I don't get it, what takes so long if my MBP is not using all its power?

[BiikeMike]

I'm exporting a ~2 hour Timeline from Final Cut Pro using compressor, and I figured it would use basically everything I have.

I opened Activity monitor, and only ~60% of my processor is idle, and ~1.1 gigs of my 2 gigs of RAM is unused. So what the heck is it doing? Why not use more of the processor or more of the RAM and get the video done quicker?

Does it have to do with disk write time?

 

[heehee]

I don't use FCP, but in Aftereffects and other programs, there is a setting in there that will limit the maximum memory usage to allow other things to run while rendering. Maybe that's it??

 

[Zwhaler]

I don't use FCP, but in Aftereffects and other programs, there is a setting in there that will limit the maximum memory usage to allow other things to run while rendering. Maybe that's it??

That's what I am thinking. A couple other applications have those same type of settings, like Google Earth and Photoshop.

 

[isleofjib]

also, if you haven't already, go to system prefs (under energy settings?) and make sure you're computer is set to best performance setting. if it's set to save energy or the middle option (can't remember what it is off hand), it might hold back to save performance for other processes.

 

[BiikeMike]

well, After I posted, it started to process something else, and then it jumped up to using 97% of my processor. That made me feel a bit better

But then I got a "insufficient disk space" error message, but I had 19GB still free