Short FCPX test on Retina MacBook Pro and external Elgato SSD

[Claus Mueller]

I‘ve got my retina MacBook Pro (2.6 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD) and a bus powered Thunderbolt Elgato 240 GB SSD today. The retina display is incredible. You‘ll never want to go back.

The new retina-optimized FCPX plays a 4-minute 4K ProRes 4444 FCPX project in 50% (2K) fluent from the external TB SSD and there is still enough space for menus/timeline etc. Everything looks much better than on my late 2009 27“ iMac.

FCPX export from 4K ProRes 4444 to 4K ProRes 222 LT takes 7:55 on the MacBook and 12:26 on the iMac (16 GB, 2.66 GHz i5).

Copying the 10.5 GB video file from the external Elgato SSD to internal Macbook SSD takes 0:42 (250 MB/s).

Btw, OCZ has announced a much faster (500 MB/s+) external bus powered SSD (Lightfoot) that should arrive in a few months.

[Claus Mueller]

After working a few days now on the Retina MacBook Pro I‘ve to say that I‘m really impressed by the performance. This machine will definitely replace my late 2009 iMac. It is perfect not only for independent bus-powered „Field-Solutions“:


Standard Red Station, USB 2.0 version: Offloading Redmags: 35 MB/s

Freecom Mobile Drive MG 1 TB, USB 3.0: Copy file to/from internal MBP SSD: 100 MB/s

Elgato SSD 240 GB, Copy file to/from internal MBP SSD: 250 MB/s


The Red Station USB 3.0 should be around 100 MB/s as well but I‘ll wait for the Apple TB to FW Adapter.

The TB SSD is 2.5x faster than this USB 3.0 drive but is very pricey, 600€ vs 150€. So I‘ll use the Freecom USB 3.0 drives for backups/copies and timemachine.

Of course there‘re less expensive Raid solutions (Promise etc.) but these Raids are not bus-powered and less portable and this is sometimes everything....

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Thanks for your tests.

I'm very curious to what Apple will do with their R3D support in FCP X later this year.
On the 27th of june they will speak at LAFCPUG, they'll give a presentation, so I'm very curious if they will preview those features.

[Eric Santiago]

Dont forget Mr. Cioni's findings http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...ro-Performance

[Claus Mueller]

Yes, but that is not really bus-powered ;)