The Octo report on FCS3

My understanding is the quickcluster is useful only when exporting.

Rendering occurs in the background and that's where the quickcluster kicks in.

My point is that I do see any reports regarding FCS3 that it utilizes the cores any differently when rendering. None.

The changes occur on an export from FCP through Compressor which now renders in the background and permits you to continue to work while that occurs.

Hope this helps.

Yes, the specifications of FCS3 seem a little vague in regards to background rendering. I know in FCP 6 when I "Sequence | Render all" this uses one processor only -- I have 4 available and it would be nice to see FCP 7 using more than just one core.

Also, while in FCP 7, if I export using compressor will QMaster work now when setup to use more than a single core? Job segmenting ONLY worked in Compressor 3.0 stand alone, not with FCP.

Rob.

I believe it all has to do with the way FCP 6 exports to compressor, even if already rendered. It looks like it's handing a frame (or a small bunch of them) at a time off to compressor from FCP with lots of process switching.

If FCP 7 (speculation alert) can lock up the render (and original files where necessary) files to prevent modification after rendering, then "exporting through compressor" could be pretty much the same as exporting to a file (self contained or not), then sending that exporting file to compressor. As it sits now in FCP6, if you export then compress, you still must take care not to delete, etc. the files so references, otherwise compressor will fail.

For me in FCP6: I alway export then compress; with my G5 Quad, I get about real time HDV (or Prores 422) to mpeg2 with frame controls off, and about 8 times real time with frame controls on (to significantly improve quality) with all 4 cores fully occupied for most of the compression.

Eddie O

They way I believe this should be handle is with an option(s) when exporting to Compressor. Seeing as Apple/Mac's are supposed to be user friendly provide either a prompt or a Preference setting something like:

1. Enable background processing
a. Allocate CPUs (1,2,3,4, etc. - or external cluster server(s)) to do processing
b. Work off duplicate (no locking) OR work of source (project/file locking)

2. Disabled background processing
a. Allocate as many CPU's as possible, segment job, lock project/files until done

I think this approach would be the most flexible and prevent any "issues".

when rendering in FCP, I can tell you for sure that I have all 8 cores working at 50-70% most of the time. sounds like you guys have found some effect / plug that only wants to render on a single core. even OS stuff like file I/O can keep the other CPU's doing something. not sure under what specific circumstances you are seeing a single core being used, but for me they all work almost all the time.

Steve,

Can you expand on how you verified all your cores are actually working on rendering?

I've noticed my 4 cores look like they are working on FCP, but after doing some additional diagnostics/tracing they aren't actually working on the FCP thread -- which leads me to believe their is either a problem with CPU activity monitoring or something else?

I even took it one step further and forced two of my cores to be dedicated to processing some other unrelated task (not in FCP not sharing) and then rendered again under FCP and timed the output -- in all cases the render time was pretty close to identical regardless of CPU activity (I was expecting render to be slower when I had two other cores occupied with another unrelated tasks).

This left me scratching my head. I'm not running a 8 core MacPro, I have an older 2 dual core CPUs (2 x 2 for 4 core total) that I got in late 2007.

I know when Snow comes out I might do a complete wipe and re-install of everything in a hope I get my 4 CPUs working correctly with FCP. I've never been successful at getting more than just 2 cores to work with FCP. And these days it's down to just one core.

I don't know if this is just an OS X issue with my hardware or what -- I do know that under Vista (Bootcamp) these 4 cores will crank away very efficiently. So I'm stumped.

Rob

Eisen,

2007 era 4 core in my MacPro -- maybe that's why I seem to have issues??

I was a little surprised to see FCP 7 considering Snow is only a couple of months away and Snow has full 64bit application support. I thought they would release FCP 7 around the same month (Sept/Oct) as a real 64bit application show casing Snow. Guess I was wrong.

I guess 64bit will be saved for a feature in FCP 8 ??

Think you and I (or just me) is mixing up Render under FCP vs. Render under Compressor -- OR, I missed the option to QuickCluster renders while in FCP?? The only cluster support I'm aware of is under Compressor not FCP. Am I confused?

Rob

Eisen,

Yes, aware of that, but on my MacPro that "feature" doesn't work. I have to export to Quicktime, close FCP, open Compressor, create a job using exported file, and then select cluster. Also, I can ONLY select 2 cores for a cluster, it will never use 4 cores or even 3 cores -- just doesn't work on my MacPro.

If someone has gotten this to work on 2007 era MacPro with two dual core CPUs please let me know.

Rob

Hey guys, see my post at the bottom of this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9873411#9873411

So AppleCare say that FCP will still only use one core for rendering in FCP?

Guess I'll know for sure on Monday the 7/27 since it has shipped and I have a tracking number.

If that's true, certainly a bummer. Maybe that's why this upgrade is only $299, was sure my last FCS upgrade was more like $499.

Rob

Well they didn't say only 1 core would be used only that it wasn't written to take full advantage of all the cores. I never did any tests myself but when I select Sequence Render All it seems that more than 1 of my cores show movement on the meters I use to monitor but I can't say for sure.