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FCPX is running very slowly, especially when running background rendeing/prerendering. This is very strange as I have the LATEST iMac with 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16gb of RAM. I thought that maybe FCPX wasn't set to using all or most of my RAM howerver do not know how to check or change it? Does anyone know? Alternitivly does anyone know how to make FCPX run faster and render faster? Thansk very much!
Cheers,
Sam
OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)
The simple way to see how your mac is using RAM and CPU is to open Activity Monitor (it is in /Applications/Utilities). I usually have it open when I'm using FCP X.
in the image above, I have FCP X running but not actually doing anything. When it is doing stuff like rendering, its RAM usage will be much higher and its CPU usage can be somewhere in 200%-300% (my mac is dual core with hyperthreading, so is really pushing things); in your case, it could conceivably be more than 300% when doing something heavy.
16GB should be plenty, but keep an eye on the free ram (in green). If it is too low, then your mac will slow down, as it pages memory to disk and the CPUs can't be fed quickly enough.
Sam,
Running slow is a relative term. If you could provide an example, it would be great.
Try this. Turn off Back ground rendering. Create a 3 minute test project of optimized media with several clips. Add transitions and a couple of titles. Export as a Pro Res master file. Export with one of the Apple Device presets. Time each export and report their elapsed times.
Russ
Yes, thankyou. I have done this and found that FCPX is using 2GB of my ram. Is this strange? The reson I ask is and the reson I asked the questions was becuase FCPX has been very slgish taking up to a few minutes just to load a project! I have been looking around forums and noticed that people have been complaining of FCPX taking up all of their RAM, some of these people had up to 32GB. So I wondered why mine had so little and if it was possible to designate more RAM to FCPX and if this would speed it up?
Sorry I am not much of a computer person.
As an example I have many drop frames when trying to play footage. It could take anything up to 3 mins to load a simple project. I have done the usual. I have event manager X and crently only have two progects and four events in FCPX. As I said the other man the reson I ask is and the reson I asked the questions was becuase FCPX has been very slugish. I have been looking around forums and noticed that people have been complaining of FCPX taking up all of their RAM, some of these people had up to 32GB. So I wondered why mine had so little and if it was possible to designate more RAM to FCPX (like in the Adobe programs ) and if this would speed it up? Thank you very much!
Hey Sam.
Where are your projects and events stored? When I hear dropped frames I think of drives and their connections.
There is no way that I know of to designate more RAM to FCPX processes. As you note, we typically get more comments from people saying that FCP gobbles up all their RAM.
Russ
Yes that is why I was suprised to find FCPX only taking 2GB or so... I store all my events and projects on a seperate 1TB hardrive. Its only a year old and was installed by a profecinal.
I'm not sure whether you saw my suggestion this morning that you do a couple of timed export tests.
It would be helpful to know the reults.
Russ
Sorry, yes I missed them. i will give that a go now.
Well all I can report currently is that it has been going for about fourty minutes or so and is only on 20% done... I am certainly no expert on FCPX! But this seems extremly slow. FCPX is the only window I have open (apart from firefox) and as said origianlly I have a brand new (like only 2 weeks old) iMac. Here is a screenshot of the 'Activity Monitor' I just took a min ago. Seems to me that FCPX isn't taking up all the RAM it should be...
1. If you are not in the habit of shutting down your computer daily, Restart it immediately. This completely refreshes your Mac and gets rid of accumulated crud.
2. Use FreeMemory, a free app from the MacApp store, to release more RAM
3. If you have a lot of projects .......... hide them using one of these:-
http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/ ($4.99)
Also shutdown all other apps, check your hard drive is no more than 75% full, use a separate hard drive for all your Projects and Events, open Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions.
sbell1 wrote:
FCPX is running very slowly, …
before discussing hardware-voodoo - what kind of video are you processing?
… no need for 'more Ram', if poor FCPX has to shuffle tons of data back'n forth to graphic-card (=co-processor).- Ram is not the solution to solve trouble with 'wrong' formats.-
I store all my events and projects on a seperate 1TB hardrive. Its only a year old and was installed by a profecinal.
there are 'professionals' who have no clue, what effect a fat, exfat, or ntfs formatted (=all wrong) drive has to FCPX. Just ctrl-click in Finder your extHDD, Info, look about how it's formatted ....
sbell1 wrote:
Well all I can report currently is that it has been going for about fourty minutes or so and is only on 20% done... I am certainly no expert on FCPX! But this seems extremly slow.
Yes, crazy slow. On my wimpy 3 year old iMac, that export would take about 2 minutes – and exporting an unrendered sequence with a solid orange render bar. So no question, something is definitely amiss. But not sure what; could be anything from a long list – hardware (say,the GPU), FCP installation, OS, user account, third party software. Speaking of which…
Are you runnimg anything in the background – like an anti virus or something like Mackeeper?
Russ
I can't find the details of what he is exporting?
Is it a short and simple project or a long and complex one containing incompatible formats, loads of tracks and effects etc. as Karsten queried?
Check that FileVault is turned off in the Security pane of System Preferences.
Well, the test I earlier suggested to Sam was to create a simple 3 minute Pro Res project with several optimized clips, transitions and titles; Two exports –a PR master file and the other using an Apple Device preset.
He reported 40 minutes to get to 20% complete. As we know, those exports will actually complete when the indicator hits 50% so I assume Sam's 3 minute project would take an hour 40 minutes.
Russ
How to get FCPX to use all my RAM?
