FCPX or a new Mac

[Andrew Kimery]

Are you trying to edit the DSLR footage natively (which is a big no-no w/FCP 7) or are you transcoding to another codec like ProRes?

I honestly wouldn’t put any more money into an original Mac Pro. Literally any Mac made in the past few years (save possibly a first gen MacBook Air) would be an improvement in terms of processing power.

I believe FCP 7 will still run under Mountain Lion (the most current Mac OS) but a new Mac OS (called Mavericks) will come out soon and no one knows yet if FCP 7 will work on Mavericks. Once Apple releases Mavericks all new computers from Apple will ship with it and there will not be a way to load an older version of the OS onto the Mac.

[Steve Eisen]

I have the Mac Pro 1,1 Quad Core 3.0. 8GB RAM. ATI Radeon HD 5770. OS 10.7.5. Matrox MXO 2. I’ve been editing HD ProRes and DVCPro HD) since 2007 and it performs flawlessly with FCP 7, Premiere Pro CC and Media Composer 6.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group

[Andrew Fenner]

Hi Steve

How did you manage to upgrade to Mac OSX 10.7.5? I am stuck on 10.6.8.

[Bret Williams]

I also have a 1,1 running Lion. No problem upgrading. But you can’t go to Mountain Lion. Lion is it. If you want to continue with 7, I’d probably get another 4gigs of RAM. But don’t put any more than that into that machine. It’s not going to run mavericks, or the next version of X. Start saving for a new machine.

[Neil Patience]

Like Steve I have a MacPro 1.1 which has been upgraded to an 8 core machine with a Radeon 5770 and it too runs FCP7 flawlessly as well as V6 Avid.
It works perfectly with Lion but Mountain Lion is a no no. I did read a blog that explains how you can install Mountain Lion on a 1.1 but it seems like a process not for the feint hearted – see here https://www.jabbawok.net/?p=47 – Not sure I would try/bother though.

It’s not great with FCPX as you have noted as you really need the latest 64 bit hyper threading machines and a bunch of RAM to take advantage of its power.

The out of memory errors are probably caused by other reasons, often associated with, for example, large stills over 4K in the sequence, or corrupt render files. You will find lots of posts here suggesting reasons and fixes.

You might benefit from a bit more RAM but FCP can only access 4 gigs anyway being 32bit. In general, like the others, I would avoid spending much money on this machine, you should get your favourite FCP running without a hitch and as Andrew says don’t try to edit H264 always transcode to ProRes.

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv

8 Core MacPro, Kona 3, Tangent Wave, Mackie Universal Symphony 6.5 FCP7
i7 2.7 Gig MBP (non retina) 16Gigs Ram Blackmagic Monitor Mini Symphony 6.5 FCP7

[Bret Williams]

If you want the most from FCP on the 1,1 you’ll need to upgrade the RAM. FCP can use up to 4 gigs, but Lion could probably use 2 gigs and you’ll likely have a browser or email or photoshop or something else open as well. 4 gigs just doesn’t cut it IMO. Still, not sure if it’s causing the errors, but if it can only access a couple gigs, and you’re trying to put h264 files in it, then there’s ya problem.

[Rainer Wirth]

I would upgrade your Ram to 8GB. Keep snow leopard with FCP7 it works perfect. Get a second HD in the computer with mountain lion and FCPx.
32 and 64bit systems are very different. So I won’t mix them.
As FCP7 is basically outdated you should think of MC7 or Premiere, but I don’t believe in this Creative Cloud stuff.
Your computer seems okay with me.

Cheers

Rainer

factstory
Rainer Wirth
phone_0049-177-2156086
Mac pro 8core
Adobe,FCP,Avid
several raid systems