ableton live 8 at mac pro xeon quad core 3 ghz

[ckluxen]

hi,

is anyone using a mac pro quad core xeon?
I got mine today and I`m not sure I want to sent it back. It`s one of the older ones something at 2008, it has 2 quad core 3 Ghz processor 64-bit and 4GB Ram at the moment. It`s the woodcrest one if someone knows.
Before I got a macmini Intel Duo and a macbook pro so thats the only one I can compare.

I have done a song with some operators, analog, electric, drum editing patches that work near 20% CPU, but using the ACE-UHE Plugin at accurate mode it goes around 60%. Does anyone have problem with plugins?

Does anyone have a newer mac pro like the nehalem, is the performance better and how much ram would you prefer?
thanks.

I have a cpu meter at osx 10.6.8 and that goes around 15% while Live shows above 60%, (?????)

just my german english

[abluesky]

Using MacbookPro 2.3 i7, with max polyphony, I max the processor at 40%


Most of the patches hover between 20-30% with max polyphony.

Edit: this was running off the battery, not the mains.

[violetpow1]

Hallo, ich suche so einen Mac Pro für Videoschnitt. Wenn er mit Live nicht richtig läuft, würde ich ihn dir abkaufen wollen. Kommt aber auf den Preis an...

[ThomasHelzle]

I have such a mac (2008) 2.8 GHz with 8 cores and 14Gig Ram and see similar CPU use as you.
And it's basically the same numbers with Windows 7 64 Bit on the same machine (which I use the most).
ACE is brilliant, but a major CPU hog, I have no other VSTs that are so hungry

Can't comment on the newer CPUs but would expect much lower CPU use since the individual core is much faster in the I7s (2x or more) and ACE can only use one core. That's also why OSX shows only 15% - one core is maxed out, the others are tumbling their thumbs...

If you can afford it and want to use ACE a lot - go for a newer model

Cheers,

Thomas

[ckluxen]

Well, using the macbook pro or the mac intel dual core above 2 ghz I even can`t play two polyphone notes using ACE-UHE at accurate mode, so its a beast.

Would be interesting if someone knows the performance difference between the different mac pro`s. I read Live don`t support 64-bit, but I don`t know too much about it...

violetpow, keine Ahnung, ob ich den verkaufe, such jemanden, der ein neueres mac pro hat und den Vergleich hat, ich glaube ableton unterstützt die Mehrkernprozessoren nicht so wie z.B. Final Cut, aber billig ist der pro auch nicht, schau mal bei ebay, da siehst du ja die Preise.

[ckluxen]

thanks thomas, I love ACE, too and well its worth getting a newer model of mac pro, terrible its not using multicore. All that processors at 15% (average) doing nothing, well checking system time or anything stupid, shit I want more power!!!

[violetpow1]

Danke für die schnelle Antwort.
Live unterstützt Multicore aber kein Hypertheading (virtuelle CPUs) . Bei Live ist es so, daß bei z.B 8 Spuren alle 8 Kerne benutzt werden. Jede Spuren einen Kern. Wenn du mehrere Spuren hast, wird die 9 Spur mit einem kern geteilt usw. Es ist noch komplexer, aber so mal im groben.
Ich weiss, daß die Pro nicht billig sind, aber wenn du ihn nicht brauchen kannst, sag Bescheid.

[ThomasHelzle]

Live does support Multicore somewhat (like violetpow1) wrote, but individual VSTs usually don't.
So Live uses 1 core per track normally and one for the mixer track AFAIK. Therefore most of the time you can have as much stuff on one track as one CPU can handle.
I think this changes if you have one track interact with other tracks, but I wouldn't want to tell you wrong things so I better stop here

For ACE this means, that it always needs to be able to process all notes you are playing on one track with one CPU. On my machine that means, that with many more complicated ACE-patches, I can only play one note or two...
If you don't need live playback, you can always record with the quality in ACE set to lowest, then raise the quality to what you want for the final piece and then freeze the track. Not as nice as it could be, but works (freezing will just take longer if the track needs more power, but you don't get dropouts etc.).

You should also try to not have any other CPU-hungry effects on the same track as ACE.

As far as 64 Bit is concerned: 64 Bit Systems and CPUs are usually not giving you added speed, but the ability to use more RAM. Live is only available as 32 Bit Software, but runs just fine on a 64 Bit system using 32 Bit VSTs/AUs.
64 Bit is mostly interesting for those who use a lot of samples and very large sets, it wouldn't help you with ACE.

And yeah, you are right - I personally would rather have a 24GHz single core CPU than a 3Ghz 8core
So far, a lot of Software only scratches the surface of the available power.

Cheers,

Thomas

[ckluxen]

thanks thomas, it makes more sense to me now. My last e.p. was a terrible workaround of freezing tracks and waiting for the whole stuff too load, hope it will get better with live 9, I`ll sent back the older macpro and looking for a newer one now, but I don`t expect too much,
cheers,
christoph

[ThomasHelzle]

Good luck

Cheers,

Thomas