FCP X setting for slower computers?? 2009 MBP?

T

thabo

Well-known member
I'm wondering if anyone has figured out how to run FCP X on an older MBP without it bogging down with maxed out CPU usage and stuttering playback? I've got a 2009, 2.4Ghz MBP with 8 gigs of Ram and a 9600m Gt card / 256mb.

Stuff I've tried:
Turn off the auto render: helps a ton and I had 3 streams of 1080p 30 video playing on top of each other all with color correction on them.
Just edit using the Pro Res proxy: not sure how I can tell if I'm using the proxy of full ProRes422 codec when I edit.

The more I look at FCP X the more I see that it's got a huge amount of new stuff and the more I realize I have no idea how to use it. Putting the obvious omission aside (multi-cam, tape stuff) I think the problem folks are having is that it's so different and so new that the frustration comes from not know how the hell to use all the new features.
 
thabo said:
I'm wondering if anyone has figured out how to run FCP X on an older MBP without it bogging down with maxed out CPU usage and stuttering playback? I've got a 2009, 2.4Ghz MBP with 8 gigs of Ram and a 9600m Gt card / 256mb.

Stuff I've tried:
Turn off the auto render: helps a ton and I had 3 streams of 1080p 30 video playing on top of each other all with color correction on them.
Just edit using the Pro Res proxy: not sure how I can tell if I'm using the proxy of full ProRes422 codec when I edit.

The more I look at FCP X the more I see that it's got a huge amount of new stuff and the more I realize I have no idea how to use it. Putting the obvious omission aside (multi-cam, tape stuff) I think the problem folks are having is that it's so different and so new that the frustration comes from not know how the hell to use all the new features.
Click to expand...

I have tested native Avchd, proxy and prores. The prores seems to work very smooth the proxy and Avchd both choke.

The 2.4ghz seems to just run a little slow with FCP X overall though. It screams on my 8-core 2.8 Mac Pro from 2008 with the 3870.
 
thabo said:
I'm wondering if anyone has figured out how to run FCP X on an older MBP without it bogging down with maxed out CPU usage and stuttering playback? I've got a 2009, 2.4Ghz MBP with 8 gigs of Ram and a 9600m Gt card / 256mb.
Click to expand...

Are you running an external scratch drive? I'm working on a sub-spec'd iMac and adding an external drive has dramatically improved functioning.
 
Don't turn on any of the import analysis options, or wait for them to finish.

Turn background rendering way up to as high of a delay as allowed; use the manual shift+CMD+R (I think that's shortcut) to render when you want.

Make sure you are working from a fast enough HDD (7200rpm internal, or firewire connected external).

What format are you working with? DSLR, GoPro? Transcode to ProRes first. Just because FCP X can work with it natively doesn't mean your computer can handle it perfectly.
 
Slow ....

Slow ....

My footage is AVCHD from a Panasonic HMC40. I am using the internal drive, I have all of the "analyze file for" items turned off and I just checked the two options for proxy and prores.

Will try to edit footage on external esata connected drive.
 
My 2009 MBP has been choking up on FCP X as well, probably even worse than you because I don't have a dedicated GPU and only have 4 gigs of RAM.

For me, transcoding to ProRes proxy and waiting for it to finish rendering completely allows me to edit pretty smoothly. Import your clips to ProRes Proxy and then go into the preferences panel and change the playback setting to "Use Proxy Media".

If your clips haven't finished rendering yet, you'll notice there will be a ton of exclamation points over your clips and it will appear as though your media is disconnected.
Once everything finishes transcoding, the clips will pop back in and you'll be able to edit smoothly.
 
No deticated GPU on 2009 MBP? I have a 2008 and a 2009 MBP and both have GPUs.

What I did try was attaching an external esata drive to my machine, via expresscard adabtop. Seem to work well.

As for ProRes encoding, I'm not aware that you can edit AVCHD without encoding like you can with Premeriere Pro. I have PP5.5, the latest and greatest and because my machine doesn't have an I7 processor or an updated graphics card it's almost useless - very slow to do everything but simple editing, as PP does not ship with an intermediate codec and relies on the mercury playback engine to do it's magic.
 
I have also faced this problem. I posted a similar thread a while back. ( I dont know why I still bother with this software and why I'm trying to learn it. I think a small portion of me still believes things will change... )

Anyway, what I've done to make the macbookpro somehow work for me is to thick out all the import options excluding the create optimized media in project settings. I also selected Prores 4:2:2 for render. If you want faster results don't select create optimized media and individually select by option click on the clip browser the clips you want to transcode. That way you can somehow emulate the old log and transfer- but without in and out control of the transcoding clip- and do your editorial prOcess with the thumbnails of the clip browser. If you select create optimized media on project settings you are transcoding everything from your card.

I hope this somehow makes sense.
 
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