FCPX Slow - upgrading RAM to 6 GB worth it on old MBP?

Corey Benoit · November 2nd, 2012, 11:34 PM

Mine is faster now, i realized i didnt optimize my media to prores.

I have 15 GB DDR3, 480GTX card and a core i7 920 @3.6 ghz.

I also have a noctua cooler, and 2x 120mm fans that have full control and spit out 250 CFM's. So my cpu stays under 55-60C even at full load and the video card dont get much over 65C itself. Its pretty fast a few lags here and there. I feel that FCPX is WAY better than FCP7 and I believe that FCPX has a concept and workflow as well as user interface that is lightyears beyond Premiere Pro CS6!

Now that 10.0.6 is here with all new feature updates, it just blows PPCS6 away!

Keyword organization, audio sync automatically, detect people and many other features make me very happy.

If Apple was able to somehow loosen up and make full support of ALL video cards and better optimize GPU acceleration just a little more, than I dont believe Adobe has a chance in hell, and probably never would. I can see that my GPU is working voltage goes up and so does temp when I am editing in FCPX, they just have a few more updates and it will be spot on!

Nigel Barker · November 3rd, 2012, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

Which video card are you using? The stock MacPro video cards that came with 2008 or 2009 MacPros are not very responsive to FCPX.

I have a GTX285 which as a CUDA card is great for accelerating Premiere Pro but should be good for FCP X too.

Nigel Barker · November 3rd, 2012, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan Douthit

It really wants 16GB of RAM. I think that's part of the issue. I have 16 on a 2009 Mac Pro and its reasonably fast - only chugs during imports.

That was what I suspected. The problem is that it's so damn expensive to upgrade the Mac Pro memory. For the price of 32GB I could buy an iMac but putting 32GB in that same iMac would cost just $165.

William Hohauser · November 3rd, 2012, 08:33 AM

For various reasons, I keep Activity Monitor open at all times (Compressor issues that are now under control) and I never see FCPX grab RAM like other high end programs do (Adobe programs usually). With 16gb installed on my eight-core 2009 MacPro, the RAM is never more than 1/3 used while running FCPX. That is including RAM that is allocated but not used by the program.

Ryan Douthit · November 3rd, 2012, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

That was what I suspected. The problem is that it's so damn expensive to upgrade the Mac Pro memory. For the price of 32GB I could buy an iMac but putting 32GB in that same iMac would cost just $165.

I don't remember it being too expensive to upgrade. Did you check NewEgg prices?

Craig Seeman · November 3rd, 2012, 01:34 PM

You can go to OWC/MacSales for example and see how expensive it is to update RAM on earlier Mac Pros compared to other Macs.

Rough numbers (vary by modules)
2008 MacPro 16GB $448-$520
2009-12 MacPro 16GB $155-$198 (35%-40% ish)
2011 iMac 16GB $99-$105 (50%-65%ish of '09-'12 and 20%-25% of '08 )

I have a 2008 MacPro with 8GB and it's really not worth buying more RAM for it when that money can make a significant dent in the price of a new 2012 iMac in Dec or even a current MBP Retina whose performance would rival or possibly exceed a 2008 MacPro.

I wish this Barefeats test was a bit more relevant but the CPU test of Quad i7 Ivy Bridge 2012 Mini vs 2009 Quad MacPro is interesting
Quad-Core mini versus Quad-Core Mac Pro

How much would a 2009 Octo MacPro beat it by? What about a 2008 Octo MacPro?
One might guess that the current Quad Ivy Bridge i7 is competitive and give it a reasonable GPU...
There's not much motive in maintaining/expanding an older MacPro IMHO.

Caleb Reynolds · November 29th, 2012, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Mercer

After much debate I think I've decided to edit AVCHD natively rather than convert to Prores on import, so speed is important!!

Holy cow dude.

I have a 2011 MBP with 16g ram. Currently editing a car promo vid uncompressed 1080p...And when I have FCPX and Motion open, running 3 layers of titles in fcpx, I get drop frame messages. (before rendering)

Always click "create proxy media"! ALWAYS! I won't make that mistake again.

Also, upgrading Mac memory is cheap if you go aftermarket! Go aftermarket! OWC is my fav: http://www.macsales.com/

November 2nd, 2012, 11:34 PM	#31
Corey Benoit Major Player Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: www.faymusmedia.com Posts: 203	Re: FCPX Slow - upgrading RAM to 6 GB worth it on old MBP? Mine is faster now, i realized i didnt optimize my media to prores. I have 15 GB DDR3, 480GTX card and a core i7 920 @3.6 ghz. I also have a noctua cooler, and 2x 120mm fans that have full control and spit out 250 CFM's. So my cpu stays under 55-60C even at full load and the video card dont get much over 65C itself. Its pretty fast a few lags here and there. I feel that FCPX is WAY better than FCP7 and I believe that FCPX has a concept and workflow as well as user interface that is lightyears beyond Premiere Pro CS6! Now that 10.0.6 is here with all new feature updates, it just blows PPCS6 away! Keyword organization, audio sync automatically, detect people and many other features make me very happy. If Apple was able to somehow loosen up and make full support of ALL video cards and better optimize GPU acceleration just a little more, than I dont believe Adobe has a chance in hell, and probably never would. I can see that my GPU is working voltage goes up and so does temp when I am editing in FCPX, they just have a few more updates and it will be spot on! __________________ www.faymusmedia.com - www.facebook.com/faymusmedia - www.twitter.com/faymusmedia - www.youtube.com/faymusmedia - www.vimeo.com/faymusmedia

November 3rd, 2012, 08:33 AM	#34
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	Re: FCPX Slow - upgrading RAM to 6 GB worth it on old MBP? For various reasons, I keep Activity Monitor open at all times (Compressor issues that are now under control) and I never see FCPX grab RAM like other high end programs do (Adobe programs usually). With 16gb installed on my eight-core 2009 MacPro, the RAM is never more than 1/3 used while running FCPX. That is including RAM that is allocated but not used by the program. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

November 3rd, 2012, 01:34 PM	#36
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Re: FCPX Slow - upgrading RAM to 6 GB worth it on old MBP? You can go to OWC/MacSales for example and see how expensive it is to update RAM on earlier Mac Pros compared to other Macs. Rough numbers (vary by modules) 2008 MacPro 16GB $448-$520 2009-12 MacPro 16GB $155-$198 (35%-40% ish) 2011 iMac 16GB $99-$105 (50%-65%ish of '09-'12 and 20%-25% of '08 ) I have a 2008 MacPro with 8GB and it's really not worth buying more RAM for it when that money can make a significant dent in the price of a new 2012 iMac in Dec or even a current MBP Retina whose performance would rival or possibly exceed a 2008 MacPro. I wish this Barefeats test was a bit more relevant but the CPU test of Quad i7 Ivy Bridge 2012 Mini vs 2009 Quad MacPro is interesting Quad-Core mini versus Quad-Core Mac Pro How much would a 2009 Octo MacPro beat it by? What about a 2008 Octo MacPro? One might guess that the current Quad Ivy Bridge i7 is competitive and give it a reasonable GPU... There's not much motive in maintaining/expanding an older MacPro IMHO. Last edited by Craig Seeman; November 3rd, 2012 at 03:02 PM.