Playback & editing very slow on new computer

[Kevin Rag]

What’s the codec? Frame size? How is your external drive connected to your MBA?

K

[Mandy Leonardo]

Codec is Apple Pro Res 422. Frame size I’m working with is 1080×1080 & 1280×720. The drive is connected through the USB port.

[Kevin Rag]

Hmmm… with ProRes 422 shouldn’t be a problem. What is the available RAM on your MBA? The drive is a single, USB 3 self powered drive?
Generally, ProRes 422 on a external RAID would be the best. And 16GB RAM. Can you post a screenshot of your ‘About this Mac’? Would like to know what GPU and RAM you are running.
I live in Singapore. Time zone +8GMT, that’s why the late replies:)

K

[Mandy Leonardo]

8GB of Ram and not sure what the USB port is but it’s whatever is standard that comes on the Air. Here are some screen shots…

Thank you!

[Mandy Leonardo]

Bump. I’m still having these issues. Anyone have any idea how to help? Thanks!

[Joe Marler]

[Mandy Leonardo] “I went from a macbook pro to the air…I’m editing on an external drive and turned off rendering during playback. Doing very simple edits…no titles, graphics, etc… figure out why it’s running so slow.”

Depending on the two computers, it’s possible the MBA is just slower. Some MacBook Pros are quad core and all MBAs are dual core.

Another possibility is your external drive is USB 2.0. Those only work at slow USB 2.0 rates, even when connected to a USB 3.0 port. But if it’s the same drive you used on the MBP, it doesn’t explain that.

You can check the external drive performance by running Black Magic disk test. Be sure to select the external drive in the menus before running it, else it will use the internal SSD Drive. Do that and post your results here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

Editing ProRes (even at only 1080p) implies a higher I/O rate since the file sizes are about 6x larger than equivalent H264.

You can take a small sample of that project or one clip and create a test library on the internal SSD drive, then check editing speed. If it becomes fast, then it’s an I/O problem and the solution is get a faster external drive.

How was your 1080p ProRes material generated? Is it possible it was 4k H264 and you’re using ProRes proxies at 1080p? Maybe the FCPX viewer is not switch to proxy and it’s trying to edit 4k H264? That would be slow on a MBA.

If the 1080p ProRes came from, say, an Atmos recorder on a DSLR, it should be pretty quick to edit on a MBA, unless it’s been hobbled by a slow USB 2.0 external drive.

If there is any uncertainty on the characteristics of the source material, you can examine this with a tool like MediaInfo or Invisor:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/invisor-media-file-inspector/id442947586?mt=12

[Steve Connor]

FCPX is very dependent on the GPU and the Intel one on the Air isn’t great, your previous MBP probably had a faster GPU.

Definitely worth doing a speed test on the drive as well.

[Don Connors]

I hate to ask this obvious question, but is your Playback View set for Better Performance? That was a must when I was using a MBA.

Don

[Fred Turner]

[Steve Connor] “FCPX is very dependent on the GPU and the Intel one on the Air isn’t great, your previous MBP probably had a faster GPU.

Definitely worth doing a speed test on the drive as well.”

Intel HD Graphics 6000 should be fine, though, especially since we’re talking ProRes, and don’t even need any QuickSync functionality.

I agree about speed test on the drive. Also, Mandy, I’d recommend copying some of that footage to your internal drive (may have to clear some space first…looks pretty full) and testing there for comparison. ProRes @ 1080p and 720p shouldn’t be so demanding that a “current” MacBook Air and decent enough USB3 HD cannot handle it. One other thing, try arranging your windows so that you can have Activity Monitor up in the background while you attempt to view/scrub, then note if it looks like your processor cores are fully pegged. If so, you may be running out of CPU power (although that would seem unlikely to me).

[Fred Turner]

Whoops…somehow missed Joe Marler’s post during my initial read. Obviously most of my post is rehashing what he already said. ☺ Let us know what you find!