So how fast is Final Cut Pro X on the new Mac Pro?

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin and Mark Spencer from Ripple Training continue their 4-part series exploring the ultimate 4K Final Cut Pro X editing system built around the Mac Pro.

In this third episode, they turn to Final Cut Pro performance.

First, they look at disk speeds of various options for holding your media, including Firewire and Thunderbolt-connected individual drives, internal Mac drives, and of course the Pegasus2 R8 RAID.

Then, they consider three aspects of performance as it relates to Final Cut Pro X: transcoding media (to both Optimized and Proxy formats) on import; playback performance; and render/export performance.

For playback performance, they examine several workflows, including editing RED material in a native (RED RAW) 4K (UHD) project; optimized RED 4K material in a 1080 project; a time-lapse project based on 4K stills; and the performance of a complex Motion project.

So how does the Mac Pro stack up? And is its performance due to all those CPU cores, or those dual graphics cards loaded with VRAM? Check out the video – we think you'll be impressed.