Ableton Forum

MarkH wrote:I had some spare time and made this simple report. People who submitted a range of cpu utilization I used the average number.

Nice work! ...except... maybe you should use the peak values, seeing as that was what was originally asked for. I reported a peak of 37% for a dual-core 2GHz G5, but the minimum was 34%. Warpus (dual-core 2.3GHz G5) reported 30%, peaking at 34%. If (as you did) you quote the lower value, then it looks like the 2.3GHz model uses 81% of the CPU loading of the 2GHz. Unlikely, given that the CPU/FSB speed ratio is 87% (and the machines are essentially identical otherwise).

But... I suppose those few percent are in the noise. Fantastic job regardless. Really nice to have it all in one table. Thanks a bunch!

rick wrote:
Nice work! ...except... maybe you should use the peak values, seeing as that was what was originally asked for. I reported a peak of 37% for a dual-core 2GHz G5, but the minimum was 34%. Warpus (dual-core 2.3GHz G5) reported 30%, peaking at 34%.

Rick - Thanks for the comments. I tried to make the chart fair and left out people who had rediculous results (intentional or not).

In regards to you and Warpus.. Below is exactly what both of you posted. Whatever you posted after that had to be ignored as there simply isn't enough time in a day to read all the messages, take notes, and figure out the averages from there. So if you say you peaked at 37% I missed that because your original post stated only what is shown below for line 1. Maybe Adam will have time to refine things but I do feel this gives a good high level view for how each computer compares. The reason I left Warpus at 30% is because he said "occasional" and ususally the peaks most people experience are every 1.5 - 3 seconds or so. I took that into account and left him at 30%.

WARPUS
1) Ableton Live CPU Meter: 30% (occasionally peaks at 34%)

RICK
1) Ableton Live CPU Meter: 37%

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % (if it bounces around, please list the peak)
24% Peak (bounces from 21% to 24%)
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model
Laptop - M-Tech 570A (17" Screen)
3) Operating System
Windows XP Professional
4) CPU Make Model and Speed
Intel Centrino 2.26 Ghz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram (if you know)
2 GB RAM
6) Soundcard (Stock or add on?, usb/firewire/pci ?)
Stock (gonna use the Ozonic probably)
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)
SATA drive - 5400 RPM - 100 GB

http://www.m-techlaptops.com/specificat ... m570a.html
for those that want this laptop.

rob.

1) 31%
2) Laptop HP Pavilion ZV6279EA
3) Win XP Home SP2
4) Athlon64 3500+ 2.2GHz
5) 1GB
6) M-Audio FW410

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % (if it bounces around, please list the peak)
28%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model
Sony Vaio VGN-A115M xblack screen
3) Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition
4) CPU Make Model and Speed
Pentium M 1.5 ghz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram (if you know)
512 mb
6) Soundcard (Stock or add on?, usb/firewire/pci ?)
Firewire M-Audio Ozonic
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)
SATA drive - 5400 RPM - 60 GB
[/b]

1) 49% with rare peaks to 60%
2) 2004 Alienware
3) Windows XP Professional SP2
4) Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz
5) 2 GB Corsair XMS
6) PCI SoundBlaster Audigy
7) SATA 7200 RPM

Am I doing something wrong? I get frequent cut outs playing 5 MIDI clips at once though the performance test didn't cut out.

Is it just my sound card?

Thanks

suie_paparude wrote:1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % (if it bounces around, please list the peak)
28%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model
Sony Vaio VGN-A115M xblack screen
3) Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition
4) CPU Make Model and Speed
Pentium M 1.5 ghz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram (if you know)
512 mb
6) Soundcard (Stock or add on?, usb/firewire/pci ?)
Firewire M-Audio Ozonic
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)
SATA drive - 5400 RPM - 60 GB
[/b]

are you sure the VGN-A115M doesn't have a parallel ATA HD? rather than an SATA.

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter % - 88%
2) Laptop/Desktop? - Powerbook
3) Operating System - 10.4.3
4) CPU Make Model and Speed - 1.5ghz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram - 1.25 gb
6) Soundcard - presonus firebox
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed - 5400

If any one has any idea why my powerbook is performing so badly compared to other powerbooks I would really like to hear it, most 1.5 ghz pb's are scoring 66% whereas mine is scoring 88% ?

I had to shift the buffers to max. Same score using firebox as using built in core audio.

I am sure that I followed all instructions correctly, quit all other apps, turned airport off (?), turned delay compensation on, turned inputs to 'no input', outputs on 1 & 2 only...

Thanks.

alan*

go to system preferences
energy saver
options

set processor performance to "Highest"

yep, that score was with it set to highest ?

edit- settings for : power adapter
optimization: better performance
processer performance: highest

Thats how it was set during the test, I cant see any other option there to make it better

maybe theres something up with this computer but its brand new and seems to be running fine...latest version of live 5.0.2

edit - also just repaired disk permissions, tried again, same score

thanks for trying to help adam, if you have any other ideas of what might be causing it would really appreciate it

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter %: 77% (sometimes jumping down to 71 %)
2) Laptop/Desktop? - Powerbook 15"
3) Operating System - 10.4.3
4) CPU Make Model and Speed - Motorola G4 1.25 GHz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram - 2 GB
6) Soundcard - Echo Indigo i/0 (PCMCIA)
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed - 5400


I already regged my Centrino here but I didn't reg the PowerBook, since so many others have reported for powerbooks. But after reading Alan's post I took five minutes to get this data into the loop.

--> Alan, maybe the difference comes from the firewire audio solution?
With the built-in audio my powerbook is scoring almost exactly as with the Idigo Card-bus thing. Just a little bit more stable CPU meter: 76% and jumping down to 71 %. If you, Alan, can do the check with the built-in audio we can compare better and see how much the extra audio solution eventually is adding.

I also have a RME Multiface with a PCMCIA (Cardbus) interface and it performes the same as the Echo Indigo.

thanks per but i got pretty much the same result using the built in core audio

alan
are you sure you're at 44.1khz in audio prefs and not 48khz?

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 161%
2) Powerbook G4
3) 10.4.3
4) PPC 500 MGz 1 Mb L2 Cache
5) 768mb SD100 ram
6) Tascam US-428 (USB 1)
7) 7200 RPM, 8meg cache 60gig Internal HD


Past time for upgrade

Does it matter what brand of PC you have - based on some of these results - a PC with Ableton seems pretty tempting...

Are some brands of PC (HP, Dell etc) better than others or is it just the processor, HD Ram etc etc?

Let me know before Christmas - thanks

A