantly free. No clue what makes the difference from one system to another.

You say after FCP X unexpectedly quit, did you see it actually listed in the Activity Monitor before relaunching it? If not, it sounds like you may have something else installed that's eating up your RAM. Did you look through the list to see where all that RAM was being allocated to before relaunching FCP X?

How many page outs are you getting in activity monitor?

The issue might be Lion more than FCPX. As I heard that Lion could be a hog for memory.

I am in the process of reinstalling a fresh install Snow Leopard on another drive, as I believe that my old SL drive was failing.

Even though I don't have FCS or FCPX installed on this system yet, as I am installing FCS first, I notice that Snow Leopard dramatically handles RAM differently than Lion. Especially in terms of how it handles inactive RAM.

On my Lion system, my used RAM increase from 1GB or to up to 13GB or so. But the inactive RAM would be around 12GB or so.

In Snow Leopard my used Ram is staying around 3GB and of course inactive RAM is around 1GB or so.

Last night alone, after I freed up RAM, my used RAM quickly increased again from 4GB to 12-13GB.
SO the issue might be more Lion than FCPX.

I read that inactive Ram is RAM that was used by previously opened programs. And that Lion doesn't release that RAM, but holds onto it, and redistributes the RAM as needed to other applications that might be used. So in other words the inactive RAM is still available RAM, but it is stored.

Is this correct?

The strange thing last night was that I didn;t really have any applications open when I booted up my system, as I was just running Carbon Copy Cloner and Winclone, and archiving some jobs, to prepare for my fresh install of SL on the other drive. Would running these two applications
and archiving really use up thta much RAM?

And if not, then do I have an issue anywhere?

BTW my page out last night on the Lion system was not at "0" but rather 768mg or so.
Snow Leopard right now is at "0"