[Nathanh]

Hi Patrick,

I think your ram config looks safe. I also read the bmd decklink system requirements here:

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail.asp?techID=60

and I didn’t read about any 3 gig ram limit… but maybe there is some info on this somewhere else. However, they do reference Apple’s doc on FCP ram configurations used for best performance. Perhaps when running the BM Decklink, it needs to run with the ram in one of the listed configurations. Your system is closest to running the 4 gig configuration by removing all of your 512 dimms & leaving the 1gig dims in the current positions. That is how our Mac Pro is configured, and it runs like a champ, but we are running the AJA Kona 3 card. I think if your system continues to freeze while running FCP with the Decklink, it might be worth a try. Sorry I don’t have much info on the Decklink… I’m just going down the process of elimination. UEM is running his system with 4gigs of ram currently. If it is configured correctly, and he is still having the same issues, then it must be something else. UEM, your thoughts?

Another thing you might try is trashing your FCP preferences. Here are some links for that:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/

I haven’t heard of corrupted prefs causing the specific problem your having, but it has caused some other strange problems. Also worth giving a try.

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

Hi UEM & Patrick,

When we first built up our Mac Pro to run FCP we didn’t follow Apple’s suggested ram configurations for optimal performance when running FCP, and we were having similar problems. Here’s a link to their suggested ram configurations for FCP:

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

I’ve heard of others running different configurations than are listed in this document from apple, and having their machines work, but I know we had problems with our system until we followed these guidelines… then the system ran excellent. If your running the suggested ram configs, then ignore this, but if not, then give it a shot.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

Apple may not follow the matching dimm pairs on each riser in their machines when they sell them, but according to this document from apple

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

they recommend it for optimal performance, specifically when using Final Cut Pro. I would imagine that they don’t follow this configuration when they sell every machine because not all Mac Pros will be running FCP. I know other ram configurations will work with FCP, but I also know that when we followed apple’s suggestions to matching pairs across the risers, we saw better performance.

Best,

NathanH

[Nathanh]

According to Apple’s suggestions, “…memory dimm pairs should be installed evenly on both risers.”

Here’s the link: https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

They also list each optimal configuration. I would stick with the recommended configurations.

Best,

NathanH

[Nathanh]

Hi Becker,

I was just recently using the DSR-11 for capturing some PAL footage from a miniDV tape into FCP. I thought I had everything set up properly in FCP, but the capture still wasn’t working properly- video and audio in the capture preview were intermittent. I could see on the front of the deck that the light indicator switched to PAL when playing back the tape; so I thought the deck just auto-detected the source footage and everything would be fine. But it wasn’t until I switched the tiny little switch on the back of the DSR-11 from NTSC to PAL that everything worked smoothly. So if you haven’t already done that, then give this a try:

Power down your Mac
Power down the DSR-11
Flip the switch on the back to PAL
Then power up again.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

Hi Dave,

I think in Wayne’s current situation he will have to eliminate some of his ram in his configuration to make matched pairs of equal size on each riser, then have both risers matched evenly for this configuration:

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser A/DIMM 3 empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4 empty

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser B/DIMM 3 empty
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4 empty

or replace his 512 mb dimms with 1 gig dimms for an 8 gig configuration (8x 1 gig dimms):

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser A/DIMM 3 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4 1 gig

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser B/DIMM 3 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4 1 gig

Here’s a quote from apple’s spec sheet for mac pro ram configuration:

“Note: DIMMs must be installed in pairs of equal size from the same vendor. For instance, you must not have one or three DIMMs on either riser at any time. Additionally, two DIMMs from different vendors should not be combined and used as a pair.”
https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

So if he were to install a 512 dimm on each riser in this configuration:

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser A/DIMM 3 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4 512mb

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser B/DIMM 3 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4 512 mb

then he would be able to match both risers evenly, but he would not have the matched pairs of equal size on each riser.

Its definitely a strict set of circumstances with the Mac Pro ram configuration, but once we followed it, I noticed a positive difference in performance.

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

I guess as a quick test you could try removing 3.5 gigs of ram from the Mac Pro, configuring it as we have ours with 2gigs paired on each riser. Then see what happens to the performance in FCP.

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

Hi Wayne,

We have 4gigs of ram total in our Mac Pro. Its being used at the moment so I can’t look in the box, but I believe its configured

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM RIser A/DIMM 3 empty
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4 empty

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2 1 gig
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3 empty
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4 empty

I think having unmatched dimm pairs on each riser can give you problems as well as having unmatched risers, such as your 7gig ram configuration.

Here’s a link to some specs apple explains for ram configuration in the Mac Pro when your using FCP:

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492

Best,

Nathan

[Nathanh]

Hi Wayne,

I noticed a similar issue when setting up a Mac Pro with Final Cut Studio, tricked out with a Kona 3, and a MediaVault 1.8 terabyte 4gb array running into a 4gb fibre channel atto card. We were comparing this system to another G5 running the same version of Final Cut 5.1.2, using a second internal Hard Drive as the scratch disk, and the G5 seemed to be “outperforming” the Mac Pro in the way you’ve described above when doing tests under certain circumstances. Anyway, it turned out to be the way our RAM was configured at the time in the Mac Pro and I believe there was some RAM limitation issue with the Atto card. But once the Atto drivers were up to date and we configured the RAM properly by pairing it on each board correctly in the Mac Pro, the Mac Pro no longer gave us the orange render bars where the G5 was giving us the green render bar in comparison. So, long story short, for us it was a ram config issue on the Mac Pro that seemed to inhibit the performance compared to the G5. Hope this helps.

Best,

NathanH

[Nathanh]

oops, quick fix – I meant to say, scale down your “Canvas” window and set it to “fit to window”, not your “Viewer” window. My bad.

Best,

NathanH