Final Cut Pro X FCPX Graphic Card performance

[pythionoth]

After much consternation yesterday, I was finally able to get my GTX 770 OC 4GB (the gigabyte windforce version) to load up 10.9.2. It required a flash on my GA-X79S-UD5 to the newer BIOS (f13w), as well as a few kexts upfront to get in. Before the flash, the 770 would display the mobo screen, but the machine wouldn't even let me input to access bios / q-flash / anything. Very frustrating, but after about 3 hours toying around with a buddy (who luckily had a very similar machine and a working disk with Windows 8 on it), we were able to flash and get back in.

Here's my problem: the 770 hasn't improved my BruceX time AT ALL, which is VERY disappointing, as I'm sure you can imagine. I'm stuck at around 80 seconds, and my machine should be absolutely crushing that benchmark in at most 30 seconds. Specs below:

GA-X79S-UD5
i7 3930k OC'd @ 4.5GHz
64 GB Corsair Vengeance
Mavericks 10.9.2

I have updated both the NVIDIA drivers as well as the CUDA management (some of my effects plugins use CUDA), but I haven't seen a single improvement in speed. Am I missing something?

I've seen people with a single R9 270x in almost identical setups demolish this benchmark (some around 23-27 seconds), so I picked one up at Best Buy today (I know, I know...but it was there, I didn't feel like waiting because I'm impatient, and their return policy is ridiculously easy to take advantage of, just in case). I'm thinking of popping it in if I can't squeeze a LOT more performance out of this 770.

Any light y'all can shed would be much appreciated. I'm learning more and more that FCPX performance and gaming performance are just completely different things. I don't care AT ALL about gaming. I want blazing Final Cut performance.

 

[rwillett]

AFAIK the Nvidia cards are excellent at gaming and for just about anything that is not FCP X related. The OpenCL performance of them under FCP X is woeful.

I benchmarked a 660 vs my ageing 5770 and for everything (apart from FCP X) GTX 660 was better, no shadow of a doubt. However the 5770, old though it may be, is far, far better (on my testing) than a 660. I suspect your experience backs this up.

Here's my benchmarks for the Bruce X test,

Mac Pro 1,1 16GB Ram 1 x 5770 = 75 secs
Mac Pro 1,1 16GB RAM 2 x 5770 = 53 secs
Mac Pro 1,1 16GB RAM 1 x GTX 660 = 182 sec (more than 2x slower)
i4770 3.4Ghz CPU, Z87X MB, 16GB RAM 2 x 5770 = 31 secs

The 5770 cards are a genuine Apple 5770 and an Asus 5770 cheap card brought off fleaBay. Worked fine, no boot screen and no display port output.

If you want a fast FCP X machine, go get an ATI type card

Rob.

 

[pinktank]

So are the 280x / 270x fully compatible with 10.9.2?

 

[B-San]

I did a build for a friend who uses Final Cut Pro X and now he wants to use a graphics card. I was thinking of going with Radeon HD 7950 Black Edition - but have never used an AMD card before..

My initial research has led me to believe that getting AMD cards to work is more of a crapshoot... am I wrong when it comes to specific models?

..or should I just hook him up with my GTX 650Ti Boost Super Clock and keep things simple?

 

[rwillett]

I would not recommend any of the GTX cards for use with FCP X. I have personally tried the 660 and its a great card for everything BUT FCP X. The GTX 660 does photo editing well, plays games well, but is not optimised for FCPX.

There is a wealth of research out there that backs this up, e.g. try searching for BruceX FCPX benchmark, will show you lots of people who have tried the GTX range all the way up to the top of the range and had poor results with FCP X.

I'm unclear what your research shows on AMD cards but my personal experience gained from spending my own money is that the Asus 5770 range works well out of the second hand box. I have three 5770 cards, an Apple one and two Asus cards, all three work perfectly well on my Z87X UD3H motherboard. In fact I have just finished putting the second 5770 card back in, not five minutes ago as my old Z87X-UD5H motherboard went pop and needed a replacement. Each of the cards cost me around £50/$65 and just worked.




Whilst the 5770 cards are technically old and basically appear to be obsolete, they are the dogs bollocks for their price when they are used in FCP X.

See the whole thread of how I have benchmarked various combinations of cards for best FCP X speed.

I *might* upgrade to a R280X (which is basically a 7970) but at the moment I'm delighted with the speed of my old, obsolete and dirt cheap graphics cards.

Save your money, buy 2 x 5770 and laugh at the GTX760 which can't keep up for FCP X.

Rob

 

[hughjaas]

You should hook your friend up with your 650ti and get yourself a 280X. I just replaced my two 650ti's with a 280X yesterday. Amazon had manufacturer refurb MSI 280X's for $259 the other day. My BruceX score with a single 280X was 34 seconds compared to 48 seconds I was getting with two 650ti's. The only difficulty getting it to work was to have my hackintosh boot from the EFi partition.

 

[rwillett]

It seems as if 2 x 5770 = 0.9 x R280x regarding performance but I suspect the power consumption of the R280x to be far, far better.

I cant ant afford a 280x so will stay with the 5770 unless I can find a cheap 7970.

 

[B-San]

Thanks for the replies fellas! Yeah it looks like I need to go with an AMD card for my guy, as he is a good friend and I want to be able to provide the best value. Having said that, the motherboard I used was an H77N-Wifi so I only have a single PCIe slot to work with..

I don't have a problem going with an older card (my favorite since I use Premier, Photoshop and do some gaming in Windows is a GTX570) & my guy is willing to spend something along the lines of $150-250.

I would also like something that works natively out the box, since Final Cut is not my area of expertise.

Sounds like a second hand R280X might be the best bet? Good to know they are power efficient since the rig only has a 430w Corsair PSU.


Thanks again, and I look forward to learning more!

 

[rwillett]

You could just about pick up a second hand R280X for around $250 from various flea ridden auction sites.

However I would check that the PSU is cable of driving the CPU and GPU. Looking at various sites, the R280 draws around 250W. That only leaves 180W for your CPU and other 'stuff'. I'd check carefully what the components are and add everything up just to be safe.

 

[B-San]

You could just about pick up a second hand R280X for around $250 from various flea ridden auction sites.


However I would check that the PSU is cable of driving the CPU and GPU. Looking at various sites, the R280 draws around 250W. That only leaves 180W for your CPU and other 'stuff'. I'd check carefully what the components are and add everything up just to be safe.

Okay thanks for the heads up!

The rig is comprised of the following and I have added the amount of power draw as well...

The '?' in parenthesis is because I could not find a definitive value from the manufacturer and instead had to look for general figures via user forums..

CPU: 3570K = 77W

MOBO: H77N-WiFi = 25W (?)

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 1600mhz = 1.5V

PSU: CORSAIR CXM series CX430M

Cooler: Antec KUHLER H2O 650 Water/Liquid CPU Cooler 120MM = 30W (?)

SSD: SanDisk SDSSDP-128G-G25 2.5" 128GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) = 0.6W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" = 6.19W

Optical Drive: LG Electronics GH24NS95 Super Multi SATA DVD-RW Drive (Black OEM) = 12W (?)

Case: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini-​ITX = (?)

After adding everything up, it looks like I would be at 152.29W (not including the case), which is a little bit under the 180W threshold you described.

I was originally planning on throwing my GTX 650Ti Boost SC in there (which is why I felt safe using a 430W PSU), but thanks to you guys - it clearly seems that going AMD would be the best bet.

So please let me know if any of my numbers are wrong, or if it's recommended that I upgrade him to a 500W PSU anyways (I would rather keep things simple by plopping in a GPU and calling it a day, but I digress)..

Thanks!