Why FCPX Seems Faster on Thunderbolt Macs

[Walter Soyka]

[Bill Davis] “I’m not sure you can design efficiently for both. “

That’s kind of Andy’s point. If Apple had released Mac Pros with the new Xeons, FCPX on Mac Pros would have gotten a massive speed boost for free by virtue of the fact that they could use the same AVX instructions that make FCPX notably faster on newer-generation iMacs and MacBook Pros. The 2010/2012 Mac Pros don’t have Intel processors with this instruction set, so performance suffers.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Bill Davis] “But how is this more of “a breeze” then just connecting to the App Store and downloading a fresh copy directly to your device? Seems to me that App Store distribution has changed all that.”

It’s not, but I wasn’t trying to compare it to the App Store. Just a friendly tip for anyone who still needs to manage FCP Legend installations.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Bill Davis]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Show me where I can download FCS3 on the AppStore and I’m all for it, Bill!”

But Jeremy…

I thought that was one of the central issues in the rebuild. The code in Legacy had obviously gotten pretty monstrous after 10 years of providing everything to everyone in one package!

I certainly remember having to re-install once in a while after a crash with Legacy. What was it at the end? 8 to 10 disks to swap in to build the Suites code base – even if you didn’t install all the training wheels and SFX?

Took about 2-3 hours of disk swapping grief if you truly wanted to do “fresh from clean purchased disks” installs?

Now we have 10 minutes on the App store via Cable Modem – plus about 2 minutes each for Motion and Compressor and we’re done – plus we always get the more current code. No need for running all the updates to get from the disks to the current code.

Change for the better, I’d say.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “I agree with your point that Apple’s product strategy is different than it used to be, and I agree that they’re pushing their customers into shorter refresh cycles, but I’m not really sure what term best captures that.”

I actually thing current Apple manufacturing is about “snapshot products.”

They offer a narrow line – with some customization via build to order. You get to click a few boxes to determine the level of easily changeable things like RAM, drive capacity, etc – and they’ll build you a machine to the specs of the snapshot you provide at the point of order.

You can do some very limited hot-rodding once you own it but not all that much, really. As soon as Apple finishes one snapshot configuration cycle, they start planning for the next one.

I think it’s mostly a reflection of modern automated assembly.

I may have mentioned before that back in my young days, I did all the advertising for a local stereo shop. I was astonished to learn that in the back room, when the cases were off, the Low, Medium and High end products from Manufacturer X, Y and Z were all essentially the same units with different holes in the faceplates to allow access to additional knobs, jacks and switches on the higher end models – but at the core, they were all the same device.. There might be a beefier power supply in the high end, or an extra piggyback card for a few more capabilities, but it made absolutely no sense for them to design three different circuits that all did largely the same thing – so they didn’t.

I think Apple spends a LOT of time on getting the basic device as right as they can. Then they start selling it and simultaneously start working on the next design.

They’ll migrate the new tech across the platforms – but like the famous Jobsian story of the 4 quadrants on the paper with 4 business lines – Apple isn’t about making as many SKUs as possible to widen their appeal – they make very few, very carefully thought out strategic products. And that’s it.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Craig Seeman]

I’m looking at “commodity” slightly differently.
It’s not so much that Apple’s devices can be replaced by a competitor’s device but that Apple’s devices are regularly replaced by their own updated devices.

Of course, despite our own disposition towards Apple products (assuming you like them too) some would argue that iOS vs Android and Mac vs Windows devices are now all commodities.

In day’s of old I remember arguments that one of the differentiators were that Apple products had a much longer useful life than their competitors. These days Apple devices are quickly replaced.

Some might argue (as we’ve seen in this forum) that Windows may have a longer life because such PCs are more user upgradable than where Apple has headed by design.

Another commodity argument is that it’s all so quickly placed that one can move from an iOS device to an Android device for a quick lifecycle and back again. The same goes for Windows. We even see that debate here. Some here may well move to a power Windows box for a couple of years while Apple updates its desktop line and then move back.

Of course Apple tries to prevent that through its tight ties to its ecosystem and I think we are now seeing even tighter ties (App Store, FCPX to OSX, etc.) given that otherwise it may be easier than ever before to move from one hardware system to another. Avid and Premiere users can move between Mac and Windows. iTunes itself is cross platform. Actually moving between iPhone and Android may be tougher as I know of no easy “cross platform” app strategy.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Bill Davis] “I certainly remember having to re-install once in a while after a crash with Legacy. What was it at the end? 8 to 10 disks to swap in to build the Suites code base – even if you didn’t install all the training wheels and SFX?”

Yes, that’s why I said to make disk images. The whole suite installs in about 20 minutes, content included.

If you aren’t installing all the content, it installs in a few seconds.

I was trying to help Tony West’s buddy, who probably doesn’t need any help anyway. 🙂

As spinning disks of all flavors continue to slowly disappear (if you are sticking with Apple) it’s a good time to make a digital and archivable backup of your important software. It’s very easy to do.

Even if we switch NLEs today and no matter what, I will have to stick with FCS3 for a long time due to the legacy projects.

Jeremy

[Walter Soyka]

[Craig Seeman] “I’m looking at “commodity” slightly differently. It’s not so much that Apple’s devices can be replaced by a competitor’s device but that Apple’s devices are regularly replaced by their own updated devices.”

Ok, I understand, but it’s terribly confusing since the term “commodity” actually means something else. It’d be like if I called color grading “sweetening” — maybe it would describe what I thought I wanted, but everyone here would think of audio.

You used another adjective in one of your posts that I thought really grabbed Apple’s product design objective: “personal.”

I think that if we can add personal to another word that wraps in the idea of planned obsolescence or feature depreciation — or maybe even fashion — we’ll have it.

Sidebar: Apple products used to hold value better than PCs. With Apple continuously disrupting themselves, is this still true?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Richard Herd]

The irony is how the discussion became a case study in Marxian dialectics (aka Capital).

[Richard Herd]

Bill, did you just describe a cloud?

[Ted Irving]

i bought a new mid-2012 MacPro and I wish I would have waited, but I needed the upgrade. To get my FCPX 10.06 to run faster is that I periodically zap the pram, every month do a SMC reset and then every six months a PMU switch reset. The pram zap of course is something you can do a lot more. I have 20MB of RAM and even then FCPX can drag over time. In addition I’m running a 9TB RAID with internal SATA drives. No external USB, but I’m looking to invest in a CalDigit USB 3.0 PCIe card. Hoping that along with the SATA will allow FCPX to run a bit faster. I know its nowhere near thunderbolt speed but the Mid 2010’s can’t accept a thunderbolt pcie card. I read where thunderbolt is hardwired on the motherboard. I might follow behind some of you and get either a new iMac or laptop with thunderbolt.

Ted Irving
Freelance Content Creation
CBS MaxPreps/BBN3
http://www.tedtv.tv
tedirving@yahoo.com