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Base model iMac performance disappointing

S

Siderz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 10, 2012
991
6
Went to the Apple Store today and looked at the base model 21.5".

One of them was missing a mouse...

Anyway, when I did get a chance on one, I first checked the specs, it was the base model, 8GB RAM.

I opened up Photoshop CS6, didn't actually do anything on it though, and I just minimised it and opened iMovie Pro (Eh, sorry, Final Cut Pro X). Firstly it took a bit to open, then it took a bit for the timeline to load (I was surprised it actually had a project. It was the project used to promote FCPX). It had a few things to render, but by the time I remembered that there's a small circle denoting render time, it had already rendered, so I wasn't sure how long it took. It was only a few transitions though...

Then I noticed that as I scrolled through the timeline, there was quite a bit of lag. I was really surprised by this. I don't know how scrolling could lag in 2012. Maybe it's just FCPX's fault for being such a terrible application...but even then, it's by Apple, so it should work seamlessly on a brand new device.

Scrubbing through the timeline seemed to lag as well.

I hope it was just that the footage was 4K, that would be justifiable on a base model iMac, but if it's 1080p footage, that's really bad for any amateur who wants to get into filmmaking and are starting on a simple application like FCPX.

Maybe I'm overreacting? I ordered a maxed out 21.5" one, I hope the performance from simply scrolling through a timeline isn't that bad. I'm not gonna be using FCPX though.
 
Siderz said:
That could be a possibility, but that shouldn't really affect scrolling.
Click to expand...

Yes, it should, as scrolling through footage is more demanding than playing it back, as it is not one continuous stream playing one frame after the other, where the read head on the HDD can just move "slowly" through the footage, but one random stream through random frames. And if the footage is using ProRes 422 (or a similar variant), there is more to scroll through (files are bigger than H.264 encoded ones).

The CPU should be more than fast enough, well, even my C2D Macs can scroll through properly transcoded 1080p footage stored on an external Firewire 800 HDD.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Yes, it should, as scrolling through footage is more demanding than playing it back, as it is not one continuous stream playing one frame after the other, where the read head on the HDD can just move "slowly" through the footage, but one random stream through random frames. And if the footage is using ProRes 422 (or a similar variant), there is more to scroll through (files are bigger than H.264 encoded ones).

The CPU should be more than fast enough, well, even my C2D Macs can scroll through properly transcoded 1080p footage stored on an external Firewire 800 HDD.
Click to expand...

I said scrolling through the timeline, not scrubbing through the timeline.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Sorry, got the two confused. Hmm, that is strange. Is that a complex timeline? Because even that can be done with C2D Macs. :confused:
Click to expand...

I think it had about 4 video layers and 4 audio layers.

I'm pretty sure it was different than to the one below, but it had the Audi.

hero.png


I guess I should have looked at some other stuff, but I just can't try out an Apple product in-store properly...it's not my computer, I'm not sure where things get placed, and it's in such an awkward position that I can barely use it.
 
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