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Editing my first real project in FCP X with my R5 HEVC 4K footage, and playback is definitely not great. 4K 25p timeline with 4K 25p footage with a grade and it gets choppy fast.

What's more frustrating is the system isn't even maxing out in any particular area. CPU usage is low, GPU memory is barely more than 50% and GPU processing at less than 25%.

Screen Shot 2020-08-18 at 4.24.54 pm.jpg
 
From the sound of your description, this is cutting, scrubbing, grading, etc., as opposed to export. Yes?

Are you running with background render enabled? I find all CPUs and the GPU near fully utilized when editing under similar conditions until background render completed, and then smooth sailing. If I don't enable background render, the experience is more like what you describe (i.e., resources not fully utilized, playback less smooth).
 
Correct, when editing.

Background render is reasonably fast, but frankly, I didn't spend this amount of money to have to sit around and wait for everything to render all the time.

Most of the time, it doesn't feel any faster than my two-year-old i7 8700K Hackintosh with ten fewer cores and 1/3 the RAM, and that's pretty disappointing.
 
I hear ya. As per earlier posts, I think out of luck when it comes to a good experience editing 10-bit 265 422 on our systems at this time -- stuck transcoding or generating proxies for now, or output to a more friendly codec via HDMI out to Atomos (i.e., ProRes). Very odd though that the CPU is not being more fully utilized.
 
I hear ya. As per earlier posts, I think out of luck when it comes to a good experience editing 10-bit 265 422 on our systems at this time -- stuck transcoding or generating proxies for now, or output to a more friendly codec via HDMI out to Atomos (i.e., ProRes). Very odd though that the CPU is not being more fully utilized.

That is what’s annoying me, the system monitors suggest much of the system isn’t being utilised, yet playback on the timeline is choppy.

Still keen to see what the new iMac with the 16GB 5700XT is like. If it’s similar I may genuinely consider it.
 
Editing my first real project in FCP X with my R5 HEVC 4K footage, and playback is definitely not great. 4K 25p timeline with 4K 25p footage with a grade and it gets choppy fast.

What's more frustrating is the system isn't even maxing out in any particular area. CPU usage is low, GPU memory is barely more than 50% and GPU processing at less than 25%.

View attachment 945078
Did you tried turn OFF background rendering, and edit HEVC directly?

The idea is simple. Your 5700 has VCN, which can decode HEVC in timeline smoothly. There is no need to transcode to ProRes (this is what background rendering does).

e.g. I can edit 4K HEVC directly in FCPX on my cMP by using AMD UVD on my Radeon VII.

As you can see in the video, no background rendering, no proxy, no optimised media. Just drag the video into the timeline and edit.

Everything captured in real time (clock at the top left).

Of course, you should able to edit your video in ProRes smoothly. What you experienced is definitely not right. But if you can edit HEVC directly smoothly. Then at least it can be the work around for you at this moment.
 
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