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

Have just received my iMac

16 gig ram 3.4 i7

Fusion drive 3 tb

I have fin cut pro and motion

Is it worth trying or wait????

Will crashing/ freezing cause any probs

VSKiwi wrote:

Is it worth trying or wait????

Will crashing/ freezing cause any probs

With elevated blood pressure perhaps…or maybe you'll be lucky.

Good luck.

Russ

I was just about to order the top spec iMac 27", but after readin this, I am very confused. My main reason for buying it is FCPX. This thread is now almost 2 months old, and there is still no solution from Apple, besides a "priority flag" on the issue. When can we expect a solution, if any? Apple, please give us an estimate!

This is what we have been asking for 'runecarisen' for the whole of this thread, an estimate to an update.. I rec'd my new top spec imac 3 weeks ago, primarily for FCPX and motion.

To be fair, I have had the crashes initially when adding certain titles, It hasnt stopped me working (i am a semi-professional so post edit as and when.

My main reason to buy this spec imac (i7, fusion, 24gb ram, 680mx etc) was to work quicker, faster and smoother.

If you read the last few pages of this thread it looks like apple are aware BUT they will not give a fix date thus telling apple advisors to replace the imacs for a lower spec card (bizarre i know)

Actually, I am not sure if we have a complete list of problems in this thread, if not it may be worth logging them somewhere (maybe google docs etc?

Gaddster wrote:

To be fair, I have had the crashes initially when adding certain titles, It hasnt stopped me working

Which titles cause your crashes? There is also at least one report of font selection causing freezes.

Russ

The most common factor seems to be "anything involving text"; but I have had crashes with the same distinctive symptoms even in projects without any text elements. The more "fancy" you make the text, the more frequently the issue seems to arise, but it is not limited to just text issues, or any particular titles, fonts or styles, at least, not that I've been able to pin down from some specific testing or experience working on projects.

So, basically, any project seems to have some risk, adding any effects/transitions/titles increases the risk, the more text there is increases it, and the more fancy the text is increases it. Put that together and it's probably no surprise why the default built in Pixie Dust title is one example which will reliably cause a crash as it ticks all the boxes.

If your projects don't use text, my gut feeling from experience is that its possibly 90%+ chance to not crash. I've not adopted a work stream of doing all basic editing and using markers where I need text, then adding that last (backing out and quitting FCPX as soon as it starts "stuttering") and then hopefully finishing, but if it can't do the final render, moving the project to my Mac mini for the final render instead. It's a pain, but it has meant I can keep working.

This is just silly.

So what we are concluding is; Buy the top notch model of an Imac for $$$, install FCPX and edit movies, but remember, do not use any fancy transitions or text, because your hardware wont tolerate that.

I talked to a reseller today, and he adviced me also to go for the top model if I was going to use FCPX. If I do, - what kind of guarantee will I have from Apple that this will solve my requirements? I have been adviced to get it, but at the same time, from this forum, there are rumours about a new model with another card will be replaced?

I am confused. How hard can it be for Apple to fix such a big problem for movie editors?

Apparently, today there is another seeding to developers of OS X 10.8.3 which includes some new graphics drivers. I wonder if they will attempt to resolve the FCPX issue in this upgrade.

Could you please clearify what this means?

I am probably not the best qualified person to give you an explanation of how or if such an upgrade may resolve the problem. That is why I am wondering if this could be a path to resolution. For more information on this upgrade please see:http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1555770

Just got my top specs iMac today. I took a deep breath and tried out FCPX with this new machine. Surprisingly it worked fine. Of course I could not help it but trying the infamous Pixie Dust and Wham! it happened. But once when I deleted the title, everything is working fine, including other titles. Other than that, the machine works like a dream comparing to my 2010 iMac. Keeping my fingers crossed.

This only prooves that there is a problem, which Apple should fix, I am affraid. Fingers crossed, or not.

Identifying which actions trigger the issue is a good thing, not bad. I'm surprised more people aren't trying to see if it's possible to continue working, while avoiding the things that cause the crash. Perhaps that's not possible, but a methodical, step by step approach to identifying the triggers might give everyone something to do while waiting, instead of just venting steam! 😝 Not that there's anything wrong with that either...

FWIW, and knowing my specs are different than the people who have this issue more severely than I do, I noticed that a lot of times I could tell the freeze was about to happen - the screen showing garbage or something like that. Perhaps keeping the "Force Quit" window open, and reacting quickly, it might be possible to lessen the number of computer resets, while tracking down the triggers.

With that said, I acknowledge that on the top-of-line iMacs, the problem might be too severe to isolate. But it might be worth the effort. Or not - I'm just talking out loud here. 😎

Dan

Dan Thomas (DAGWare) wrote:

I'm surprised more people aren't trying to see if it's possible to continue working, while avoiding the things that cause the crash.

As I noted in a previous post, there are apparently people who are somehow avoiding the pitfalls, but aren't contributing to this thread. Go over to the Creative Cow and do an iMac search on 680mx, or imac 2013, or whatever. Just doesn't come up in that (very active) community.

However, it's clear that something's going on with either the Nvidia card, and/or FCPX, and/or OS10.8 and/or who-knows-what that produces conflicts with certain titles (e'g., Pixie) and some third party plug-ins. Whatever the cause, if it were an easy fix , we would have seen it – whether hardwware or software – from someone by now.

Russ

Russ -

I never suggested it was an easy fix. I merely stated my surprise that more people weren't trying to find workarounds. Personally, if I made my living off of FCPX and couldn't use it right now, I'd be trying to find workarounds, and I would be plastering these discussions looking for people who also wanted to find workarounds. And assuming there are any workarounds to be found, we would have already started an extensive FAQ on what we've found.

That's all I'm saying. I'm surprised I haven't seen that.

Dan