Slow playback on a Mac

[Lants]

Having this issue on a Macpro (early 2009: 8-core, 2.26ghz, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, default HDD).

Installed toxik trial on one of the new Imacs, also on a bit older mac pro (2008) and it runs super fine. Plays back very smoothly. But on this mac above it plays very slowly or will get stuck at a frame and won't go further no matter what. I've posted elsewhere but i wonder if anyone with the same setup have tried Toxik yet and could share the experience.

Right now i don't know if it's a software issue or hardware. Any other app runs fine. AE and nuke for example can play back the same footage no problem, many times faster.

Thanks in advance.

[alatteri]

where did you get the trial for mac? can't find it on the site.

[olheiros]

I am getting a few performance issues aswell. I think since it it's first time in the mac it's not yet very reliable. Have u tried on windows or Linux? 64 bit versions tend to faster since they get to use more ram from the machine

but if you have ae and nuke why go for toxic anyway?

[Lants]

alattri: you will download the whole Maya package to get Toxik.

olheiros: i tried using bootcamp and got the same playback issues in this machine. all the other macs i tried plays back just fine. i'm wondering if it's something in my machine or toxik.

i don't have nuke. and i do work in maya, so i was looking into toxik for a better workflow. bit cumbersome sometimes with AE.

[lex]

I'm experiencing exactly the same problem on the same machine. I would love to know what the solution is. I have a feeling its the graphics card, but not sure. What was the spec of the machine that it did run on?

[Lants]

Not sure about the specs in detail. But it was an earlier 8-core. if i'm not wrong it had an ati x1900. Also the imac ran super fine with the stock graphics - which one, im not sure about.

If will check if the 1900 works with the new macs and give it a try to confirm if it's graphic card related. From what could i check toxik would stop reading/writing the drive quite abruptly and didn't seem to be a lot of memory activity either.

Let us know if you're about to test it yourself.

[lex]

Installed Toxik on my MacBook Pro and it works super fine. Still haven't got it running on the Mac Pro!

[lex]

Ok, if you have your media cache pointing to the same drive as your footage it slows Toxiks playback down. I have pointed my cache to a separate drive and seems to be working as expected.

[enigmastudios]

Having this issue on a Macpro (early 2009: 8-core, 2.26ghz, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120, default HDD).

Installed toxik trial on one of the new Imacs, also on a bit older mac pro (2008) and it runs super fine. Plays back very smoothly. But on this mac above it plays very slowly or will get stuck at a frame and won't go further no matter what. I've posted elsewhere but i wonder if anyone with the same setup have tried Toxik yet and could share the experience.

Right now i don't know if it's a software issue or hardware. Any other app runs fine. AE and nuke for example can play back the same footage no problem, many times faster.

Thanks in advance.

Hey Lants,

Well, I am not a MAC expert, but here is what I do know. You graphics card GT120 has not been tested with TOXIK (TOXIK has specific Graphics card OpenGL requirements and not all cards will support them) this is not to say it is the problem, just that it is not tested yet. Also, TOXIK/Maya 2010 is not ready for the latest MAC OS (Snow Leapard) again could be a problem if you are using it, but it seems you are not? You also need to know that you must use the Apple default drivers for no higher than 10.5.8.

Just as a side note. Products like AE and nuke do not have the same requirements that TOXIK does. This could be why those products run fine. However, they also do not have the same advanced features as TOXIK employs, so you can not compare them in that way. If those products are working on that system fine, then I would use those instead.

You said that TOXIK runs on the other macs. This confirms what I will say and that is, it is not TOXIK that is the problem directly. It is related to TOXIK in that it does not support all hardware configurations, but it is not a direct flaw as such.

At this time, I personally would recommend using RH linux or Windows7 or XP 64.

I hope this is of some help.

Cheers

[enigmastudios]

Ok, if you have your media cache pointing to the same drive as your footage it slows Toxiks playback down. I have pointed my cache to a separate drive and seems to be working as expected.

haha, that was going to be my second response, as I did not read all of it. Sorry about that. This is also not recommended at all. It tries to read and write to much info. If a slow drive then, well you get slow response.

Cheers