G4 optimisation please !

proteron · Post by **proteron** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:17 pm

I'm going to have to bump on this one. I'm really surprised at the difference in performance on my powerbook compared to my PC notebook.

Now mind you I am well aware that the raw speed (and heat!) of my PC is higher. The PC is 2.8ghz P4 (desktop, not M) while the Powerbook is last generation design 800mhz G4. Both machines have a gig of ram.

Even if we could directly compare the Mhz values of the two processors (which we cannot) I would be surprised at the performance on the G4. With about 6 tracks and effects/sendfx I'm going over 50% cpu - whereas the same project would barely register on the PC, probably about 10% at the most.

So even though my pbook is not the latest and greatest, this would certainly be helpful until the second generation g5 powerbooks come out

proteron

Jinsai · Post by **Jinsai** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 6:31 am

yes... that would be a good good thing... My 800mhz powerbook 756 mb sdram handles almost all of my other apps faster and more reliably than my PC... but Ableton is a glaring exception... I've been told that its becaues Ableton runs more around mhz/number crunching than ram... Would optimizing my sessions by switching to Ram mode on some clips help this problem? If so, could someone give me a general tip for going about this in an effective way?
But yeah, in a more thread related move, I'd really appreciate it if Ableton optimized Live for the G4.
yup yup yup... that would be nice.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:23 pm

i have to agree here.. G4 can do a hell of a lot more if people properly optimise for the Velocity Engine.. Come on Ableton, please sort this one out..

proteron · Post by **proteron** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 3:21 am

bump for the cause

tjwett · Post by **tjwett** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:59 am

i gotta chime in as well. got a 12" PowerBook here with plenty o' RAM and the Live performance leaves much to be desired. i know my raw mhz isn't high but it is only a 6 month old machine, it's got DDR memory, i've got a fast HD going. i know it's capable of MUCH more. you should see what this thing can do with Logic, or even Photoshop or Final Cut for that matter. this thing does pretty damn good in Altivec-aware apps. and i think it would be a wise move for the Abes to future-proof themselves. perhaps even go straight to direct optimization for the G5, us G4 users would still benefit, but not the other way around. meaning an app optimized for the G5 could still gain a significant performance boost running on a G4, while an app optimized for the G4 could actually suffer considerably if running on a G5. at least, that's what they tell me.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:41 pm

They need to fully optimize for the altivec/velocity engine that comes as part of both g4s and g5s. This is a part of the processor strategy that apple has, that is gonna be around for a while, and is the reason for the macs abbility to play DV movies at full screen, ful frame rate, and the reason why apps like photoshop perform so much better. Its ideally suited for manipulating Audio/Video so provides the g4 with plenty of extra muscle, which aint being used in Live. Also a fully multi threaded engine (or a completely 'cocoa' based coded app) would provide better performance for users of Dual Processor machines..

tjwett · Post by **tjwett** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 9:04 pm

yeah werd. that's another thing i think should be there; full dual processor support.

stew · Post by **stew** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 11:56 pm

nobbystylus wrote: (or a completely 'cocoa' based coded app)

Using Cocoa makes hardly any speed difference, if at all.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:40 pm

it may not 'speed' it up, but it will enable the programme to be automatically fully multithreaded, hence being more efficient in a Dual Processor machine...

madlab · Post by **madlab** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 8:12 am

The chronic thread

Count me in, 'cause I sometimes miss a reverb !

bitmap · Post by **bitmap** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 8:34 pm

Please Ableton,
At least respond to this thread. I know you guys had said in the past that it would take a total redesign of Live to give us altvec... just give us a little update on where that stands or what you have cooking until then..
something... anything...
map~map

stew · Post by **stew** » Fri Mar 12, 2004 9:27 am

nobbystylus wrote:it may not 'speed' it up, but it will enable the programme to be automatically fully multithreaded, hence being more efficient in a Dual Processor machine...

Nope, it won't do that either. In Cocoa, threads need to be explicitly created by the developer.
http://developer.apple.com/documentatio ... ading.html

hat · Post by **hat** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:54 pm

Live 3.0.2 on my Alu-book G4 -1.25ghz/1GB RAM/Panther 10.3.2 is absolutely pants. Very unreliable beyond a 10-12 track count. Oh, you want a reverb with that snare? Hah....good luck.

proteron · Post by **proteron** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:36 pm

multithreading is nice for multiprocessor machines, but the whole mac community would benefit from altivec optimization etc... stuff we all have. would be cool for multiprocessor runners to be able to have the audio/mixing on one proc while the plugin dsp are running on the other processor and feeding audio to the mix.. but.. that's like.. totally unrelated to this..

i think hat said it best... "pants."

G4 optimisation please !

G4 optimisation please !

indeed

I second that...

not a cocoa issue