CPU REQUIREMENTS FOR LIVE 9

[arkboy_music]

Basically, I have an 8GB RAM i5 desktop which runs both FL Studio and Ableton just fine. I want to buy a laptop however for live performances etc, but also want to use to produce and compose, within my budget I found a Mac Unibody (2010 model), it has 4GB ram which I already know won't be enough but I can upgrade that to 6 which should be fine for my requirements. However, it has 2.4ghz of processing power, and I have looked and seen that when I produce music I use all of the 3.0ghz of CPU that I have at disposal on my desktop.

Will 2.4ghz be enough? Or is there a way I can increase the CPU? By the way I'm by no means a computer expert so if I have made a discrepancy in my information or misunderstood something let me know. Thanks in advance for any advice provided!

(Please don't recommend other laptops, interested in this one as it has some software already installed that I need).

[yur2die4]

Processor speed tells very little about a CPU and performance. Especially if it is multicore.

You can probably look up benchmarks of both CPUs and do a straight up comparison of their scores. It's not a perfect method but it should give an idea as to how drastically different a desktop CPU can be from a laptop CPU.

Edit: just looked it up. If it is a core2duo, that is ancient. It might run alive, but will have extremely limited performance. I have an older windows laptop with one and it is like walking on eggshells.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu ... 40+2.40GHz

[arkboy_music]

Processor speed tells very little about a CPU and performance. Especially if it is multicore.

You can probably look up benchmarks of both CPUs and do a straight up comparison of their scores. It's not a perfect method but it should give an idea as to how drastically different a desktop CPU can be from a laptop CPU.

Edit: just looked it up. If it is a core2duo, that is ancient. It might run alive, but will have extremely limited performance. I have an older windows laptop with one and it is like walking on eggshells.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu ... 40+2.40GHz

OK, cheers for that information mate.
In response, would an i5 Intel Core at 2.4 ghz be good enough?

[yur2die4]

Again, you should really make the specific processor. There are ultramobile, mobile, and desktop i5's, different generations, etc. the speed tells me nothing.

There are some performance tests in an older thread that use a variety of processors. It hasn't been used lately though so I am not sure if it has changed performance on computers after recent Live updates.

In general, I'd say it would at least be much smoother than your previous choice. But I wouldn't expect it to come close to your desktop performance.

[dsu]

I just rehabilitated a Mid 2010 MBP 13" with a Core Duo 2 processor at 2.4 ghz. My sense is that if all you are doing is playing audio clips with very few effects it could work but it hasn't good the power to do much processing and it would run out of gas real fast if you tried some softsyths.

[Stromkraft]

Will 2.4ghz be enough? Or is there a way I can increase the CPU? By the way I'm by no means a computer expert so if I have made a discrepancy in my information or misunderstood something let me know. Thanks in advance for any advice provided!

(Please don't recommend other laptops, interested in this one as it has some software already installed that I need).

If it's this one MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.4 15" Mid-2010 specifically, then it is only a dual core. While that might work fine if you forego softsynths and use only or mostly external instruments and/or audio tracks together with a great audio interface, the demands you put on this machine may put it on the edge.

It really depends on what you do. I used an older 2009 MBP recently running Traktor and Live side by side and used some softsynth drums in parallel. That's probably light use. My main 2.2 quadcore i7 machine sometimes struggle with many softsynths in high quality mode and barely can play it back properly — at least it does this more or less reliably— and I've turned off many background tasks that typically run in macOS. If there's a rogue process I forgot about that starts up that might cause big issues.

[arkboy_music]

Thank you everyone for your help, I have been able to make an informed decision not to buy it. I appreciate the advice.

[flowdesigner]

is a dual core intel 1.2 ghz enough?

(2015 non-pro macbook)


thanks!

[jestermgee]

is a dual core....

Not these days