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Final Cut Pro obtimized for multiple processors?

P-Worm

P-Worm

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
2,045
1
Salt Lake City, UT
I'm using a Mac Pro 2.66 and I can't seem to max out the processors. Right now I am using compressor to encode a movie. It has been going for some time now, but the processor time can't seem to go past more than 60% per processor.

I'm thinking that it might have to do with the hard drive that comes stock in this machine. Is it just not fast enough to keep up?

I ahve the base Mac Pro with no changes to the configuration. Any suggestions?

P-Worm
 
P-Worm

P-Worm

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
2,045
1
Salt Lake City, UT
I scowered the internet for some kind of Mac Pro benchmark that shows the activity monitor, buut I couldn't find one.

Sure, I can benifit from having multiple apps open, but if I don't need to have other apps open I would like to have the machine working as fast as it can. I would think that Apple would design its software for their own machines.

P-Worm
 
Counterfit

Counterfit

macrumors G3
Aug 20, 2003
8,195
0
sitting on your shoulder
This sounds awfully familiar. Wasn't there another dual processor machine that had the same problem?
Either way, check the settings in the Energy Saver preference pane and make sure processor performance is set to Highest.
 
U

uaaerospace

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2005
396
0
Alabama
Counterfit said:
check the settings in the Energy Saver preference pane and make sure processor performance is set to Highest.
Click to expand...
I think I remember reading that this is only available in PPC models.
 
Rod Rod

Rod Rod

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2003
2,180
6
Las Vegas, NV
You may be able to max out your processors using Compressor IF you attach another Mac, create a cluster and set the other Mac as the cluster controller.

A little while back I connected my dual G5, MacBook Pro and PowerBook G4 by way of a gigabit switch. I set the G5 and MBP to do encoding and the PB to only be the cluster controller.

Having the PB handle only the controlling duties made the job go way faster than having the G5 be the controller and all machines doing the encoding.

Set this up in Apple Qadministrator. For the how to, open up the PDF from "Help."
 
P-Worm

P-Worm

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 16, 2002
2,045
1
Salt Lake City, UT
Rod Rod said:
You may be able to max out your processors using Compressor IF you attach another Mac, create a cluster and set the other Mac as the cluster controller.

A little while back I connected my dual G5, MacBook Pro and PowerBook G4 by way of a gigabit switch. I set the G5 and MBP to do encoding and the PB to only be the cluster controller.

Having the PB handle only the controlling duties made the job go way faster than having the G5 be the controller and all machines doing the encoding.

Set this up in Apple Qadministrator. For the how to, open up the PDF from "Help."
Click to expand...

I have an old single processor QS G4 that is connected to my Mac Pro by standard ethernet. Are you telling me that if I run Final Cut Pro on that machine instead of the Mac Pro that it will be faster? Or are you just saying if I export the compressor file from the old machine to the new one that it will encode faster. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I want to have Final Cut Pro on that old machine (I'm not even sure if it meets the minimum requirements), but I have considered making it a render node.

P-Worm
 
Rod Rod

Rod Rod

macrumors 68020
Sep 21, 2003
2,180
6
Las Vegas, NV
P-Worm said:
I have an old single processor QS G4 that is connected to my Mac Pro by standard ethernet. Are you telling me that if I run Final Cut Pro on that machine instead of the Mac Pro that it will be faster? Or are you just saying if I export the compressor file from the old machine to the new one that it will encode faster. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I want to have Final Cut Pro on that old machine (I'm not even sure if it meets the minimum requirements), but I have considered making it a render node.

P-Worm
Click to expand...
1. No, that's not what I wrote.
2. No, that's not what I wrote either.

What I'm talking about is using Apple Qadministrator to create a cluster where your old G4 is the controller (but it doesn't do any encoding) and all the encoding is done on your new Mac Pro. The old G4 is nearly useless as an encoding node, if my tests with my 1.25GHz PB G4 is any indication. Encoding jobs will complete faster without the G4 running them, but rather only controlling the cluster.

Please go open Apple Qadministrator. It's in your Applications folder. Click Help. Select the only option there.
 
bigbossbmb

bigbossbmb

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2004
1,759
0
Pasadena/Hollywood
P-Worm said:
I'm thinking that it might have to do with the hard drive that comes stock in this machine. Is it just not fast enough to keep up?
Click to expand...

please tell me all of your media is NOT on the boot drive....

I max out my 2.8ghz octo with a virtual cluster in compressor... i get about 700% (combined) in activity monitor. make sure you have that set up correctly first. you do NOT need another computer as a controller to make this happen.
 
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