Final Cut Pro X freezing on top spec new 27" iMac, help!

RoseannH wrote:

Also, it could be more of us using FCPX went with the new iMacs . . . I know I decided to go with iMac at the store, having went in to purchase the new Macbook Pro retina . . . but the big screen and great price lured me.

The reason I replaced my MBP with this new iMac was FCPX. So there you go. 🙂

Dan

FWIW, two things changed after four weeks of bliss: I used the trial version of FCP since mid-January on a new iMac 21.5 with zero issues, then purchased FCPX full on Saturday and on same day downloaded the update for FCPX that promised a bunch of stuff. Then stuff went bonkers.

Trial version was July 11, 2012 dated, v. 10.0.6

It worked great, which was why I bought the full.

Seriously considering switching to Adobe's video app, as I just bought the Cloud subscription service.

I'm having the same problems here, running FCPX 10.0.7 and Motion 5.0.6 both of them freeze my machine without any apparent reason. Sometimes while working on text in Motion and others while exporting the files both in FCPX and Motion. I have to resart the machine aas it freezes completely.

Running new 27'' Late 2012 iMac

3.4 Ghz Intel Core i7

32Gb 1600 Mhz DDR3

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB

OSX 10.8.2

With 1TB HDD no Fusion

I run into this software update for the CUDA Driver on the Nvidia page and after I install it did not have for the moment a single crash or freeze... maybe I'm lucky but I think this could be an escape to many people that have this issue... well at least for the moment until Apple fix the horrible and unforgiven error on such an expensive and newer machine.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html

Hope this could help some people around here until they get it fixed.

Interesting. Unfortunately, the 5.0.37 version doesn't show my GPU as supported, even though the version just before it, 5.0.36, says that it added support for my GPU.

Think I'll wait and let some other adventurous person try it first. 😉

Dan

ruimleal wrote:

I run into this software update for the CUDA Driver on the Nvidia page and after I install it did not have for the moment a single crash or freeze... maybe I'm lucky but I think this could be an escape to many people that have this issue... well at least for the moment until Apple fix the horrible and unforgiven error on such an expensive and newer machine.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/mac-driver-archive.html

Hope this could help some people around here until they get it fixed.

FCPx is NOT leveraging CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) at all. It leverages OpenCL... And OpenGL -- Same thing as CUDA but different language. You can run CUDA ONLY on NVIDIA cards. You can run OpenCL/GL on NVIDIA cards and all other cards supporting such ;-)

So is there any disadvantage to using this driver??

If so is it the way thru this mess??

Just read studio engineers answer. Sorry for question.

There is no disadvantage in using it and it changes nothing when using FCPX but if you want to take advantage of the CUDA power that this card provides using let's say Premiere Pro or After Effects so as to access the Mercury Palyback GPU acceleration, not only you have to install this driver but you have to make a small tweek so that your system or rather Premiere Pro recognises that this card is in your system.

Here are the details on how to do that: http://www.vidmuze.com/how-to-enable-gpu-cuda-in-adobe-cs6-for-mac/

As you can even Adobe ships stuff that is soposed to work on this machine but it doesn't unless you tell it that the card is installed.

The price to pay sometimes to be leading edge users...;-)

I'm sure in future updates of our iMac's OS all these little details will be taken car of.

But the question remains: Will installing this CUDA driver prevent FCPX from freezing? ruimleal seemed to be saying that it does. Can anyone confirm this?

Dan

Sorry I should have adressed that question earlier. NO it will not prevent it from freezing and forcing a cold reboot. I have the fully loaded iMac 27" with the guilty Graphics card and can't work with FCPX on it. I can only use FCPX on my MacBook Pro.

I installed the NVIDIA driver after the crashes so installling it is not the cause of the freezes either. But thanks to installing it I am able to work better and faster using Adobe products.

One day perhaps I will be able to use my FCPX application....;-)))

Adobe CS6 leverages openCL... In PPRO you have the option in the merc. pb. engine to select OpenCL or CUDA... I even get better results on my mac using openCL... So to utilize PPRO you dont HAVE to install CUDA ;-) But you can...

Pre-C6 need CUDA 🙂

le500 wrote:

Sorry I should have adressed that question earlier. NO it will not prevent it from freezing and forcing a cold reboot.

"Sorry?" I hardly think you need to apologize - you've been very helpful. 🙂 But thanks for the clarification.

I can empathize with your frustration. It's like Christmas morning, and you got that one toy you've been really hoping for. But it needs batteries, and you don't have any, and since it's Christmas, there's no stores open...

I suppose it's not the perfect analogy, because you can still use your new toy for other purposes, but the frustration level is the same, regardless. Hang in there. 😮

Dan

Following up with my latest results. To prevent any of the previous, um, misunderstandings, let me state at the outset that I do *not* have the 27" iMac - I have the 21". So this information may be of no use to you, and if that's the case, simply ignore it. That means you, Hirschkorn. 😉

After having removed the SliceX add-ins, I have not had any freezes. Prior to removing them, I had constant total system lockups, which forced me to power down and back up. During one of these episodes, Compressor got hosed and I had to uninstall it and reinstall it.

Anyway, I've been editing a lot, with no freezes. I'm not doing any titles. I'm doing very basic editing. Crop, transform, transition, stack clips & mask, color correction, etc. The fanciest thing I'm doing is using the Alex4D 4-8-16 masks.

I won't bother reporting any more on this, unless the situation changes. I just wanted to be thorough in my reporting.

Dan

Just did a simple test (new iMac, clean install of FCPX & Motion, no add-ons whatsoever): tried importing 80 mins of video - stuck to 60% for about an hour; FCPX is unresponsive.

It just doesn't work... ®

Simply importing video doesn't work? That really and truly stinks. Would it make a difference if you converted the source material to ProRes 442 first, using something like Compressor, MPEG StreamClip, or some other converter? That's something you could try. Or not - at some point you just throw up your hands and say "I give up." Probably with some expletives inserted for emphasis.

Dan