SLOW render times on brand new Mac Pro

[Alan Okey]

You need to set up a virtual cluster on your Mac using Qmaster and Qadministrator so that Compressor will make the greatest use of all of your CPU cores. Make sure that Compressor is allotted 8 instances in the Qmaster preferences. Search the Cow forums for details.

[Elijah Lynn]

Rendering takes place within Final Cut Pro and s different from exporting.

If you are referring to rendering then compressor will not help.

I am having this same problem. Our brand new 8×3.2 Ghz with 10 GB ram and a 8800 GT only uses about 10-40% of the cpu according to the Activity monitor.

I have called apple many times and I must say their tech support is the most worthless thing ever. I am still waiting for a call back from 2 days ago. Most of their guys don’t know anything but a few do. I was lucky enough to talk with one BEFORE our purchase. I guess they are only reserved to make sales.

If you figure it out let me know. This thing is super slow.

[Daniel Vockins]

Thanks for this advice but I’m still having problems! When I click “system preferences” and then “QMASTER” and then the “compressor” line under “services” I cannot click the “options for selected service” to increase the number of cores. Interestingly, when I click the “rendering” button beneath I can then click the options button to change the number of “instances” for that line. The problem is not related to accidentally not clicking the “stop sharing” button either – sharing is off.

Anyone know why this might be?

[Daniel Vockins]

Thanks for this advice but I’m still having problems! When I click “system preferences” and then “QMASTER” and then the “compressor” line under “services” I cannot click the “options for selected service” to increase the number of cores. Interestingly, when I click the “rendering” button beneath I can then click the options button to change the number of “instances” for that line. The problem is not related to accidentally not clicking the “stop sharing” button either – sharing is off.

Anyone know why this might be?

[Will Griffith]

This issue has been covered many…many…many times.
Please do a quick search or just look down the main FCP page.

Correct Qmaster setup…

open system preferences>select Apple Qmaster> Select “Stop Sharing” >
Select “QuickCluster With Services” > select “Options for Selected Service >
change number of instances to 8 > Click “Start Sharing”

I will warn you that 4gb will not get you too far with 8 cores. It is most
efficient with 2gb per core. Try 4 instances instead of 8 if 8 is still slow.
HDV is also just dog slow as well…no matter what machine. 4 hours of
uncompressed or DVCPROHD would be a breeze.

Also…just for kicks try After Effects CS3 if you want to see your 8 core beauty
brought to its knees. 95% utilization on ALL cores. You can barely move a window
around because it is sucks up so much resources. Adobe seems to “get it” in that
regard, but setting up Qmaster correctly helps a lot.

Will Griffith
Producer

[Elijah Lynn]

Hi Will,

Should “share” and “managed” be selected for the services “compressor” and “rendering” as well? A girl from Apple had me clicking all sorts of stuff one night and I am unsure what they should be set to. I have all 4 boxes checked right now and am going to try this out.

[Elijah Lynn]

I set up my Qmaster and it makes no difference at all. I read many threads on this and it works if you can send something to compressor after you do a quicktime movie export but I need to export to a Animation codec with alpha and this thing might as well be a single core.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Daniel,
This is not in the book, but the first thing to do after installing Mac OX and FC Suit (or any other software), is to run an application that cleans the post-installation mess that you have in your computer system.
After a clean install from scratches you my have a 30% of the directories items out of order. Imposible to make move smoothly something like FC or Compressor.
So instead of digging in the FC insides, make sure your system is optimized.
Run DiskWarrior or TechTools and I bet that your Mac will pass the indigestion.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Will Griffith]

Elijah…

Only the two “Share” checkboxes need to be checked.

Before We can help you anymore can you please explain
your situation since it is obviously different than
the thread starter.

What is your FCP/OSX version, sequence settings, and
format you are trying to render?

Will Griffith
Producer

[Daniel Vockins]

Hi Will,

Thanks for this but I still cant use the advise because I cannot click “options for selected service” when “compressor” is highlighted in the “service” section. It is simply grayed out.

I’m running FCS1 fully updated (compressor being 2.3.1) and OS being 10.5.4 . Am I missing something, why is the option grayed out? Thanks to all for help, nearly there!

Dan