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Performance on a Macbook Pro
Don’t have FCPX yet, but I’ve been following it with interest. I’m wondering what kind of performance I can expect on a 2011 Macbook Pro w/8GB RAM, 2.3 Ghz Quad i7, SSD. I’ve got a Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 going to a single 3G SATA drive. I’m editing entirely AVCHD now and I often edit 1080p footage on a 720p timeline at varying scales. High rez Jpg’s are commonly used with some subtle movement added. Throw in a few dissolves and maybe some basic color grading and that’s it! Would I be able to play this through without stopping to render? Wish there was a demo… Thanks!
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style! -
5 Replies
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I also have the latest (2011) MacBook Pro, 17″, 8GB RAM, Thunderbolt. I zeroed the drive, installed only Lion, FCPX, Motion 5 and the latest compressor and it FLIES! My drive is a 7200RPM drive connected by Firewire 800.
However, before I zeroed the drive, FCPX and Motion 5 performed very well (I couldn’t really see a difference) but my machine also had FCP Studio 3 on it and both FCPX and Motion5 both had exporting problems and other artifacts that went away after I zeroed the drive and did a clean install of Lion, FCPX and Motion 5.
Don Smith
NewsVideo.comNewsVideo.com
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Thanks for the feedback, Don. I’m testing it out now, playing back 1 “track” of AVCHD (scaled) w/color correction & shape mask; overlayed with a high rez jpg w/movement, color correction and opacity fade. All plays back in realtime. No rendering. On a laptop. WOW! This is with playback set to “high quality”. The GPU must be doing a fair amount of work because the processors are only running at about 25%. It’s nice to see some software take full advantage of this $4,200 laptop!
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style! -
Sadly my 2009 maxed-out 17in MBP is not very smooth with FCP X. I would even say it’s mostly unusable with this current version as it skips/crashes and is just downright slow on even the simplest projects. FCP X has so much (mostly unnecessary) eye candy that my GPU doesn’t seem to be able to keep up.
Curious if the first update will fix some of the slowness I have or just confirm that only 2011 Macs and beyond are suitable to use FCP X effectively.
tony
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Here’s my guess.. and I stress that this is a guess… that the software is engaging the GPU in the newest MBPro’s whereas it is not in your computer, probably due to your older GPU not having the spec’s required. So, on your older MBPro, only the CPU is engaged and is tasked with doing all the work. Also, I believe, that your MBPro is old enough not to have a second, more powerful, GPU like the newest laptops do that kick in only when needed.
Don Smith
NewsVideo.comNewsVideo.com
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2010 MBP 8gb 512 SSD.
Slow down occurs after adding texts / lower thirds, effects.
I am wondering whether this is due to GPU, CPU or memory.
It takes 1 – 2 seconds to click into a text box.
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Ray
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