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FCP X Feels Laggy Need Advice with Options
When I finally came back to FCP about 6 months ago, I noticed that the Render was crazy fast, and it was punhy. Although I still hate with a passion the magnet timeline, and it does slow me down on my creative process, it was sort of worth it.
6 months in, and I feel it’s not rendering as fast.. Nothing changed.
I still work off my RAID 5. Have over 50% available. My Libraries are under 10 Events (usually 3 Project with each Library).
Should I upgrade my Interal to an 1+TB SSD (if so Link to Amazon) ?
Should I work off my Internal and then then transfer the Project Folder to the RAID 5 when the project is done?
Are my FCP Settings needing to be changed? (not many in there)Thanks guys super stoked for some help!
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
4G Ghz 1867 Mhz DDR3
64GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
3TB Fusion
ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt 3 20TB Internal RAID 5 (SoftRAID) -
6 Replies
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What kind of media are you mostly working with?
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4K/30P/24P 100Mmbps
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
4G Ghz 1867 Mhz DDR3
64GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
3TB Fusion
ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt 3 20TB Internal RAID 5 (SoftRAID) -
[Patrick Jones] “I noticed that the Render was crazy fast, and it was punhy. Although I still hate with a passion the magnet timeline, and it does slow me down on my creative process, it was sort of worth it.
6 months in, and I feel it’s not rendering as fast.. Nothing changed.
I still work off my RAID 5. Have over 50% available. My Libraries are under 10 Events (usually 3 Project with each Library). Should I upgrade my Interal to an 1+TB SSD”
I’ve edited a 20TB 4k H264 documentary on a 2015 iMac 27 like yours, using proxies, with material on a Thunderbay 4. It worked mostly OK, and that was without using background rendering.
When you say “render was crazy fast”, then “it’s not rendering as fast”, do you mean export or rendering the timeline with CTRL+R? If export, what codec, and what is your editing codec?
Have you added any compute-intensive effects? Those will slow things way down and have little to do with I/O.
You can check your machine and software config by simply creating a test library, importing a 4k/30 H264 test clip, add no effects or edits, then exporting that as 4k/30 H264 this way: File>Share>Master File>Settings, Format: Computer, Video codec: H.264 Faster Encode, Resolution: either 4k or 1080p.
If that is as fast as expected, then maybe it’s something you’ve done to the production timeline or library. As edits gradually accumulate in a timeline, things can slow down. To some degree that’s normal.
If you were previously editing 4k on a 1080p timeline, then switch to a 4k timeline, the render files will become 4k so certain things will be slower. You can usually edit 4k on a 1080p timeline, then if you need 4k output, switch the project characteristics back to 4k before you export.
However for 4k H264 the 2015 iMac is not as fast as the 2017. Apparently due to improvements in the Kaby Lake version of Quick Sync or in how FCPX uses this, it’s about 2x faster at H264 operations, including timeline scrubbing and export.
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It sounds like you’re shooting Sony XAVC S? For me it used to be really laggy. Canon MP4s at 150mpbs were smooth though. It has gotten better with FCP X and OS X updates. So if you’re not updated to High Sierra, I’d consider doing that.
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What version of FCPX?
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System Im running is
OS 9.7 Classic –
Just kidding.
Mohave – 10.14
But it’s been laggy for some time.So I ran a BlackMagic Speed test and it appears my OWC TBT4 is running at 260MB Read and 350 Write Speeds… What could be slowing it down to half what I should be getting?
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
4G Ghz 1867 Mhz DDR3
64GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
3TB Fusion
ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt 3 20TB Internal RAID 5 (SoftRAID)
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