Live 9 Performance Test

[mikb]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter:
8 tracks - 12%
16 tracks - 16% (added tracks by copying the original
24 tracks - 22%
32 tracks - 28%

Wow - I'm pretty happy with that. I'll never go over 32 tracks anyways...


2) Laptop/Desktop? Custom ADK Laptop - got it five days ago

3) Operating System: Windows 10 - 64 bit

4) Ableton Live version: 9.7

5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed: Intel i7-6700HQ 2.60gHz

6) Amount of Ram? 16gb

7) Soundcard : Steinberg UR44

Hard Disk Drive Speed: 7200 ( SSD system and program drive )

10) 64 or 32bit live? 64

11) Tracks before crackling?

Also, maybe try your most demanding plug-in in HQ mode on 32 tracks.

[login]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 14%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Custom Built Desktop PC
3) Operating System? Windows 7
4) Ableton Live version? 9.1.7
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Core i5 760 2.8
6) Amount of Ram? 8GB 1300MHz
7) Soundcard? RME Fireface UC
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? 7,200 RPM
9) Max playback tracks? 57 with out click at start. I can go up to 80 with clicks at start and then stabilizing at 98% with pops or drops.
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64

New computer

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 11%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Custom Built Desktop PC
3) Operating System? Windows 7
4) Ableton Live version? 9.5.1b
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Core i7 4790k
6) Amount of Ram? 8GB 1300MHz
7) Soundcard? RME Fireface UC
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? SSD
9) Max playback tracks? I stopped at 128 with 86% CPU use
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 13%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Custom Built Desktop PC
3) Operating System? Windows 10
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7.1b
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Core i7 4790k
6) Amount of Ram? 16GB 1300MHz
7) Soundcard? RME Fireface UC
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? SSD
9) Max playback tracks? I stopped at 128 with 98% CPU use
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64


Mmmmhhhh seems I lost some performance between windows 10 and new versions of live. It is strange since I get way fewer pops and cracks now in win10.

[poshook]

Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 9% stable
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Custom Built Desktop PC
3) Operating System? Mac OS X 10.12.1
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 3400MHz
6) Amount of Ram? 16GB 1600MHz
7) Soundcard? Apogee Duet 1 FW
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? SSD
9) Max playback tracks? Not tested
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64

[jbodango]

Fun stuff.
Finally got audio interface working with Sierra... upgraded from 2008 MacPro to a Trash Can

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 7%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? MacPro Late 2013 (MacPro6,1)
3) Operating System? Yosemite 10.10.5
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7.1b3
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Xeon E5 3.5ghz 6 Core
6) Amount of Ram? 32GB DDR3 1866MHz
7) Soundcard? Apollo Twin Duo (Driver: 9.0.0 10-25-2016 Build 58760)
8 ) Hard Disk Drive Speed? APPLE SSD SM1024G
9) Max playback tracks? 8
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64bit
11) Maximum tracks before glitch: 202

[Adam Mantium]

HP Pavilion running windows 10 64 bit
4 core I7 processor @2.6 ghz
8 gigs ram
1tb hard drive @5400rpm
live 9.7
ran the performance benchmark with a well used windows install and got 35% on the ableton cpu meter
partitioned the hard drive, re-installed windows, changed the performance options, and created a separate user which launches into a script that shuts down a bunch of services before opening live.
Got it down to 12%

[Adam Mantium]

HP Pavilion running windows 10 64 bit
4 core I7 processor @2.6 ghz
8 gigs ram
1tb hard drive @5400rpm
live 9.7
ran the performance benchmark with a well used windows install and got 35% on the ableton cpu meter
partitioned the hard drive, re-installed windows, changed the performance options, and created a separate user which launches into a script that shuts down a bunch of services before opening live.
Got it down to 12%

by the way that was with the on board sound card running through asio4all

[jeromepotter]

Internal soundcard:

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 8%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Mac Pro (Late 2013)
3) Operating System? Sierra
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7.1
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 2.7 GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
6) Amount of Ram? 64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3
7) Soundcard? Internal
8 ) Hard Disk Drive Speed? 1 TB Flash Storage
9) Max playback tracks? 8
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64bit
11) Maximum tracks before glitch: ~240, startup cracks begin at 241, but no dropouts once stabilizes. Ableton CPU at 78% with 241 tracks; Activity Monitor shows 1175%, which is ~49% of total CPU. GUI performance in the simpler was laggy around 160.

With Apollo Twin

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 8%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Mac Pro (Late 2013)
3) Operating System? Sierra
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7.1
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? 2.7 GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5
6) Amount of Ram? 64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3
7) Soundcard? Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo Thunderbolt
8 ) Hard Disk Drive Speed? 1 TB Flash Storage
9) Max playback tracks? 8
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64bit
11) Maximum tracks before glitch: startup glitch at 220 and a few glitches while playing. Ableton CPU at 68% with 220 tracks; Activity Monitor shows 1050%, which is ~44% of total CPU.

internal soundcard beats the Apollo

[yop44]

Could someone post a test made with I7-6500U or I7-7500U processor please?

[Khazul]

My year old PC:

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter at 8 tracks - 6-7% *
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Custom build desktop PC (Late 2015 intel Skylake system - Asus Maximus viii Hero mobo, Radeon Saphire R9 Nitro 390 OC)
3) Operating System? Windows 10 / 64
4) Ableton Live version? 9.7.1
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel i7 6700K @ 4GHz
6) Amount of Ram? 16 GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHz
7) Soundcard? RME UFX (Original USB2 model)
8 ) Hard Disk Drive Speed? 0.5 TB Samsung SM951 M2 SSD (2GB/s read), 1TB Samsung Evo 850 SATA SSD
9) Max playback tracks? 8
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64bit
11) Maximum tracks before glitch: 228 (@ 93% CPU) - can still scroll windows, start other apps etc without glitches

* - CPU meter is a mess:
Starts at 6-7 for a few seconds, then bounces up to 30+, then leaps around between 20-35 and occasionally drops to 6/7. However, if I click on live and keep clicking on it or interacting with it (menus, scrolling etc) - stays in 6-7 region. Nothing obvious is consuming CPU, but it does seem that something is delaying live getting use of the CPU. Not really surprising I suppose as I use this for gaming and software development.
I just stuck Live on this PC out of curiosity as I use a Mac for audio work. This is basically a non-optimised gaming PC / software development PC; it even has SQL server on it.

What is interesting to me is the last time I ran one of these tests (5 years or more ago?), My mac used to get to much higher cpu use than windows before glitching (tested with MBP bootcamp and another 4GHz 1st gen i7 PC). Now it seems the other way around (OSX seems to have bloated a slowed a bit, while Windows seems to have got more nippy) - Ive actually never seen a machine get into 90%+ and remain glitch free never mind while also scrolling windows, starting apps etc. From that point of view - this machine with Win10 actually looks like if it was cleaned up it would be a really good audio workstation.

[Crashzkitt]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 25%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Lenovo T430
3) Operating System? Win 7 64 bit
4) Ableton Live version? Live 9
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Core i7-3520M 2.9 GHz
6) Amount of Ram? 8 GB
7) Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? M-Audio Fast Track Pro
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? SSD Samsung 850 EVO
9) Number of playback tracks? 8 Tracks
10) 64 or 32bit live? 32bit

[shrekage]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 14%
2) Laptop/Desktop? HP Spectre X360
3) Operating System? Win 10 64 bit
4) Ableton Live version? Live 9.1.7 X64
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel Core i7-7500U 2.7 GHz
6) Amount of Ram? 16 GB
7) Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? Scarlette 2i4, Focusrite ASIO drivers
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)?
9) Number of playback tracks? 8 Tracks
10) 64 or 32bit live? 64bit

So i tried making this intensive, I could go upto 41 tracks before it started breaking. I did another test for more recent laptops to push them. It would be great to hear the result on that, I am considering changing my laptop to mac if mac of similar config does better.

Test:

8 tracks with Serum. No return. No rever. 44.1k. 512 Samples. Presed - PD Sad[KG](assuming its there in the default preset, or any intensive polyphonic preset)

Mine - Max 8 tracks. Breaks on 9th

[yop44]

Thanks shrekage for the feedback!
I would be curious to see the Performance Test with 24/32/48 tracks?

[shrekage]

Sure, So I tried to push it. not sure if I am doing something wrong, below are the test results

58 - 72%
48 - 60%
32- 42%
24 - 31%

But the tests on Serum remain the same, I can push upto max of 8 tracks only.

Also, Latency mon and DPC checker report that my laptop cannot handle realtime audio!! Does that mean anything?

[yop44]

Thanks a lot!
Your Performance results look fine to me.

[shrekage]

Thanks.

So how seriously do I need to take the latency mon and DPC checker results?