Final Cut Pro X receives new Metal engine for increased performance along with internal/external GPU selection

Alongside today’s release of macOS Catalina, Apple has pushed a new performance-oriented Final Cut Pro X update featuring optimizations for the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR. The new Final Cut Pro 10.4.7 update is available for download today on the Mac App Store.

Although the new Mac Pro is a centerpiece of this year’s Mac releases, taking advantage of the power available with the all-new Mac Pro and the high-resolution, HDR viewing capabilities of Apple Pro Display XDR, Apple notes that the new Metal engine delivers performance gains across a wide range of Mac systems.

Speed improvements

The Metal improvements are substantial, improving playback, rendering, real-time effects, and exporting on Metal-compatible Macs. The 15-inch MacBook Pro, in particular, benefits from performance gains up to 20-percent faster, while gains for iMac Pro users will see it perform a whopping 35-percent faster.

Sidecar support

There’s also Sidecar support for macOS Catalina. Sidecar, which allows users to display output from a Mac on a compatible iPad via wired or wireless connection, will allow Final Cut Pro X users to show the browser or viewer on their iPads. Such a feature will be perfect for traveling with a MacBook Pro while editing.

Mac Pro power

The 10.4.7 Final Cut Pro update ensures that the upcoming Mac Pro will yield the best editing experience as far as raw power is concerned. For starters, Final Cut Pro now supports multiple GPUs and up to 28 CPU cores. This translates to faster rendering 2.9x and faster transcoding 3.2x than the previous last-gen 12-Core Mac Pro.

In real world workflows, users will be able to work with ProRes and ProRes RAW formats in new ways. Editors will be able to play up to 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video simultaneously or up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video.

Pro XDR support

Of course, the update will bring support for the new 32-inch Retina 6K Pro XDR display, with its extreme dynamic range, 1000 nits of sustained brightness, 1600 nits of peak brightness, and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Final Cut Pro X will be able to support up to three of these displays, two for the FCP X interface, and one as a 6K XDR reference monitor.

Multi GPU support

One of the bullet points that’s flown under the radar with this new update is support for multiple GPUs for the first time. We’ll have much more on this in later coverage.

The new update also makes way for supporting the new Radeon Pro Vega II and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo GPUs on Mac Pro.

In addition to the new Metal engine for Final Cut Pro X, Apple has also released updates for companion apps Compressor and Motion. iMovie, a free scaled-back version of Final Cut Pro X, has also received an update, as well as new versions of GarageBand and Logic Pro X.

Here’s a look at some of the additional features included with Final Cut Pro 10.4.7

• Grade high dynamic range video with enhanced color mask and range isolation tools.
• View high dynamic range video tone-mapped to compatible standard dynamic range displays when using Final Cut Pro, Motion or Compressor on macOS Catalina.
• Select which internal or external GPU is used to accelerate graphics processing.

Final Cut Pro 10.4.7 is available today as a free update for existing users, and for $299.99  for new users on the Mac App Store. What do you think about this latest update?