Lack of performance in Final Cut Pro

As I am pretty new to the whole video editing scene on the Mac, I have a performance question for those who are somewhat more familiar with FCS(2).
I have a MBP Core Duo 2Ghz with 2GB of ram and 100GB@7200rpm (around 8GB free), and I am experiencing lags, lots of rendering and framedrops whilst capturing. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? I have a bunch of other apps open like iTunes, iCal, Safari and Dreamweaver, however when I use Final Cut the only app that's busy is FC. There's also plenty of (even unused) memory when I look at the activity monitor. How come I still get the message FC encountered dropped frames?
Another thing is playback. A simple speed alteration (for time lapse) gets FC all frustrated; it will only run smoothly when I render it first. It will play, but not hold a constant framerate. I find this strange, because if FC is protesting with this simple procedure, I don't even wanna know what it does once some filters are applied. Besides, a friend of mine with Premiere Pro and a single core processor can in fact run the time lapse at full framerate. No problems at all.
So my question is: is this kind of poor performance normal on a machine as described earlier? Or am I doing something wrong here?
If it's really not that special, I'd rather use Premiere Pro than FCS. Unless someone can give me a reason why PP can do the same thing, but then smoothly on an inferior machine.

First off, if you keep comparing programs and platforms hoping one will work like the other you will never be happy and may as well go back to Premiere right away.
That being said, there is the right and recommended way to do these things and then there is the way that works for you.
Some people claim to be able to edit just fine with a USB2 drive connection, what they are editing and how hard it's pushing the drive I don't know, I just know that I can't afford the problems and therefore don't do it.
Some people use their system drive as a scratch drive and get along fine. I've done this myself in a pinch and it's worked well enough, but again, I don't make it a habit because I want to avoid problems that are easy to avoid.
Some people have no issues when looping a deck or camera through the FW drive in order to capture. I've tried it and it's hit and miss. Depends somewhat on the deck or camera you use. Canon seems to have more issues in this regard than others. But again, a $50.00 card can eliminate the problem altogether so the decision is an easy one for me... get the card.
The point is, you can spend time trying these various methods, or you can do it the recommended way from the start, but wanting it to work in a certain way because that's the way something else works is not going to get you editing.
rh

Similar Messages

Final Cut Pro X Performance Killed

Yosemite has ABSOLUTELY KILLED performance on Final Cut Pro. Despite running 20 cores, 2 x GPUs and loads of RAM, whenever FCP renders in the background, everything comes to a near COMPLETE STOP. I have to wait for all the background rendering to finish before I can do anything. It is adding HOURS to even simple projects. The only way to fix it and be able to use the machine is to either WAIT for the grass to grow or quite FCP then everything is back to normal.
Thank you *&%%^#$% Yosemite for another &*%@^&#$ set of issues.

Still nothing has changed. I called Apple Support and finally got someone to do something. However I'm the only one having this problem (of course) and their 'bright' solution is to try a different disk. Really?! Thanks for nothing.
Today rending a 5 minute video from optimized which after 4 hours got to 95% (before Yosemite would take around 5 mins) and stopped there. After an hour at 95% I guessed it was screwed again so I quit FCP and rebooted. After reboot, FCP had completely reset itself and when I reopened the library, it reported all kinds of missing assets. I opened the library in finder (show package contents) and everything is still there. Repair permissions (which are again screwed up) helped nothing. What the f*$#@???? I open the project and everything is there as it should be and the rendered result in the timeline looks fine. When I try to export a master, FCP warns that it will be rendered with missing assets however it FINALLY rendered out without any issues. Thank GOD. Free if wretched FCPX, I can take the master now and re-compress it in Compressor and finally get it loaded. I'm only 48 hours late on the deadline thanks to this ongoing S@$t.
Thanks Apple for F&%@*&g me. A whole Saturday wasted yet again. Yosemite be damned.

Would I still be able to fun Final Cut Pro with no problem with the new 13"

My old MBP has "NVIDIA GeForce 860M GT with 128MB" and the new 13-inch MBP has "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics" I don't really know what "GT" means, but the more expensive MBP's listed have it, so I'm guessing it's pretty good. I was wondering if I'd still be able to fun Final Cut Pro quickly if I got the new 13-inch MBP.
Back in 2007, the guy at the Apple store said I'd have to get a MBP instead of a MB if I wanted to fun FCP correctly, and now both the MB and MBP use the same graphics chip, so I'm wondering if FCP will still function correctly on the new 13-inch MBP?

Eric wrote:
Incorrect about what? I never made any statements, just questions. According to the Apple store, the Macbook and 13-inch Macbook Pro both use the same chip, which is the only statement I made. And which is why I'm wondering if the new 13-inch MBP can even handle FCP since the MB can't (according to the guy in the Apple store).
Actually, your original question was formed as part of a statement:
now both the MB and MBP use the same graphics chip, so I'm wondering if FCP will still function >correctly on the new 13-inch MBP?
And that's the part that BoyHowdy pointed out that you are "a little incorrect" about. While it's true that they both have an onboard 9400M graphics chip, you are overlooking the fact that the 15" & 17" MBPs also have the much more powerful and dedicated 9600M GT graphics card. This is not an insignificant difference. Final Cut Pro, not to be confused with Final Cut Express (not you, others have confused the two), requires a dedicated card which the 15" & 17" MBPs have in the form of the additional 9600M GT, but the 13" still lacks.
The specs on the Final Cut Pro page are a little confusing because while it says it *will not work* with integrated graphics, it specifically refers to Intel, and does not mention Nvidia. However, it still says it requires an AGP or PCI Express card, which the 9400M is not.
My feeling is that even if it runs, the performance of Final Cut Pro on that system will be unacceptable, and will ultimately drive you mad. It really pushes the graphics systems hard, and despite their vast improvement over the pathetic Intel onboard graphics systems, the 9400M is still pretty anemic for high end work. You're better off saving a little more money and getting the low end 15" model. Not to mention, the extra screen real estate makes a huge difference with the very crowded Final Cut Pro UI.

I have the current Mac Pro the entry level with the default specification and i feel some slow performance when applying after effects on my videos using final cut pro and also rendering a video takes long time ? what upgrades do you guys suggest?

i have the current Mac Pro the entry level with the default configuration and i feel lack of performance when applying after effects on my videos using final cut pro and also rendering a video takes long time ? what upgrades do you guys suggest i could do on my Mac Pro ?

256GB SSD it shipped with will run low and one of the things to watch.
Default memory is 12GB also something to think about.
D500 and FCP-X 10.1+
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html#MacPro2013Performance
Five models of 2013 Mac Pro running Resolve, FCPX, After Effects, Photoshop, and Aperture

Is OS X Lion compatible with Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 and Digital Performer 6.02

I'm currently running OS X 10.6.8 and my Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 and Digiital Performer 6.02 work fine.
I want to upgrade to OS X Lion to take advantage of iCloud but I do not want to have to upgrade the FCP or DP programs.
Are my current versions compatible with OS X Lion?
Thanks,
Brett

See my tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2465

Would a 256 GB SSD on a 2012 Mac Mini significantly improve Final Cut Pro X Performance?

Would a 256 GB SSD on a 2012 Mac Mini significantly improve Final Cut Pro X Performance?
I'm considering a 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 Quad Core with 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD with external Thunderbolt drives.
I understand that Mavericks allocates 1GB VRAM from system memory in a 2012 Mini with 8GB RAM.

It will only improve the read and write performance, and this is not as important as the processor and the GPU in Final Cut Pro.
The Mac mini has got an integrated GPU that may work if you are a home user, but if you are a professional user, you should consider an iMac, a 15-inch MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro. You won't notice a big performance increase

Would 256 SSD on 2012 Mac Mini significantly improve Final Cut Pro Performance?

Would a 256 GB SSD on a 2012 Mac Mini significantly improve Final Cut Pro Performance? I'm considering a 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 Quad Core with 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD with external Thunderbolt drives.

It will only improve the read and write performance, and this is not as important as the processor and the GPU in Final Cut Pro.
The Mac mini has got an integrated GPU that may work if you are a home user, but if you are a professional user, you should consider an iMac, a 15-inch MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro. You won't notice a big performance increase

Why is Final Cut Pro X running so slow?

Hi! I have a Mid 2012 Macbook Pro (Version OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3, Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3) and I use Final Cut Pro X on my computer, however after once I downloaded its software onto my harddrive, Final Cut Pro X runs incredibly slow. I can't even complete a 2 minute project without getting frusrated by its lack of speed. I was looking up on several discussions referring to Final Cut Pro X's lack of speed and I noticed the computer's memory usually has something to do with it. I have 4GB of memory in use, and if i purchased a 16GB memory slot, would that solve my problem with Final Cut? I was hoping it'd be a quick fix because I use Final Cut faithfully in my school's editing lab and would love for it to work on my Macbook Pro! c:

FCPX is pretty fast, although obviously your experience wouldn't support that statement.
Performance does depend a lot on hardware, and although your machine is not the beefiest (particularly with the integrated GPU), it should out-perform my 3 year old MBP.
Yes, more RAM would help. Going to 12 GB, you'll see a big difference. If you can go to 16 GB, all the better.
However, your current configuration shouldn't be unacceptably slow. Check your HD and make sure you have at least 25% free space. With only 4 GB of RAM, it's important not to have a lot of other processes active the same time. Use Activity Monitor to check on free memory and page-outs..
Also, you will have better results if your events and projects are on a fast external drive (Thunderbolt would be best, but the selection is limited. Otherwise, there are Tb to Firewire adaptors you can try and of course, there is USB3.
Good luck,
Russ

Final Cut "Pro" and Crappy Export

Okay, I tried my first export from this alledged "professional" application to see whether problems I'm experiencing are issues with real-time rendering (or lack thereof) or truly how the final movie will be, and it turned out awful. There are areas where the video simply stalls (while the audio keeps going), inconsistent framerate, dropped frames, still having "stereo" audio playing as mono, and I find myself wondering why $300 was charged for such garbage. The settings I used are 1920x1080 | 29.97 fps | 5.1 (L R C LFE Ls Rs) | 48 kHz | QuickTime movie. The program is horribly slow (nearly constant beach balling), doesn't render per user specifications, and I now don't have much faith in its ability to export a movie properly. Are people really using this application for making quality movies, or is there something else (better) I should be using instead...? Or is it my machine? I'm using a MacBook "Pro"...maybe I should get an iMac? Will the movie play differently from YouTube than from my harddrive?

Thanks, I wanted to know if it's my setup or if the types of issues I'm having are common.
Computer: MacBook Pro 15", OS X 10.9.2 (13C1021)
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB
Storage: 344.34 GB free out of 499.25 GB
I don't know why the forum shows me as OS X Mavericks (10.9.1) because my system is actually 10.9.2.
My FCPX project is currently 11.42 GB with 16314 frames at 1920x1080, 29.97 fps, 5.1 Surround 48kHz. There are many connected clips and some intense Motion animations, but none of that should affect the performance of a final exported movie in QuickTime Player.
Problems I'm experiencing include:
- Nearly constant "beach balling" (severe application lag, with the only running applications being Mail, Safari, and Final Cut Pro)
- Dropped video frames and dropped audio during every playback (and suprisingly also in the exported movie)
- Clips configured as "Stereo" audio playing instead as left-channel mono (and when switching to "Dual Mono" their sound is only in the right-channel, and "Reverse Stereo" having no effect - audio still only left-channel)
- Unstable audio (clips that played fine as stereo audio yesterday have a channel missing today - with no changes to their settings)
- Intermittent playhead movement during playback (very spotty and delayed movement)
After spending 6 months on 9 minutes of video (I'm meticulous, and every frame includes some sort of video or audio effect...and the application's awful performance REALLY slows me down), I'm understandably frustrated with such unacceptable performance from an alledged "professional" application.

I have recently purchased MacBook Pro with Mac OSX 10.7.3 Lion and I would like to install Final Cut Pro 6 Studio2, and it came up with this error: 'you can't open application FinalCutProStudio.mpkg because PowerPc apps are no longer supported..pls advise

I have recently purchased MacBook Pro with Mac OSX 10.7.3 Lion and I would like to install Final Cut Pro 6 Studio2, and it came up with this error: 'you can't open application FinalCutProStudio.mpkg because PowerPc apps are no longer supported......Is there a way to run FCP6 on lion withoput this error? Any help would be appreciated.....

Hi Shane,
Just one more quesiton re: this topic, I am looking to get rosetta but do not have Leopard or Snow Leopard...
I read that it is not on Snow Leopard only on Leopard....so do I need to get only Leopard? Can u advise?
Alternatively I do have Mac OS X Tiger so is it on this and can I install it from here?
Please excuse my lack of knowledge here, just trying to get my FCP 6 up and running asap....
Best Rgds.

Unable to load Final Cut Pro

I just did an auto-update last night of FCP, and this morning am not able to start the program. I have not had this problem before, and have been using FCP for the last month or so. The error I got was that it may not be able to laod "nsTODimporter plug-in". Time-Of-Day? Come on, what's the problem here.
I am now re-installing the whole application. This is a joy when you have a lot to do, and little time to do it.
Any thoughts from anyone? I guess the first thing to do is not update FCP when it says there's an update out there.
Agree? Disagree?
Thanks for any input.
-dan

The problem has been solved, with a little pain.
The original problem (Final Cut Pro would not run after performing an automatic update of the OS, FCP, and many other apps) was related to the JVC component "nsTODimporter.component", which is an MPEG2 component used in QuickTime to allow you to convert JVC's compressed HD movies into apple MOV files.
The problem had nothing to do with FCP (I didn't know this to begin with when I created the first thread entry here).
The problem had to do with an update to the OS. Before the update, I had OS 10.5.1 After the update I had OS 10.5.2.
As it turns out, the JVC component is valid for OS 10.4.6 thru OS 10.4.8, and is not compatible for OS 10.5. BUT, the component worked for OS 10.5.1 because Apple allowed compatibility for many components for 10.5.1, but took this compatibility away for 10.5.2. to (per Apple tech support).
So, the steps I performed, and outcomes of the steps:
(1) Re-install FCP studio.
This took a long time, and didn't solve the problem.
(2) Run Repair Disk Permissions
This didn't fix the problem, which lead me to believing that this was not a permissions issue.
(3) Delete the FCP Preferences file
This didn't fix the problem.
(4) Create a new admin user on the machine, and try to run FCP from this new user.
THIS WORKED! So, the problem was specific to the user.
(5) Go back to main user, and see if FCP would now work with original user.
It still did not work.
(6) Find the plug-in and remove it
The plug-in was a Quicktime plug-in. Removing the plug-in fixed the problem. The plug-in allows you to convert JVC MPEG2 files to MOV files using Quicktime Pro.
Now that I have things back up and running, I have turned off the update function for the mac. Hopefully I won't have this problem again.
An an additional note, if you are using FCP, I recommend never buying the JVC GZ-HD7U camera. It seems like a nice inexpensive HD camera, but it's not worth the trouble required to allow you to use FCP for editing. I unfortunately didn't have the ability to use a better camera for the project I am on.
Thanks very much to those that replied.

How to use Final Cut pro with external hard drive?

I have too little space on my computer so I have to use final cut pro x with an external hard drive, but whenever I have the hard drive plugged in and Final cut going, my computer goes very slow. I just upgraded to 16gb ram... but can't seem to run FCP x while an external hard drive is plugged in. FCP just freezes up and I have to force quit.

craigbuckley wrote:
all the files and events in final cut are still on my internal, so my internal drive is still full.... Do I have to go and delete everything off my internal?
In addition to the excellent advice to keep your media on an external HDD, you need to make sure that your system (boot) drive has a decent amount of free space if you want to have a satisfactory editing experience. Many people recommend not going below 20% free space. That's especially so for the boot drive, but as you fill up the external, its performance will also slow. Ideally, we would have separate media and backup drives,
You don't need to "delete everything". Rather, you first figure out what needs to be moved. You copy those files to the other drive and then verify that all the files you copied are in two locations. At that point you can delete those files from your boot drive.
Good luck.
Russ

Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 freezes on output to VHS and other weridness!!!

Gents and Ladies,
First time poster...I feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside...really I do...
My Brand New G5 dual 2.7GHz blah blah blah is freezing up on out put to VHS. I am using a JVC SR-VS30 Mini-DV/SVHS dual deck.
Why VHS? I work for a school district and that's the cheapest stock possible.
Anyway... the board meeting tape I output last night all the sudden freezes after like 45 minutes of recording. It litterally screwed up right after I left the office last night. I actually stayed with it for 45 minutes and "held its hand" to make sure everything went along alright. Right after it left..."feeeze frame, freeze frame...now freeze..du du du na na na"...did you ever hear that song?
Anyway...to make a long story short...while watching the tape this morning...it was just stuck for like an hour like that. I turned it off after 30 seconds but after fast fwd'n the tape...it just kept recording like that.
Totally unbelieveable. I love how Macs need to rest before it starts to work. It grabs a cup of Joe and a bagel...reads the morning paper...returns a few emails...then it MIGHT be ready to work...if your lucky. And then...if your not looking...it'll randomly fail. I love that...so..what I do...is I try to trick it into working for me...yeah...I trick it...:)
Anyway...so I want to run Disk Warrior. My screen saver is turned off, my hard drives don't go to sleep, all the things you might think would cause it to go off line over the course of 3 hours... I have turned off. It would seem...at least to me...that when it tries to Auto Save the glitch kicks in.
The other thing is that I record the meetings on an NNovia Quick Capture HD DVR via Firewire. It has worked many times before...flawlessly. The copy is fine...the file in Final Cut is fine. It even previews to a TV monitor nicely...but on output...its choking on the toothpaste when rinsing.
JB
G5 Dual 2.7ghz H2o cooled Mac OS X (10.4.4) Double dipping on RAM

O.K. cool.
I did change Auto Save before any of this even happens. I made all these very changes on my previous dual 2.0 G5. That machine...although much slower...always worked...never faultered...very dependable. Quite honestly the best Mac I ever worked on...until new versions of stuff came out and ruined all my fun.
I have changed all the pertinant settings...at least I thought.
Do any of you think I should ask for the upgrade to 5.0? Does it have any fixes in it that make it worth it? The new machine is what has made the bugs pop up. For a while it wasn't even recognizing my deck then one day it started working. Any thoughts on that... let me know. I am not a huge fan of the Dual JVC deck but it has worked pretty well. Now I use this DVR and it works really well for long running board meetings. At least VHS does what its told...:) With DV you always got to wonder if you've dropped some frames. Even if I am recording to a Hard Drive.
Before this gig I worked on the "last run" dual something G4 Quicksilver's and they all ran horrible. FCP3 and bugs everywhere. After that disaster I then jumped ship all together to a Canopus Premiere Pro system on a DVStorm2 Pro + card. That is a nice system. Great Chroma Key stuff. Now at this gig I have been working in Mac again. I was hugely surprised by how well the G5 performed. It did get a little slow for me eventually. Honestly my single P4 in combonation with the Canopus Realtime Preview Board really beat it up quite badly. Even that still had to render in the end but at least I could see everything while I was working. Render time was pretty fast in the end too. I think that has been my favorite DV Editing solution on PC.
I really like Final Cut Pro. I think it quick and dirty...just the way I like it. I started out learning on Avid and if the company I worked for used it...I would prefer that truthfully but I have been riding FCP for 3 years and counting and every place I work at is Mac so...I am totally on this boat.
Any opinions on the Intel stuff yet? I would be interested in perf as I would like to get a Mac system at home and sell my Canopus rig...all thought I do love it so.
BTW...no...no error messages at all...
...and I would've styaed with it last night if I didn't have to finally leave after another 10 hour day...tonight I have a 2 hour video after work and then Sat/Sun we have a huge music festival and that will 2 12hr days...so...if I didn't need sleep...I would'e been able to stay some more...
;)~
...Oh and I have a 250 GB Serial ATA system drive and a 250 GB A/V Storage drive.
FCP stuff on A/V Drive
iMovie/iDVD stuff on system
...has always seemed to run better like this.
Many thanks for the ideas and for any future input.
JB

Can I partition a Firewire 800 drive to work with Time Machine and Final Cut Pro?

Hey, I was reading that having Final Cut Projects and Events on the same external Hard Drive as a time machine backup doesn't work well together. So I was wondering if I partition a 2 TB External Hard Drive and use 1 partition for Time Machine and the other for Final Cut Pro, would it work like it should? I had thought so because it would recognize it as 2 different drives but I wasn't sure. Thank You for your time!

aside, if it is supported or not:
A backup is a crucial element in your set-up - is it wise to 'stress it' as a working drive for video-editing ...... ?
or, vice versa:
The moment, Time Machine launches, your working drive drops its performance by half or even more.
Plus, depending on your settings, the drive is forced to copy tons of data from partition I to partition II ... due to, a partition is no 'real'/physical drive, this stresses a drive extremely .....
drives are sooo cheap. and drive-space should never be an 'issue' while movie-making ..

Can't Find Final Cut Pro with my admin user!

It was there, but I changed the name from the person I bought the macbook15 from and now all the settings and apps are set default.
Is there a way my main account (set to admin) can find Final Cut Pro (and maybe others) to appear on hard drive without having to use the old name and password?
If I create a new user with the name of the original account is simply says "Username already used". In other words, If I am to use the old username, I have to change my main admin account and go through that all over again.
Admin should mean, total control of the computer...
Also does deleting/changing the original user actually delete programs?? It shouldn't, the hard drive files should be left alone. I can't find Final Cut Pro on the drive at all, it seemed to only appear when I'm using the original user name.
Thoughts....discussions??
I'm using the latest Macbook Pro 15 and updates.

Firewire port is not required to install Final Cut Pro. Take a look at the Final Cut Studio system requirements and cross-reference it with your system specifications to discover what hardware your computer is lacking.

Lack of performance in Final Cut Pro

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