What is the "normal" level of performance?

Those export times are unbelievably long unless your project is incredibly complex.

I have just completed and exported a 19 minute project.

It was 1080p and consisted of a timeline with a 3D title full of colour-corrected clips with a transition between each one, together with a clip above it slowed down to 32% (stretching the whole length of the project) forming a picture in picture.

The whole 19 minute project took 5 minutes 30 seconds to export on my 8GB RAM 2017 iMac.

So an hour long video of similar complexity would take well under 20 minutes.

EDIT:

I have just remembered that you were mentioning stabilising the video . . . that could possibly account for the excessive export times.

Could you remove the stabilisation and export a copy to see how long that takes . . . it should be around 20 minutes.

If so, you will know that the stabilisation is the cause and therefore would probably be "normal".

Satoline wrote:

Thank you all for your input. One voice says it is not normal, an other one says it is... Of course, with a sample size of two, it's hard to say... If more people would share their typical export time, it would help. Thank you.

You didn't state how much RAM your Mac has or which codec you were using when doing the export. With your integrated GPU and depending on RAM size (and other running applications, system extensions, etc.), and choice of export codec it is difficult for anyone to accurately state what your "normal" export time should be. Exporting to ProRes 422 (HQ), for example, is much faster than exporting to H.264/AVC or H.265/HEVC.

The only way to know for sure about your stated export times would be for you to provide your project to someone with the same computer setup. Otherwise, it's a lot of non-factual conjecture (as good as the advice may be).

As Tom alluded, a good next step would be to run EtreCheck to see if you are having some obvioius system-level issues...

There are a lot of variables to consider, so we can’t give a simple yes or no answer.

Your integrated gpu is probably the weakest link.

The amount of effects applied, in particular stuff like noise reduction, can greatly affect the time it takes to export. So can the export settings - which are you using? Do you have many effects applied? Lots of compound clips, and particularly deeply nested compounds? These things also take a toll.

One thing that may help is to split your project in a few shorter ones, export them, and then put the already exported files in a “master” project.

For comparison, I use older Mac hardware and edit 4K footage all the time. Yes, this older hardware is not as fast as the current M1 or M2 hardware but it works just fine. Lots of performance issues can be related to insufficiently fast drive setups, lack of RAM, and integrated GPUs (amongst a myriad of other things).

Depending on the project duration and timeline complexity, frame size, effects used, frame rate, codec chosen for output, and many other factors, an export can take several hours (again, add in general factors described in the previous paragraph).

Running stabilization on lengthy video clips is not recommended. Stabilization is intended for already edited "shots" of a few seconds up to a minute or two. So, it's not surprising that your long clip is taking so long. Your settings could be affecting the duration of the analysis and application of the effect, too.

Correct shaky video in Final Cut Pro - Apple Support (CA)

Bottom line is that your Mac is more than capable of handling many editing tasks (aside from GPU limitations), if you optimize your HW setup and workflow...

It is NOT normal unless your video is 4K/8K and containing multiple complexities as Luis suggests.

To give an example from the other end of the scale, my 2017 iMac (i5 and 8GB RAM) exporting a simple 60 minute 1080p video with a title and transitions will take around 20 minutes.

Is your hard drive full?

Stabilising does take ages unless you are just correcting a few short clips.

My 2019 MBP is quite comparable to your 2018. It’s compressing 4K to 720 with a title on an hour long video to H.264 in 12 minutes 5 seconds producing a file that’s 2.58GB. I exported the same project to ProRes and it was slightly quicker 11 minutes 36 seconds and produced a file that’s 26.84GB. I actually thought the ProRes would be even quicker. 15 hours for a one hour video is not normal for a recent computer. The content and processing requirements of course take most of the time, not the writing of the file, and really determine the time it takes to complete the task.

Please post an EtreCheck report https://etrecheck.com giving the application Full Disk Access in Privacy System Preferences. Copy the report and use the Add Text button to paste the result into reply box. 

Did you see my message? You must give specifics of what your one hour project is and how you’re exporting. What has to be done matters more than the final file size. If I have Neat applied or might take 10 times as long and be a quarter of the size.

2019 16” MBP 16G RAM 4G VRAM. One hour of 4K video with a title across the length of it in a 720p project exported to H.264 in less than 13 minutes. I missed when it ended.

Colour-correcting all the clips in that simple 60 minute 1080p project will bump the export time up to around 90 minutes assuming the project has not been rendered.

Is your MBP generally slow or is it just with FCP?

Give us details of your projects and if possible a screenshot of the timeline.

You might find it useful to isolate smaller, representative sections of the video and apply stabilization (smaller clips). This makes it easier to fine-tune the stabilization settings. And, for any longer clips you might consider "blading" them into (< 5 min.) smaller clips and applying stabilization using the settings from initial testing.

No matter what computer setup you have, it isn't difficult to add enough effects so that things slow down quite a bit...

Why do you need to stabilise a static subject like that? Were you handholding it for an hour or so? I have no real experience with stabilisation so I don't know how much of a hit it will make to rendering or exporting.

Deleting the preferences can sometimes help when FCP suddenly starts misbehaving. It shouldn't have any deleterious effect on the project as it is not contained within FCP.