Optimize your system for FCP X

Resolve

You have to configure your Mac correctly so Resolve can use the right card for the right purposes. In our test configuration I have the Quadro 4000 installed in slot 2 and the 5770 in slot 1. I use slot 3 for a Decklink Extreme capture card (for tape capture, tape layback and for HD/SDI broadcast monitoring) and slot 4 for the RAID card.

During the installation process Resolve looks at your installed cards and in our case it automatically uses the 5770 for GUI monitoring (because that's the card where our ACD monitors are connected to) and the Quadro4000 for the GPU processing, provided you haven't connected any monitors to it.

Smoke 2013:

Smoke is much less demanding than Resolve and it only uses one card in our setup. The problem we have at this point is that when we want to use the 4000 as a GUI/GPU for Smoke we have to connect our video monitors to this card and when we then launch Resolve it won't use the 4000 as GPU anymore. But to be truthful we only do this for advanced testing, because Smoke runs very happily on the 5770 as well. This is quite an amazing application, even in its current state (now where have I heard this before?)

Thanks for that info! I will be diving in to Resolve LITE later this summer and want to get a CUDA card for it so I can get as much out of it as I can.

Presently I only run one 30" Apple Cinema Display off my GPU, and an FSI broadcast monitor off of an AJA Kona LHi. A second monitor isn't really necessary for me. On rare occasions I can set the Kona to be my second desktop display for Motion when I have large projects and the real estate is nice. But that's not every day for me.

I am looking to get a beefier GPU. I'm interested in anyone with a 2008 era Mac Pro who's gone from a 4870 level to either of the 5700 level GPUs, what the performance change was.

I hope you are happy with your FSI broadcast monitor. I think the FSI monitors are among the best one can get, but they certainly are not cheap. I have been using FSI monitoring ever since I have worked in broadcast. My post house is in Brussels but I live in Kortrijk, a few miles from the FSI headquarters. I produce most of their showcase videos.

For Resolve the Quadro 4000 is an excellent card, although the older GeForce GTX 285, which you can still find on ebay, offers the same performance at a fraction of the price of the 4000.

With your experience I think you will enjoy working with Resolve. The Lite version is an excellent way to learn the app. It offers most of the functionality of the full version, so after a while you can decide wether you will step up to the full version or not. I think this is a very good sales policy.

I have to say FSI is the best value for your dollar. Since I've had mine, I've had several free firmware updates that have added functionality, which keeps me up with the newer models. It keeps it's value for sure. It's a more powerful monitor than when I purchased it. You can't say that for any other monitor. Plus their technology is way more stable and truer than any other.

Yep, I not only miss using Color, but I miss teaching it, too. Teaching color in FCP X level 2 classes isn't the same. I'm in production for a video course on professional color workflow in FCP X for macProVideo, based on the old Color class I taught. The freaking color board is just not all that. I had a student last week ask me, if the RGB additive color wheel superimposes on to the Vector scope perfectly, but Apple made us use a rectangle, why didn't they change the Vector scope into a rectangle? Good question for which I have no answer.

Anyway, going to Color now with Xto7 is fine. Color grading professionally with my control surface is fast and acurate, but I know Color will stop working on some new version of OS X or some new CPU. And having to jump through the Xto7 hoops isn't as smooth of a workflow as I'd like.

So yeah, I'll look at Resolve when I have time this summer. Not sure about the full version, pretty pricey. I'd love to see an updated version of "Color X" for $49.99. A boy can dream...

I doubt that we'll a revived Color. Seems Apple offers FCP X as the editing core with everything else done by third parties.

I've been thinking of an FCP X + Resolve Lite (I only do 1080) workflow, but now I look deeply into my software budget for Smoke. It is amazing how Autodesk managed to get that much power out of rather system requirements. It runs very nice, at least with the little stuff I've done so far, on a 2910 MBP. Rendering time blows, but still....

Titling should not be done in Smoke. That is more than awkward.

Ben, you'll get a lot out of a GPU upgrade. A friend of mine has a similar setup. My MBP was faster than his MP. Until he stopped out the GPU. Now I'm losing the race...

I know Color won't come back, but I have wet dreams about a Color X.

I see the 5780 takes two aux power cables, the max a MP has. So if I got that card, I couldn't put a CUDA card in later. Crap.

Anyone know what the Quadro or 5770 requires of aux power?

The 5770 (a double slot card) takes 1 auxiliary power tap, as does the Quadro 4000, which is a single slot card.

I'm running a 2009 MacPro with 48gigs ram, CalDigit Raid, BM Decklink SDI, HP Dreamcolor.

Here's my problem: I have a GTX 285 and a GT120. The GT120 is way underpowered as a GUI (can't do 24fps playback sometimes) so I'd like to swap it out. But the 285 takes 2 power taps and so I'd have to find another card that I can use with it.

I've been told I can take power from the optical bay or from one of the sata ports on the backplane (I'm using only two ports (2&3) to power my internal drives using the CalDigit card with TransIntl ProCable, so I have two open sata ports on the back plane.) I'd use this cable to power the card: www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c...=8494&seq=1&format=2

The nice thing about the 5770/Quadro 4000 combo is that the 5770 is a double height and the Quadro is a single height and one power tap each, so they fit within the MacPro if the other slots are used (in my case the BM card and the CalDigit card). Only problem: this combo is about $1K.... And I already own a really nice 285 card.

Does anyone have experience with PC Radeon cards flashed for use in Mac Pros. This card looks pretty sweet: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131433

If I can get it to work, then I'd have a single height card to mate with my 285. The 5770 is double height and won't fit with the 285, and I need to have a 285 or equivalent for Resolve.

Any thoughts on what combos work best? There aren't any single height "Mac compatible" cards except for the GT120, which needs to be retired...

Paul,
I'm using a PC XFX Radeon 6870 1GB card in an old MacPro 1.1 (2006) without any need to flash. They work out of the box with SL or Lion, as apple supplies drivers. The only issue is if it is only card in Mac you will not see the the grey screen and spinning wheel while going through boot routine. 1st screen will be log-in screen. This behavior is due to the EFI I believe. With your second card installed you should be able to see you boot process.
This card does require an extra power connector which I made. You can tap the extra sata power connectors with adapters. The reason I made my own cable was due to the length to reach power connector on card. The cable you link to may not be long enough depending on power connector location on card. Just so you know.
Major speed improvements over 7300.
While I haven't tried this I bet that many of the new nVidia cards will now work in SL/Lion as Apple is using the 650's in the new MBP's. These cards are far more energy efficient so may not need extra power connectors, don't know haven't looked.
You can follow this issue on Insanely Mac www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php ? and tonymacx86 tonymacx86.blogspot.com/
Looking forward to my new rMBP. Will be faster than current set-up especially with external media drives.

seems I found the right thread for my issue

I just upgraded my MP 3.1 with 512 gb Ssd and 24 gb ram ... I still experience problems with full hd playback - especially when having the viewer on my second screen .. so I guess my Gpu is the problem - nvidia 8800 gt

what would you recommend as a good replacement - is the gtx285 a good advantage over the 8800? How is this card generally performing and how well it works with FcpX? How does it compare to the Radeon 5870?
Or could i simply install a second 8800 for use with the second monitor?
Are there any other options on the market?
edit: just noticed there's also an 6870 Mac version available ... any experience with this one?

Yeah... I would upgrade the GPU, RAM and then to SSD for better performance.

anyone tested the 6870 ? Seems a good option judging by the benchmarks in the net and it's low price

SSD's have a short lifespan?

how short?
what about the new MBP's

TrixTrax9000 wrote: SSD's have a short lifespan?

how short?

I believe this is all speculation for the most part. Crucial and most quality manufacturers offer at least 3 year no fault warranties on SSD's. I personally have a friend who purchased a DELL computer with a SSD system drive nearly 5 years ago and it is still running perfectly today.

There may be technical information out there that suggests SSD's may not outlive traditional spinning hard drives, but there is not enough trend data to say outright that they have a short lifespan.

Having said that, there is no data on my system SSD and on my scratch SSD that is not also backed up on two auxiliary offline FW800 archive drives.

Thanks for the tip on the cable! I ordered the 6850 because it's single slot, so I'll see how it goes when I install it this week.

I'm not sure how a 2nd GPU (In my case a GTX 285) helps FCPX in any operations. Is anyone clear on how FCP uses GPUs that are not the primary (ie connected-to-monitor) card? The reason I have the GTX285 is for Resolve and Adobe Mercury/Cuda related products. I don't know if it helps FCPX at all...

I did see this thread about AVX:

Why FCPX Seems Faster on Thunderbolt Macs
forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/38013

Verstaeker,
I posted about the 6870. The 6870 is not an improvement over the 5870, they are roughly equal. The 5870 will outperform in some areas and is slightly slower in others. The real issue is the cost with the 6870 being around 1/2 the cost of the 5870. You might find a 5870 used. I believe the 5870 is EOL.
I'm using a PC version of the 6870 in a MacPro 1.1 and it works great. I have not flashed the card as my Mac has a 32bit EFI so no benefit to doing so, but it works oob. Later MacPros have a 64bit EFI chip so "flashing" the card and renaming it will make the Mac believe it is legit and will allow boot screen. Search Netkas.org for 6870+mac and you will find process to flash card if so desired. Both of these cards are big improvements over the 8800/4850. I would dump the 8800. Not even sure FCPX will run on it.
There are now some new cards around that also provide better performance, but I have no personal experience with them. Anandtech does some very good reviews comparisons of various hardware.
GPUs improve every year, but Apple only provides drivers for certain cards so make sure someone else has been successful before you spend $$. Or buy an Apple card.
Love to have a 512GB ssd in my tower, but it is moving to EOL as well.

FCP doesn't support multiple graphics cards.

OK me bad. The 8800GT does meet Apples requirements for FCPX.
Here is link support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

Really Tom?
I thought that multi-cards use was the reason behind the "green-flash" and that the Open CL standard supported distributed processing including in same machine?

How can 5870 be EOL if it's still being sold?

Motion legacy always had issues with multiple graphics cards that were different makes/models.

There are many reports of bugs in FCPX and Motion 5 when adding a second card to a MP. These seem to be when the second card is driving a second monitor. But as stated earlier in this thread, if there is no monitor on the second one, and the slots are in the right order, it may run better. Thus, you have a CUDA card for Resolve/Smoke with no monitor hooked up. FCPX/Motion access the GPU the main monitor is driven from, but a second card with secondary monitor seems to be flakey for some people.

OpenCL lets apps access a GPU, not necessarily multiple GPUs.