1st Review of New PowerBooks...

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
FORMAT
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1st Review of New PowerBooks...

Post by FORMAT » Sat May 11, 2002 11:29 am

@ macwelt.de....


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davemanning
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Post by davemanning » Sun May 12, 2002 9:20 pm

Very interesting, FORMAT. If you feel comfortable using MP3 encoding as a measure of processor performance, the new PowerBook G4 should be significantly faster than the 550/667 versions.

IMHO, of course!

Dave
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Dave Manning

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Post by FORMAT » Mon May 13, 2002 1:27 am

Well mp3 encoding isn't really what represents sequencing is it? logic and live benchmarks would be very much more helpful in that regard,,...
still, do you think they'll perform better than the previous ones (which were said to be quite awful with regards to audio)?


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davemanning
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Post by davemanning » Mon May 13, 2002 2:43 am

FORMAT wrote: Well mp3 encoding isn't really what represents sequencing is it? logic and live benchmarks would be very much more helpful in that regard,,...
still, do you think they'll perform better than the previous ones (which were said to be quite awful with regards to audio)?


FORMAT
I think they will. Sequencing at its core is computationally intensive work - just like MP3 encoding - and I would sure like to try one of these new machines out soon.

Dave
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Dave Manning

FORMAT
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Post by FORMAT » Mon May 13, 2002 8:54 am

Dave,
what are you using now? Maybe I could have found out from other posts, but... :-)

Are you using logic or likewise too? I am very much a PC person but considering the switch just for laptops for reliability.

I saw an amazing show last night: The Warp Magic Bus tour w/Luke Vibert and people like Richard Devine on power/i-books... great twisted stuff!

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davemanning
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Post by davemanning » Mon May 13, 2002 11:40 am

I have a 500MHz PowerBook G4 w/ OS X. Currently, I'm just using Live on this machine, and am waiting for my chance to get the Reason 2.0 OS X beta.

Luke Vibert = Wagon Christ? I can't remember for sure, but either way, that probably would have been a great show! :-)

Dave
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Dave Manning

yon

Post by yon » Mon May 13, 2002 11:56 am

One significant difference is that
a multitrack sequencing type situation
is more likely to be bottlenecked by
the memory subsystem than is an
mp3 encoding application.

yon@ableton.com
davemanning wrote:
FORMAT wrote: Well mp3 encoding isn't really what represents sequencing is it? logic and live benchmarks would be very much more helpful in that regard,,...
still, do you think they'll perform better than the previous ones (which were said to be quite awful with regards to audio)?


FORMAT
I think they will. Sequencing at its core is computationally intensive work - just like MP3 encoding - and I would sure like to try one of these new machines out soon.

Dave

FORMAT
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Post by FORMAT » Mon May 13, 2002 12:30 pm

Dave,
yes it was wagon christ.... great dj set, lots of 80s flavours

Yon,
do you think that the memory subsystem on the new 667/800s will be more positive for sequencers, and will the L3 cache change anything in terms of performance?? This is the heart of the matter I think...

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Eraldo Bernocchi
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1st review of new Powerbooks

Post by Eraldo Bernocchi » Tue May 14, 2002 9:42 pm

I tried today the new 667. my wife got it for live vjing as well video editing...naturally i immediately installed live 1.5. i did the cpu test
that was launched in the forum...
results: at bar 1 cpu was 4%
at bar 17 31%
this with internal sound manager. no external audio device.
i was expecting more to be honest...
same set up with my 550 is 6% and 41% wich sucks, i know. i was expecting a lot more performing powerbook.

:|

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Post by FORMAT » Wed May 15, 2002 6:31 am

I'll compare with the results in that thread... are these performance figures really that bad?

At that price, these PBooks should be FAR ahead of all the others....

Geraldo
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Post by Geraldo » Thu May 16, 2002 5:19 pm

What forum cpu test are you refering to? I just got the 800Mhz Tibook w/1gig RAM. I have not seen the forum cpu test but running the v1.5 session demo at 93 samples (2ms latency) the cpu stayed at or below 28% and adding afew plugins did not seem to raise it noticeably. I used sound manager.
At 49 samples or less I started to get a few pops so although 1ms latency is possible it is not useable.
Anyone else?

Geraldo
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Post by Geraldo » Thu May 16, 2002 5:36 pm

I found the CPU test in the forum.
I am running OSX and at the 1st bar CPU was 1-3% at the 17th bar it was around 28%. I have the buffer set to 93 samples.

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Post by FORMAT » Thu May 16, 2002 6:12 pm

well, shockingly bad is all I can say:
davemanning posted the following results on his 500mhz pb:
Result for test 1: 4%
Result for test 2: 29%,

better than the 550 one though:
Result for test 1: 29%
Result for test 2: 45%
another 550:
Test 1: 6%
Test 2: 43%
(along the lines of the xlr8urmac logic test....!)

the old 667 one seemed worse also:
Result for test 1: 4
Result for test 2: 35

so it is a slight improvment with yours at:
Result for test 1: 1-3
Result for test 2: 28

why are the ibook 500 mhz results so similar though:
Result for test 1: 7
Result for test 2: 36
??????? not really worth the price difference of 1000€ is it?


but the pc results are just over the top:

dell inspiron 1ghz:
Result for test 1: 2%
Result for test 2: 20%

toshiba satellite:
test1: 1%
test2: 14%

wo what shall I do.... macintosh for reliability or pc for low price and performance? If someone could only give me a simple answer...:-)

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hrowe
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Post by hrowe » Thu May 16, 2002 6:17 pm

I don't know how this will apply to Live performance, but here is an interesting Powerbook comparison test....
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/dec01/121401.html

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Post by FORMAT » Thu May 16, 2002 6:23 pm

Yes I'd read those benchmarks already... I'd like to know how the NEW versions do by comparison......

anyone care to comment?

FORMAT

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