Final Cut Pro x on macbook 12"

You probably need to work in proxy for that.

Plus, you have only 8GB of RAM, and the integrated GPU will use up 1.5GB of that.

I guess it will depend on how pacient you are. It will likely not be very fast, and as new features come along it can be even slower.

If you can upgrade from this, I think you will be better served with a MBP (even if it is only the 13"). Definitely go with 16GB of RAM. And keep in mind that you are going to need external drives to store your projects.

For short works, it is actually faster to work on the internal SSD (if the media can fit), but then you will need to copy it off to archive it, and make room for the next one.

I got my 2017 MB 12 m3/8gb/256 yesterday and installed Final Cut Pro X immediately. Then I did a 1 min screen capture using Camtasia to give me a video to manipulate recorded in roughly 1920x1080.

Importing was a breeze. I enabled proxy media and optimizations for the added benefit of performance. So here's what I found. Cutting, scrubbing, moving clips around, adding text, playback are all excellent. Perfectly smooth. The 8gb RAM drops down to below 100MB free when I was actively moving clips and playing the video, but it wasn't a hindrance. So for those tasks, 100% scores for being portable/occasional use.

Adding motion5 transitions changed this a bit. The playback is fine until close to a transition, then it begins skipping. Adding multiple effects to clips also gave a similar result. The MB got a bit warm, and flat out struggled. I'm on the fence now about keeping it. I need to really look into my effects and see if its something I can adjust or live with. I'll likely return this and get an i7 version with 16gb/512gb. Struggling to justify the $500 difference though. I feel it's right on the cusp of delivering what I need. The rest of my work is web development so the machine is perfect. But I'd like to post a 10min video to youtube once a week, spending about 3-5hrs editing maybe 2hrs of total footage. Hopefully this is helpful info.

256GB storage. It's the base model. Final cut was using 4.5-5gb of ram, so vram appears to be maxed out with certain motion effects. The out of the box Final Cut effects have no issue.

256 is VRAM? Way short. That's really the minimum. OK matter for straight cutting as you were doing. As you as you ramp up the effects it's not really adequate. Fill it with as much as you can afford.

yea, I'm in proxy. I'll only really be working on 1 project at a time, maybe 2. I could definitely make the 256GB work since I will have external drives to back up the media.

Portability is very important, so this MB12 form factor is my preferred choice. My decision comes down to deciding if the i7/16gb will be enough of a difference to warrant the $500 premium.

I was randomly testing/overloading. I have a collection of Pixelfilmstudios effects.
ProHDR for majority of the timeline, then ProBokeh for a clip, and a TransWall transition.

Reading another post about someone who upgraded to HSierra, that could be related.

Tom, I think the 256 refers to 256GB internal flash storage. This is the 2017 12" MacBook, which can use 1.5GB of main memory with the Intel GPU.

Which third party effects are giving problems?

Thanks.

It will work, but you must be aware of the llimitations. It is not a fast machine. You are going to need a media drive. Video files are huge and your 256GB internal SSD will fill up very quickly. You will need at a USB-C adapter. The screen is pretty small. I imagine editing video on that 12" screen will be tough. An external screen would help, but then you'll need a USB-C dock - remember, this mac has just a single USB-C for everything (including power).

Do you already own that MB?

If so, you can test yourself how well it works: download the free trial, which is identical to the full version but only works for 30 days.

Ah right. Not a fan of shared memory. As AndyJack noted FCP RAM usage climbs just in normal editing, plus with adding the OS usage and then cranking up the effects, it's really pushing it.