jonuk85

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

I finally received my new 27" iMac today and installed all the latest updates and then the latest versions of FCPX and compressor.

 

Spec of new iMac:

 

27" Late 2012

3.4Ghz Intel i7

8GB RAM (I also added 16GB of third party RAM to the machine to take it up to 24GB RAM but remove this later)

GeForce GTX 680MX 2048MB Graphics card

1.12TB Fusion Drive (1.09TB free)

OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion

 

Immediately I noticed performance issues and then it kept freezing whilst running FCPX - the whole OS would freeze resulting in me having to actually turn off the machine and turn it on again. It happened repeatedly so have done all the obvious things but still have the issue.

 

So far I've tried (with no luck):

 

- removing the third party RAM

- restarting the computer, multiple times

- making sure everything is up to date

- removing the FCPX preferences

- doing a PRAM and SMC reset

- fully uninstalling and reinstalling FCPX

- running the short and long Apple Hardware Tests (no problems found)

 

I am working with a large quantity of video files off an 8TB Thunderbolt drive but I've been using FCPX on my old 27" iMac and had no problems with that at all, the spec of that being far less powerful:

 

27" mid 2011

3.4Ghz Intel i7

8GB Ram

Radeon HD 6970M 1024MB

1TB hard drive

 

I'm thinking it could possibly be the graphics card or a software issue?

 

Any help or advice would be great!!!

 

Thanks!

 

Jon

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 14, 2013 1:51 PM

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

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  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 18, 2013 4:37 PM in response to Hirschkorn
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 4:37 PM in response to Hirschkorn

    Hirschkorn wrote:

     

    it's not like they have one million different configurations to support...

     

    LOL - I've had the same thought. And who knows - if FCPX had gone through the iOS approval process, maybe they would have caught the bug! I'm really kidding, at least, sort-of...

     

    Dan

  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 18, 2013 4:40 PM in response to RoseannH
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 4:40 PM in response to RoseannH

    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

  • by RoseannH,

    RoseannH RoseannH Feb 18, 2013 4:58 PM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 4:58 PM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)

    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.

  • by ruimleal,

    ruimleal ruimleal Feb 18, 2013 5:02 PM in response to jonuk85
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 5:02 PM in response to jonuk85

    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.

  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 18, 2013 5:40 PM in response to ruimleal
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 5:40 PM in response to ruimleal

    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

  • by Studio Engineer,

    Studio Engineer Studio Engineer Feb 18, 2013 7:24 PM in response to ruimleal
    Level 2 (445 points)
    Feb 18, 2013 7:24 PM in response to ruimleal

    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 ;-)

  • by VSKiwi,

    VSKiwi VSKiwi Feb 19, 2013 2:48 AM in response to Studio Engineer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 2:48 AM in response to Studio Engineer

    So is there any disadvantage to using this driver??

     

    If so is it the way thru this mess??

  • by VSKiwi,

    VSKiwi VSKiwi Feb 19, 2013 2:51 AM in response to VSKiwi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 2:51 AM in response to VSKiwi

    Just read studio engineers answer. Sorry for question.

  • by le500,

    le500 le500 Feb 19, 2013 3:13 AM in response to VSKiwi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 3:13 AM in response to VSKiwi

    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.

  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 19, 2013 4:16 AM in response to le500
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 4:16 AM in response to le500

    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

  • by le500,

    le500 le500 Feb 19, 2013 4:23 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 4:23 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)

    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....;-)))

  • by Studio Engineer,

    Studio Engineer Studio Engineer Feb 19, 2013 4:27 AM in response to le500
    Level 2 (445 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 4:27 AM in response to le500

    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

  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 19, 2013 5:44 AM in response to le500
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 5:44 AM in response to le500

    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

  • by Dan Thomas (DAGWare),

    Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Dan Thomas (DAGWare) Feb 19, 2013 5:54 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)
    Level 1 (109 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 5:54 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)

    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

  • by Hirschkorn,

    Hirschkorn Hirschkorn Feb 19, 2013 7:59 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2013 7:59 AM in response to Dan Thomas (DAGWare)

    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... ®

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