New MacBook Pro - higher frequency or more cores?

[North63]

Hello all,

I'm thinking about upgrading may MacBook Pro. In terms of lowering CPU load, should I go for higher clock frequency with lower number of cores or more cores with lower frequency? My most important plugins are CPU-heavy reverbs such as 2C Audio B2 and Breeze.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Dan

[TLW]

Personally I’d go for core speed as the greater priority. More cores are great with applications where you spend time waiting while the system does something - e.g. editing photos. DAWs need as close to real-time operation as possible and that means core speed is a priority.

If any core becomes overloaded audio starts crackling or you get dropouts.

One exception I would make to that principle is that an i7 is likely to beat an i5 and presumably an i9 is likely to be faster than an i7. But if the choice is more cores or more speed in the same processor “family” then more speed is probably the better option.

[akaspeedy]

More cores is better. Less cores give higher single thread score. More cores use hyperthreading etc.

See here for more details

https://create.pro/blog/cores-faster-cp ... explained/

[fishmonkey]

More cores is better. Less cores give higher single thread score. More cores use hyperthreading etc.
See here for more details
https://create.pro/blog/cores-faster-cp ... explained/

nope, more cores is not always better.

[TLW]

More cores is better. Less cores give higher single thread score. More cores use hyperthreading etc.

See here for more details

https://create.pro/blog/cores-faster-cp ... explained/

That article misses an important point about DAWs and low audio latency. If a core gets overloaded you get dropouts. More cores can help by spreading the load across cores, but adding more, and therefore slower, cores won’t necessarily lead to a better running DAW.

Not all Intel multi-core cpus use hyperthreading either. Which adds the further complexity of whether e.g. a 6 core i5 without hyperthreading is better than a similar GHz 4 core i7 with hyperthreading - and the 9th generation i7s don’t have hyperthreading...