FCPro X suddenly running very slow

This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance.

Make sure you're using the latest version - FCP X 10.0.3 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB. I run it with Lion 10.7.3.

First, check that you have at least 20% free space on the Hard Drive that your System and your Media, Projects and Events are on.

Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

Create Optimised media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

If you are short of drive space, use ProRes 422 Proxy (FCP X Preferences > Playback) - but remember to select High Quality when you export your movie.

Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).

Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot.

Move your Projects and Events to an external HD (make sure it's formatted OS Extended - with journaled on or off) and run from there.

Unless you cannot edit and playback without it, turn off Background Rendering in Preferences - this will help general performance and you can always render when you need to by selecting the clip (or clips) and pressing Ctrl+R.

The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

If this doesn't answer your question, please reply with full details of the material you are working with, your project settings and what the problem task is.

Andy

If things "suddenly" get slow, then the problem is solved for me by just quiting FCPX, restarting and then everything seems fine. About every week or so it seems I get myself into something that just overwhelmes everything and a restart cleans it all up. Has happened a couple of times when keyframing which is something I haven't really mastered. This just might be one activity where you really need to wait until it has rendered. Quad core Mac Pro with all the updates. 16GB Memory.

You really want to upgrade to 10.0.3. This is a huge improvement over 10.0.2 and solves the "Title Disappearing" problem amoung many other things. Ths again is a free download.

It seems your model iMac can accept 8 G of RAM. As far as other upgrades, iMacs are unfortunately limited to RAM and HD…no graphics card or CPU possible. Not sure a different HD would improve performaance…aside from boot and launch times.

FWIW, I agree wth others who say, RAM aside, when FCX slows, quit and start a new edit session.

Good luck,

Russ

Hi andynick,

You've actually helped me before. Love reading your replys. In regards to your statement regarding FCPro X Performance . . . "Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot."

Do you mean in the FINDER create a new folder and put projects and events you're not working on? Or do you mean in FCPX - while you're in the program and create the new folders in the PROJECT & EVENT LIBRARY there - IN FCPX?

In the PROJECTS library, I can create a subfolder and put other project folders in it. But in the EVENTS library, I can't seem to create an empty folder to put the other events in. I hope I'm explaining it properly. I have a MacBook Pro running an SSD drive and a TB drive in the computer. (I took out the DVD drive.) When I originally restart the computer - it takes FCPro X about 2 minutes to load up. But then, when I quit it - and open FCProX again - then it only takes 30 seconds to open all. ONLT AFTER I RESTART the computer, does it take 2 minutes to load everything the first time. As long as I don't restart the computer - FCPro starts up fast. I hve 8 gig RAM (which did help immensely over 4!) Thanks for your thoughts.

Larry

I fully agree with you that Andy has been a great help to countless users in this forum. And most of his suggestion actually work. But, if preferences gets corrupt on daily bases, you have to turn of important function, run on Proxy, start and restart FCP or even the computer, only have one project available et cetera, the in my opinion there is something seriously wrong with this Application. On decent Computer you should not need to turn anything off you should be able to run FCP in highest gear.

Inocentius

Larry Cohen1 wrote:

Do you mean in the FINDER create a new folder and put projects and events you're not working on? Or do you mean in FCPX - while you're in the program and create the new folders in the PROJECT & EVENT LIBRARY there - IN FCPX?

Fear not, Larry, there's a great little application from Assisted Editing that will do it all for you.

It's called Project Manager.

Andy

(PS - thanks for the kind words).

Andynick,

As usual, you're DEAD ON! I believe you're referring to Event Manager X by Phil Hodgkins (I think that's his name).

Actually, I just downloaded (and bought) it about 2 hours ago! It works well - solves by initial startup time from 2 minutes down to 30 seconds - IF I remove 3 large projects I'm working on. (About 30 minutes each.)

I can live with this as I don't need them ALL to load each time. I believe he's doing with software exactly what you suggested earlier - the program "creates" 2 new folders in the MOVIES folder (in FINDER) and moves the Event & Project folders into them. So FCPro X doesn't "see" them, I think.

Works very well. I could just do it manually - but for 5 bucks - I guess I have the best.

Thanks again.

Larry

garyfromladysmith wrote:

can you export XML with 10.0.3?

Yes.

Link ?

garyfromladysmith wrote:

Sorry, the link for the FCpro x upgrade to 10.0.3

You upgrade through the Mac App Store. Open the App Store application, click "Updates". Locate FCP X in there and click the "Update" button.