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Anyone running FcpX on 2012 13" MBP?

Sheller

Sheller

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
21
14
Toronto
Hello,
I'm looking to buy a new (my first) mbp and trying to find out if anyone is running fcpx on the new 13" models? (either the i5 or i7). I'd love to go with the 13" if I can (will be using external monitor a lot) but if it can't handle the app, I may reconsider (or just stick with iMovie for a while).
Any one using it yet? Or using it on last years 13" mbp's? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
 
Ive seen it run at the Apple Store.
And I run it on a 17" Uni 2009 model.
Im pretty sure itll run decent on the 13".
Just not sure how itll deal with TB display and External Drives.
That I havent had a chance to test.
 
I went to the Apple store with a buddy to try out the new retina MBP. They did have FCPx loaded on these machines but not the Airs or the 13. I was basically ingesting a 1080p60 clip / transcoding and my test was to time how long it took. 1080p 60 is the most challenging material that you can get (apart from Red camera stuff) but for the average consumer this is what you want to throw at it. My buddy has the 13 and the weakness is the HD3000 graphics card in my opinion all though he uses FCPx and it appear to work fine.

But have you considered an AIR?

I did manage to play the footage on an air, very smoothly, something my i7 mac mini struggles with, CPU usage was very low compared to my new mini and I think it as an i5i - my mini has an SSD, 8 gigs of Ram and the upgraded AMD graphics card. Based on that I'd say that the new HD4000 is a huge improvement on the hd3000 and I think you'd be fine with this as a secondary edit machine - you can and I have run nigh long transcodes on a laptop but I wa alway worried that I was going to blow it up with the excess heat.

As far as running on an older MBP, forget it. My MBP 2008 was useless and a 2009 will be bad too, it's all down to the graphic card and the Open CL goodness, I had a fancy gt9600 card but for FCPx it was an order of magnitude slower than my partners 330m card and that card is on par with a hd3000 that is so so.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I should mention that I'd only be doing the video stuff as a hobby, so I don't' need anything too powerful, but just trying to find out if the app will work at all. I haven't thought much about the Air b/c I like the idea of being able to do my own upgrades in the future (ram, ssd, optibay) and I like the additional ports on the pro.
My video will be from a canon dslr and iphone mainly.
 
mBox said:
Itll work fine. I got FCPX running on a Mac Pro 2006 :)
Click to expand...

mBox is correct...MORE than fine!!! These new 13's are faster than two year's ago iMacs and MBPs...the 15s and 17s! They're incredible performers, and the Intel 4000 is a pretty beefy little chip for an integrated solution...definitely a usable solution for FCPx---and the way Apple has written the software to take advantage of BOTH the CPU and GPU.

Your statement about your cams you're using---the Canon DSLR (Go to canonusa.com and pull of the download/software section...there are plug-ins available for FCP that will speed up (by ten fold!!!) your ingestion from camera or card to your machine. That's one thing you'll want to augment FCPx with off the bat...the iPhone will ingest as well, very easily. You may want to transcode them to a similar format (ProRes)---but with FCPx that's not a necessity any longer (you can throw motion in practically ANY format on to the timeline and the program will do it's deal).

Even today's Airs will utilize FCPx efficiently. It's a well written piece of software, and done from the ground up for 64bit capability. As well, the two decent updates that have release have added a TON of additional benefits to the software itself.

Good Luck---and keep in mind, the MBP has a decent return policy and FCPx is now offered with a 30 day free trial---so you can try it out for a month and if you're not happy---return it for a 15".

...My background, motion is what I do for a living and have for 20 years. I use FCP7, FCPx, After Effects---Premier, and I've lately been playing with Avid (I hadn't touched it in 10 years!). I'm currently working on a 2009 MacPro, 2011 17" MacBook Pro (2.3/8gb RAM) and a pair or 2011 MacBook Airs. ALL machines have FCPx and the Creative Suite from Adobe. Even the Air runs FCPx well---it's the transcoding or finishing times you'll see slower progress with 'lesser' hardware. As a hobbyist though, Who Cares! Your editing will be just as fluent. When you go to finalize your project, take a break. Depending on the length of your film/project---we're literally talking seconds to minutes in real time saved. My 2011 MBP is almost as quick on rendering and transcoding as my Mac Pro. Just shows the technology evolution over the past couple years. These Ivy Bridge procs with intel 4000 are nice little machines for video.

Good Luck
 
Just make sure to use the Proxy option with larger projects on the MBP.
We dont for the MP but at times I personally do for home on my MP.
 
You will disappointed video editing apps requires as much screen space as possible if you want to stick to macbook take the biggest screen possible.
 
chevalier433 said:
You will disappointed video editing apps requires as much screen space as possible if you want to stick to macbook take the biggest screen possible.
Click to expand...
This maybe true but the op is just doing this as a hobby.
Man I started with Premiere 1.0 on Mac LC III with 14" CRT display :p
No one told me then I had to have a bigger screen ;)
 
mBox said:
This maybe true but the op is just doing this as a hobby.
Man I started with Premiere 1.0 on Mac LC III with 14" CRT display :p
No one told me then I had to have a bigger screen ;)
Click to expand...
We doing hobbies to pleasure ourselves not to torture ourselves specifically our eyes and secondly our workflow;).
 
chevalier433 said:
We doing hobbies to pleasure ourselves not to torture ourselves specifically our eyes and secondly our workflow;).
Click to expand...
LOL!
Well it did take awhile for me to move up to a 17" ;)
Now Im spoiled cause all my work gear is dual Apple 30's :p
 
Again, thanks so much for the feedback. I think using an external monitor for a good portion of editing would help reduce the need for a bigger mbp right?

Regardless, I took your info and went out on my lunch break and picked up the 13" i5. I hope in the near future to upgrade the ram and install an ssd to really maximize the machine.

Thanks again! I really appreciate your help!
 
i have a 2011 13" mac book pro i5, i upgraded the HDD to a momentus hybrid 750gb from the stock 320gb last month and got 8gb ram kit 5 months ago, i must say, my mac is like a new beast since the hybrid switch, rendering is much faster, although id still like it to be faster, however if your just a hobbyist then its more than capable for you.
 
I'm using an early 2011 MBP (2.3GHz i5). 8Gb makes a big difference, 16Gb can be utilized as well. Also, you won't want to edit off your main hard drive for the best performance. I'm not sure how usb 3 is for editing off of, but USB 2 drives aren't a good idea. I tried it with HD video work and would regularly get the beach ball. I upgraded to a SSD and moved my hard disk drive into the optical bay replacing my DVD drive.

If you are editing H264 encoded videos, expect your fans to run during playback of HD videos. If it's optimized or converted to a prores format your computer will work less.

For just hobby work, the 13" mbp will work fine. You could also picking up a quad core 2011 15" mbp for a similar price.
 
chevalier433 said:
You will disappointed video editing apps requires as much screen space as possible if you want to stick to macbook take the biggest screen possible.
Click to expand...

If you go back, read his original post---he/she says specifically he will be with a bigger, external monitor 'most of the time' for his/her video editing.

Congrats Sheller! It's an amazing machine--and definitely get yourself an external 'scratch' drive. USB 3.0 is perfectly adequate even for 1080p @ decent bitrates. It's fast---I use FW800 drives from OWC and they're excellent. USB (theoretically) is over 600% faster (5Gbps/sec) vs FW800@800Mbps. Yes, you could go for Thunderbolt but it's completely unnecessary in your situation! And the USB3's are getting cheaper again and pretty ubiquitous.

Good Job---That's a Bad Ass machine!

Jer
 
akdj said:
If you go back, read his original post---he/she says specifically he will be with a bigger, external monitor 'most of the time' for his/her video editing.
Click to expand...
Yes when he is at home when he isnt he would take his external monitor in his back?
 
Ok, no need for arguments over my usage plans.

For the record though, video editing will be done at home with external monitor. Why did I not get a desktop then? I'm a musician so I wanted something portable for recording demo's for my band. Figure this machine is the best of both worlds.

Other than doing the main updates last night, I haven't had a chance to really play around with the machine, but I'm very excited about it. I'm coming from Win XP :) so its a whole new world!

@MBox, I really am excited to learn. I've used Premier Pro in the past, but understand this is a completely new way to edit. Looking forward to it.

@akdj, thanks for the canon plug-in tip! I would never have thought to look for something like that.

I currently have a Lacie d2 external drive that I can hook up via FW800, but will likely keep that for storing backups and get another external drive as well. Will be going the USB3 route since Thunderbolt is too expensive right now.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Download Black Magic Disk Speed Test.
Just another thing to drive you nuts ;)
 
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