I have a macbook pro
3.06ghz Intel core duo
8gb 1067 MHz DDR3
Mac Os X 10.7.4
FCPX 10.4

Help guys, I did my research on what all could be the possible problem as to why my laptop still lags, I recently started using another drive to put my events and projects on and still didn't help. Every time I make a change to a clip, add a transition or color grade, it takes forever to render, I have all my videos on a separate HD and when i'm just editing everything just takes long to render even without any added effects etc etc, I created a project and it's been 20 minutes and its only at 8& rendered... what is going on

please help

www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/

Minimum processor listed for FCP X is Core 2 Duo. That could be your problem.

How big is your system drive?

How much space do you have available on your system drive?

What kind of external drive are you using? USB 2? Firewire? eSATA?

grailz wrote:
system drive 500gb
300gb available
firewire TB HD

What's your editing codec? With that machine you better work with proxies.... and turn that background render off.

Piggybacking on cgbier's comment, when you say 'render' do you mean rendering your timeline? If that's the case, definitely try switching to proxy res footage and see if you can forego rendering altogether. Rendering the timeline can be a very slow go (as it is a processor only action). When and where you can avoid rendering, do. Unless things come to a halt when you try to play them back, avoid rendering your timelines. Hopefully a switch to proxy can help.

"as it is a processor only action"

I think it depends on what has to be rendered.

Does everything need to render?

Is it possible that you have an issue where your timeline setting doesn't match your footage?

What are the details on your footage? Which codec are you using? Are you mixing footage in the timeline? What is the timeline setting? Does it match the majority of your footage?

How responsive is the timeline for editing if you don't render?

There is often no need to render while you edit. I will not render anything except effects that cause the machine to stutter, like fancy transition effects, but not the basic color correcting. Then when I'm done, I export the timeline.

thanks everyone, i found cgbier advice worked best, turning off background rendering and working in proxy.