Will Upgrading My Graphics Card Speed up Export Time?

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Level 1

2 points

Will Upgrading My Graphics Card Speed up Export Time?

Hello:

I am new to FCPX and I shot my first movie yeasterday and loved editing in FCPX. Here s my computer specs before I ask my question

Mac Pro 2009 Quad Core 2.93 GHZ

24GB Ram

Graphic Card - NVIIDA GT120 512mb

I use this computer for my recoridng studio and it works perfectly but now when working with video there are two things I noticed while working with my first project. I shot a 1920 X 1080 60P on my HD camcorder and the moive was 32 minutes. Here are the issues

1. Im FCPX the play head in the time line sometimes seems a little choppy and the background render is pretty slow at times as well.

2. When I went to export, the movie was going to me almost 10GB, so I purchased Compressor and in FCP went under FILE, SEND TO COMPRESSOR. I choose a 720P setting and started to process the batch. It took almost 8 hours to compress that footage which brought the file down to 1.5GB which was really great and the quality looks stunning, so I am happy aobut that.

In doing some reseach, I found that upgrading my stock graphics card may be the solution to some of the speed issues in FCPX. I nver gave that a tohught as I am new to the video editing world. I was looking at a

Sapphire HD 7950 3GB MAC Eddition

This seems like to would be a mjor upgrade to my graphic card. So my question is, by upgrading my graphic card woudl this help my issues I described aobuve? I got to image that it could not hurt for sure.

Thnaks for your time in advance.

Posted on Apr 14, 2014 2:31 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2014 5:42 AM in response to vignola

I hope that other people more knowledgeable can comment on the matter of the graphics card.

I think that 8 hours is way too long for your hardware.

Did you turn App Nap off? If not, do it NOW for FCP X and Compressor.

Select the apps in the Finder, and hit Command I. In the Get Info window, check the box that says "Prevent App Nap".

Also, I think that you could probably do the same export in less time in FCP X itself.

FCP X has several export options. Compressor can be useful for a number of situations, especially for complex workflows, and if several macs can share the workload. I don't think Compressor makes any use of the GPU, so you would probably see no gain from the faster GPU in that export.

In most cases, a single export like yours can be done faster and easier from FCP X itself. FCP X DOES use the GPU.

As a test, I suggest that (after turning off App Nap, as described above) you try the same export from within FCP X.

File->Share->Master File

and in the Settings choose "Computer", H264 Better Quality and 1280x720.

I bet it will take substantially LESS than 8 hours (maybe close to, or a little above real time at most).

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Answer 2

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 14, 2014 6:44 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thnaks for the information. I'll give it a try. I did try to export with in FCP and the time was just as long, so thats why I used Compressor. I wanted to have more control over the file sizes. I will try turning off the App Nap and see if that speeds anything up for me.

I got to think that a new graphic card would help speed up the workflow in FCP itself right? That seems to drag a bit as well so its not just the export time but I csnt bleeive that it took 8 hours to export 30 min of video. I have done long veideos in Screenflow and it took less that an hour. However, that was only doing screen capture turtorials, not video from a camcorder.

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 14, 2014 7:40 AM in response to vignola

I don't think there is much question whether the new card would speed your export times. But I am guessing that there is something else going on and that it might not be the most cost-efficient solution. If you so buy it, make sure it's returnable.

Compressor can be faster than FCP for certain kinds of encoding jobs on certain Macs - but not on the MP. However, you may be able to make things faster by creating multiple instances of Compressor.

BTW, down-scaling the movie's resolution actually increases the time it takes.

I would be interested to know how fast FCP can export a 1080 Pro Res master file. If there are no hardware or software issues, I would expect it to take about 10 minutes.

Russ

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Answer 4

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 14, 2014 7:49 AM in response to Russ H

Thanks Russ. I'll check the export time of the master file. I originally tried that but when I saw that the file was going to be almost 10GB I decided to use compressor and the file did end up being 1.5 GB which was great.

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 14, 2014 8:15 AM in response to vignola

The master file export settings allow you to choose your codec…and whether you want a MOV or MP4.

So you could get your 1.5 file from FCP by selecting H,264.

Russ

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Answer 6

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 14, 2014 2:49 PM in response to Russ H

Ok, no luck thus far. Here were the 3 differnet test I ran

Test 1. - Exported with in FCPX - Share - Master File - I shut off the "APP NAP" as suggested above in both FCPX and Compressor. (i'm not sure what "app nap" even means)....LOL

Setting as follows:

Format = computer

H264 Better Quality

Resolution - 1920 X 1080

After 60 minutes the export was only at 19% so I quit that test

Test 2 - Sent to Compressor from FCPX and choose 1920X1080, same H264

After 60 minutes the export was at less than 12% so I quit that test.

So somehting else is going on here. I cant beleive it takes this long to export a 30 min 1920x1080 HD video. Could it be mach computer simply dosnt have enough horse power to do this type of video editing? I would hope not as everything else I do on this Mac runs super fast incluing lots of recording in Pro Tools.

Any other advice would be helpful. Thanks

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Answer 7

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 14, 2014 5:24 PM in response to vignola

As I said in my earlier post:

would be interested to know how fast FCP can export a 1080 Pro Res master file. If there are no hardware or software issues, I would expect it to take about 10 minutes.

If it can't easily handle a Pro Res export, it would indicate that something else is going on – other than the GPU, which supports Open CL.

Russ

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Answer 8

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 15, 2014 1:30 AM in response to Russ H

HI Russ -

I did exactly what you suggested and used your screenshot above to ensure that I had the export settings correct. I stopped the test after an hour when the export was only at 19%. Here are some other thoughts.

I am running the FCPX application on my MAC HD drive and running the project itself from a seperate internal drive. That drive is a Western Digital Black 750GB 7200rpm drive. not sure if that has any bearing on this? All my HD have at leasr 50% free on them so I dont thonk that's the issue.

I guess my next test could be to run the same video through I-movie on that machine to see if I-movie can export it faster? I was also considering downloading a trial version of Adobe Premiere and do a test to see if I can isolate it to the program or is it simply my machine.

Any other thoughts?

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Answer 9

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 15, 2014 2:07 AM in response to vignola

Ok, I just did another type of test. I took aobut 20 min of footage I shot on my i-phone and created a new project on my 2009 i-mac with a Duo-core processor and 8 GB ram. I did a MASTER FILE share and choose H264 at 1920 x 1080. That export took less than 10 mins.

So with a less powerful machine I got aobut the same amount of footage exported with no issues. Now I relaize that the i-phone footage was not shot in 1920x1080P 60fps like the footage from my HD Panasonic camcorder but the export setting I used were exactly the same.

So is the slow down on my Mac Pro due to the HD 1920x1080 footage coming off my camcorder? I don tknow, I am sorry for all the questions. I am new to video editing and still tryign to learn this stuff

Thnaks in advance

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Answer 10

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 15, 2014 3:37 AM in response to vignola

Ok, for my last test I took the same HD video footage that I was exporting on my mac pro and created a project in FCPX on my I-mac which is a duo core with 8GB ram. The project is aobut 18min long and I exported using master file with h264 codec at 1920 x 1080

After 30 min the export is only at 15%.

so it seems like this HD 1920 x 1080 footage that was shot on my Camcorder is what's slowing everythign down becuase when I took footage shot on my i-phone it exported in less than 10 min for the same amount of project itme.

So now what do I do? When I import footage into FCPX do I need to do anythign special to help this porcess when I go to export? I'm really stuck here and don tknow what to do.

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Answer 11

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 15, 2014 4:55 AM in response to vignola

And if you do a Mac Pro test with your iPhone clips?

What model is your camera?

Your tests so far seem to be pointing in the direction of saving your money and not buying the Sapphire.

Russ

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Answer 12

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 15, 2014 6:13 AM in response to Russ H

Hi Rus,

I did not do the i-phone footage test on the mac pro yet, I will try that tonight. My camcorder is a Panasonic HC920 HD camcorder. I shot the video in 1920x1080P.

So what the heck do I do here? Do I need to spend $5K on a new Mac Pro? That would really suck! 😐

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Answer 13

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 15, 2014 6:55 AM in response to vignola

vignola wrote:

Hi Rus,

My camcorder is a Panasonic HC920 HD camcorder. I shot the video in 1920x1080P.

So what the heck do I do here? Do I need to spend $5K on a new Mac Pro? That would really suck! 😐

The only thing I know about this camera is what i read on the product site. It only shoots 60 fps? And either 2D or 3D?

Did you shoot 3D? If you did, the solution may be to shoot 2D rather than buy anything - card or new MP

Russ

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Answer 14

vignola Author

Level 1

2 points

Apr 15, 2014 7:14 AM in response to Russ H

Nope shot in 2D.....you need a special lense attachment to even shoot in 3D which I dont have.

I guess the simplelest and cheapest solution would be too just do all my exporting overnight so if it takes 10 hours, so be it. That's a real drag, but I am certianly not spending $3k-$5K on a new Mac Pro.

Thnaks Russ for your help.

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Answer 15

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Apr 15, 2014 7:17 AM in response to Russ H

Thought I was on to something.😕

What are your project properties? Did you let FCP determine them automatically? Or did you specify? when you can, post a screen shot of the Inspector>Info.

Russ

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