New Mac Pro seem slow in CPU-intensive task.

[Steven1621]

I have a new Mac Pro (standard 2.8 configuration with 3 X 250GB in software RAID0) at my cable station at college. I was expecting this thing to be a real screamer, but I find myself a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite fast. But for CPU-intensive task in Final Cut Studio, I find it to be slower than it should be. For example, compressing a 6 GB DV file for an iPhone is taking 32 minutes. CPU usage is only around 30% per core. I've never been able to drive CPU usage above this level in any task (Handbrake, Final Cut rendering, etc.) I know that not all software is able to fully use all of the cores, but this doesn't make sense to me. Is this normal performance? Or could something wrong with the Mac Pro?

[MrT8064]

as far as HandBrake encoding goes, apparently stripping the copyright takes a lot of time... and i read here a few days ago that some dvd producers have different copyrights, e.g. Disney takes longer to rip than some others

[milkybrainuk]

How much memory do you have in your machine??

[Mackilroy]

That's puzzling, HB on my 2006 Mac Pro uses 320 percent of my processing power.

[GotPro]

I have a new Mac Pro (standard 2.8 configuration with 3 X 250GB in software RAID0) at my cable station at college. I was expecting this thing to be a real screamer, but I find myself a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite fast. But for CPU-intensive task in Final Cut Studio, I find it to be slower than it should be. For example, compressing a 6 GB DV file for an iPhone is taking 32 minutes. CPU usage is only around 30% per core. I've never been able to drive CPU usage above this level in any task (Handbrake, Final Cut rendering, etc.) I know that not all software is able to fully use all of the cores, but this doesn't make sense to me. Is this normal performance? Or could something wrong with the Mac Pro?

Is this something that could be sped up by utilizing the UNIX "nice" or "renice" command via Terminal???

See below:

Unix Tool for Increasing CPU LOAD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_(Unix))

[ale500]

if the task is using only 30% of one processor or all, is probably IO-bound, look for how much is in wait.
If you have enough memory, you could make a virtual RAM disk, that way you will probably be not IO-bound anymore :-).
Try POVRay, it does not need much disk, and will use 100 % of any CPU you have, that will show you the power within.

But, if you do not like your MP, I'm willing to accept it as a gift :-)

Have fun

[bilbo--baggins]

That's puzzling, HB on my 2006 Mac Pro uses 320 percent of my processing power.

I've noticed Handbrake to use over 600% processor power sometimes. Encoding a lot of stuff without de-interlacing runs at over 100 fps.

[Mackilroy]

Yeah, I saw a post by another guy saying on his 8-core machine he was getting 600 percent usage. I only have four cores, however. :)

[Steven1621]

Hmm, I still have plenty of RAM free, so that isn't the issue. I suspect it might have something to do with the hard drives, but I don't have the faintest idea why. Could be be the software RAID? The slowness persist even when it is done from the boot drive that came with the computer, so that seems unlikely.