FCP not running as fast as it should

[99cobra66]

Hey guys, I have a question for any who feel inclinded to answer...

I am running final cut pro 5 on my G5 dual 2GHz with 1.5 gigs ram, and when I am rendering, it does not seem to go as fast as I would have hoped.

When I open activity monitor during rendering, FCP is only using around 95-110% processor speed (with no other CPU hungry programs running)... I thought my computer should be running lcose to 200% since I have the dual core. I have reached close to 200% before when I was converting videos files to other formats?

any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[After G]

I think it has to do with what can actually be done with the video at the moment that the computer is processing. Some processes can only be done in order, which is probably why your CPU isn't at near 200% utilization.

 

[99cobra66]

so if video rendering does not utilize the dual processor... what does?

 

[mr_mac]

That's not it at all..

check your HD Speed as well as your RAM...

You'll notice that when you start your render, it uses 200% CPU... then after a while, it goes down. That's when the RAM is FULL and it sends buffer to the HD.

Hook up a RAID to your computer.. It's not that expensive and GREATLY increases speed in rendering... At least it does for me!

I have a Dual 2GHz with 2,25GB RAM and 3x250GB HD RAID and it screams in rendering which i do all the time...

 

[99cobra66]

Ok Mr. Mac... thanks for the info... after reading your response I went ahead and tried 2 things. First I opened activity monitor and started to render a clip and instantly switched over to watch CPU usage. Still at around 110 from the begining to end (i also watched the ram deplete, but the clip was not big enough to use up all my ram).

then I moved all my files over to my second internal hard drive and changed that to the primary scratch disk... I re-rendered the same clip... this time it remained constant as well, but at about 130%. This is better, but I was hoping I could do more. I have yet to see my computer hit close to 200% usage... even in the begining.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Create a 250 MB ram disk with a small clip and compare it to your drive.

 

[Sdashiki]

When someone says :

"Its not rendering fast enough!"

I say:

"How can you tell?"

"Its moving slower than I WANT"

key word, is WANT.

you cant make video render faster.

and unless you have another machine next to you doing the same exact render and IT is going faster could you even begin to logically complain about it taking too long. with no form of reference, how can you say its taking too long?

A simple fade can be done in Real Time with no rendering, because of CoreVideo and it is rather simple.

but slap on a fade over a clip that has anything but "Basic Motion" filters/keyfram changes, you MUST render.

more descriptions about what exactly you are doing and what/why you feel it is slow might help.

all other comments made here will of course increase the overall speed of your workflow, but cant make the machine work faster.