2011 Macbook Pro performances? (live situation) 13" or 15"?

[wreckcode]

I am currently using live7 with a 2008 white MacBook. Live8 can't run correctly on it, and this is why I didn't upgrade yet. I am considering buying a MacBook Pro 15" w/ intel i7 2,0 ghz quad core, but due to high price I hesitate between this and a 13" w/ intel i7 2,7 ghz dual core. I will use it as my performance laptop, so I need live8 to run without the slightest problem. My live setup is not absolutely huge, but I use something like 2 drum racks, a few midi tracks with synths (Massive, Sampler and Surge mostly) and 5/6 audio tracks + 2 midi controllers and a little bit of audio-in via my firewire soundcard.
This setup used to work quite well with live7 and my old white macbook, but since live8 seems to be incredibly demanding in terms of cpu + ram usage (btw: what happened btwn 7 and 8? did they rewrite the code or something? ressources usage seems to have increased way more than the actual updates and new features...) I wonder if even those laptops will be sufficient.
Anyway, my question is for people who use a similar setup, especially in live situation. What can I expect in terms of performance? Is the 13" enough? Do you feel somehow limited with live8?
Thanks a lot in advance !

[kirillov]

Im using a PC laptop, but I think your set up should be no problem at all with a new dual core i5 or i7 .
right now I have a little i3 dual core 2,66 ghz with me (no turbo boost), notebookcheck says its comparable to
the old core2duo 2,8 Ghz.
just for fun I did a test set-up with 11x MASSIVE, 4 voices chord, preset "alone in the moon" running in a loop
with 11x Ableton reverb HQ. runs at 94%.
or 16x Massive with 1 voice preset "99 reese" and 16x HQ reverb at 70%
+ 5 audio tracks with complex pro warping: 85%
this is with internal audio card and asio4All.
well, maybe theese are silly tests (no automation action etc) but I dont have my computer with me wih my real projects.
anyway, maybe it gives an idea. the new dual core i5 or i7 are much more powerfull (turbo boost etc)
cheers..

[wreckcode]

OK, thanks for the reassuring information
I'm actually thinking about switching from Mac to PC for the studio, but keep using a mac for live performance, and since I just have my small macbook for both now, I'll buy 2 new machines, so in the end of the day it'll be a pretty high budget, that's why I wanna make sure I won't be disappointed with what I got from my summer job money... !
But yeah, those tests are quite meaningful to me, as Massive is generally the most ressource-consuming plugin I use.
so yep... thanks!

[rikhyray]

I dont think it is Live 8 problem. Have no issues even with my standby/backup 4 years old Vaio. The latest 13`MBP is not really good for serious audio, mainly due to poor graphics which can cause issues updating GUI, from my experience Live is more sensitive to that then any other DAW.
If you want 13`can save some cash, get the 2010 model , no issues with Live 8 even with heavier projects - that is MBP I use on stage. You could use saved money to max RAM and get SSD but I think getting 2011 15`MBP is the best choice.

[kirillov]

about shared grafics:
I know this used to be an issue, but I was very suprised that my i3 notebook with intel grafics
causes no problems at all. I did several live shows with it with no problems.

but of course maybe it runs still even better with a decent grafic card.
cheers,
K








Lenovo Thinkpad x201i, core i3@ 2,66Ghz, Intel grafics, RME Fireface UC,
Ableton Live 8.2, NI Maschine, Remote SL MKII

[commuter]

The latest 13`MBP is not really good for serious audio, mainly due to poor graphics which can cause issues updating GUI, from my experience Live is more sensitive to that then any other DAW.
If you want 13`can save some cash, get the 2010 model , no issues with Live 8 even with heavier projects

it's well documented that the intel graphic chipsets on the new 13" macbook pro, have similar performance to the previous Nvidia one in last year model...
And it's absolutely not an issue with live anyway.....
I'm using a 13" core i5 and it's running live perfectly, the performance is exactly the same as my Q6660 quadcore desktop...i'm getting 27% at the live 8 performance test, which is really good (you get something like 17% with a quadcore I7 MBP@ 2ghz, ...and i was getting 49% with a core 2 duo 2,4 unibody MBP from 2008...)

I'm also using sometimes my wife 2066 white macbook with the crappy intel GMA 950 and it has never been an issue to use live.....So i don't know what kind of problems you get...
I used to have a 2008 macbook pro with a 9600M GT graphic cards and i see absolutely no difference in every day use for Audio applications...
My two cents....

and to the OP, yes the 13" model is really good for audio work..

[Khazul]

it's well documented that the intel graphic chipsets on the new 13" macbook pro, have similar performance to the previous Nvidia one in last year model...
And it's absolutely not an issue with live anyway.....

On my 2011 MBP 17, Live runs considerably more eficiently when using the AMD GPU instead of the embedded intel GPU. A few percent in the perfests (using gfx switcher util to manually select the GPU).

Im sure the minimum spec MBP13 is quite decent and probably still better than any 2010 model, but compared to (as an extreme example) the high end 2.3GHz MBP 17, then its maybe a factor of 3 slower for Live overall with average multi track projects (rather than 2 track + odd loop DJ minimal DJ sets).

As allways - spedn what you can afford/justify and live with it

[runningonbravado]

I got the 2011 13" i7, added 8gb memory and an ssd, runs everything like a champ. 8 ins, effects, aalto, max patches all going at the same time and it doesn't hiccup at all.

There's no reason not to get a refurb either if you're looking to save a bit of money.

[wreckcode]

I'm also using sometimes my wife 2066 white macbook with the crappy intel GMA 950 and it has never been an issue to use live.....So i don't know what kind of problems you get...

Even with live 8 ? Live 7 is ok on my 2008 white macbook, but Live 8 display has latency and is jerky, and I can't use more than 1 or two Massive before having serious trouble, sometimes crashing Live for too much efforts trying to run the whole thing. Launching my main performance live set on 8 is out of the question and turns my computer into an old man with cancer and ass AIDS who can barely express itself and who shits its pants.
I really don't understand why Live 8 uses that much ressources compared to 7. I mean, even if you don't use the new graphic feature (scaling), the very same live set would run like shit with 8, and perfectly on 7.

This being stated, I must say I'm quite amazed with the general behavior of my macbook for such an old computer. It was my first Mac experience, and if it wasn't for Live 8, I think I could have kept on using this bad boy for a long time. I just want Max for Live and live 8, and general better performances, but except for Live, it is not an absolute need, considering I am using it for everything, (university, live performances, production, everyday life...), this laptop is still in excellent shape, and was never formatted or anything like that. I think a pc laptop would have needed to be formatted several times, and its battery would be completely dead now. So yeah, Macs are + expensive, but it's definitely worth the investment. (just sayin', if hesitating people happen to read this)

There's no reason not to get a refurb either if you're looking to save a bit of money.

That's what I plan to do actually, they got great offers for the 15" this day in the french Apple Store. (can save up to 250€ for a nice 15")

So yeah, I think my next nerdy setup will be great: an amazing PC for less than 700, with one partition with win7 for music and only music, and another one with Ubuntu for everyday life (there's no way I'm using windows as a daily computer environment) + a nice macbook pro for stability during live performances and the ability to keep on using MacOS, which is definitely amazing. Using a WinXP at work these days reminds me how I love OSX.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your experience sharing and advices !