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FCP X & iTunes – performance issues
Has anyone experienced this? Both FCP X and iTunes dog out when using both together. FCP X’s performance goes to just better than Premiere without nothing running and iTunes is just pants.
For the info:
OS – Lion
FCP X 10.0.1
Scratch drive: 2TB w 900 gig free space (backed up to server last night)
RAM – 17 gig
iTunes – 10.5
Beverage: Earl Grey tea
Music: Atomic – She
(you know the last two count. Yes you do! When you’ve been staring and listening to the same stuff for HOURS!)Lawrence
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3 Replies
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I notice you are running Lion.
Have you checked Activity Monitor? Which is maxing out? CPU or memory? FCP X typically takes up over 7 GB, at least for me. The performance issue I see is Inactive Memory usage slowly rises. It rises even if you aren’t actually doing something.
Launch FCP X and the Activity Monitor. Watch Inactive Memory and it will probably start rising. Use FCP X and it seems to rise quicker.
My understanding of Inactive Memory is that the OS sets it aside, typically when you quit an application. It’s keeps it in case you reopen the same app. Eventually, it’s supposed to release the memory. I’ve never seen Lion release any Inactive Memory. One time, I quite FCP X and all other applications and left my system on over night. I came back in the morning and Inactive Memory had consumed 20 of my 24 GB or memory.
This appears to be a rather well discussed issue on Apple’s Lion Discussion board. I’ve tried some of the suggestions there. Use a new user account, to see if anything hiding in my Library was causing the issue, it’s kind of like a complete trashing of all preferences. I re-installed OS X Lion 10.7.2 Combo, sometimes this helps but it needs to be the Combo. Nothing changed. It’s not FCP X, because the Inactive Memory issue happens without FCP X running. Some suggested running in 32 bit mode, no thanks.
The only way I’ve found to reclaim the Inactive Memory is reboot. I actually tried switching Users, but the Inactive Memory stays the same.
I did come across a suggestion to use the purge command. I tried it out and it does appear to work. Even while using FCP X. But … using Terminal commands makes me nervous. The name itself sounds so permanent, Terminal. (I hum the Terminator theme music the entire time I use it)
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Kevin,
You are right about the memory issue and where it is apparently stemming from. The strange or rather relieving thing is that after about 3 hours, the memory requirements shrink back dramatically and then start climbing again, ever so slowly.It’s what we live with, I suppose and maybe it’s time to indulge my memory again?
I’ve tried the purge terminal input but like you I’m not overly comfortable with the finality of it (even though I worked for a software house for a decade) I still have my reservations.
Lawrence
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I got up the nerve to run purge yesterday, just after I started with FCP X. Hours later, Inactive Memory was still fairly low. Perhaps it just needs a push to get it going?
If I don’t run purge, IM on my system can easily grow to over 5 and 6 GB. Hope Apple gets around to fixing it.
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