4K Slow - FCPX

Not sure what you mean by running slow. Dropping frames? Beachballs? Lagging? Long exports?

4K is a heavy lift for a 13 inch MBP. To improve performance, keep your media on an external USB3 drive, Set Quality to Better Performance. If that is still unacceptable, transcode to Proxy.

Good luck.

Russ

(1GB recommended for 4K editing and 3D titles)1

That's in the minimum tech specs for the application.

FilmMaker8706 wrote:

Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB.

Beef this up to 2 gig. Probably means a newer computer.

As Russ suggests, a fast external with Terabytes of space.

Al

1GB VRAM graphics card. 512MB is not sufficient. It's in the tech specs for the application.

What kind of an external drive? Should be Thunderbolt RAID.

FilmMaker8706 wrote:

2 gig what? What do I need to buy and install to handle 4K? Is it something I can install myself or does it have to be a specialist? Am I better off buying an entire new computer?

I'm rocking a 4 TB external hard drive with about 1.5 TB of space available. Is that still not good enough?

2 gig VRAM or a minimum 1 gig.

You would be best to update to a more suitable computer IMO.

Space is not the only consideration, speed of the data transfer is important.

Thunderbolt Raid 0 is a good place to start.

Al

You might check Video Quality in the Viewer options drop down to see whether playback is set to Better Performance. You could also transcode your clips to Proxy in the Browser and switch to Proxy in the Media section of the Viewer options drop down. But as already mentioned, for the best 4K experience, you should have a computer with a stronger graphics card.

Russ

edit: BTW, I do realize that I'm repeating myself. But remain unsure what settings you're using.

FilmMaker8706 wrote:

2 gig what? What do I need to buy and install to handle 4K? Is it something I can install myself or does it have to be a specialist? Am I better off buying an entire new computer?

I'm rocking a 4 TB external hard drive with about 1.5 TB of space available. Is that still not good enough?

It might. It is all fine and dandy to use the fastest machine there is but before you go all in on a new computer try the good suggestions you already got. You may find that your machine can handle it well if you use proxies. These are a quarter the size and encoded with prores proxy which a very edit friendly codec. Your current drive may well be able to handle that without dropping frames. Don't forget to switcb back to optimized/original before exporting, in order to export in glorious quality.

One other thing: 4K iz great not so much for exporting as such, but mai lh for all the extra pixels you get to work with, if are editing an HD project.