Vista vs. XP performance in Live

Vance · Post by **Vance** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:16 am

This site (http://rainrecording.co.uk/vista/performance) seems to suggest that Cubase 4 performance is drastically improved in Vista, compared to XP. I've been checking the forums lately to see if anybody's been doing a similar comparison for Live performance, but I can't seem to find one...

So, has anybody taken the Vista plunge, and can post the comparative results here? Just interested in comparing raw performance (CPU load) rather than latency or compatibility of interfaces...

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:40 am

Sorry, this is going to be rather uninformative, but over on KVR there is some debate as to these results.

Though, it is of interest how Vista is going to fair as far as audio use goes.

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:28 am

Last thing I heard is that Vista isn't working very well with Live or audio hardware or both, but what do I know, I'm a mac guy.

progjm · Post by **progjm** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:49 am

C4 is still running rough in Vista, Vista in general has alot of issues. I am sure these issues will be fixed with 2 or 3 service packs lol
M-Audio still does not have any drivers for Vista, staying with XP myself and getting a Mac Book Pro soon!!!!!!!

Vance · Post by **Vance** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:52 am

Yeah I've seen the debate on KVR about the reliability of the results in that link I posted, honestly I agree that they look a little suspect... so I think it'd be cool to discuss the issue for Live, with people doing their own comparisons and posting results if possible...

And of course this is all contingent on Vista drivers being available for audio interfaces, but hopefully sometime soon this kind of comparison will be feasible...

I'm really interested to know if Vista lives up to the hype, personally I don't think it will... all the DRM stuff just doesn't wash with me, I'm gonna stick with XP until Voxengo and a few others release their AU versions, and then jump ship completely to Leopard (in theory...

)

anti-banausic · Post by **anti-banausic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:11 am

Vance wrote:Yeah I've seen the debate on KVR about the reliability of the results in that link I posted, honestly I agree that they look a little suspect... so I think it'd be cool to discuss the issue for Live, with people doing their own comparisons and posting results if possible...

And of course this is all contingent on Vista drivers being available for audio interfaces, but hopefully sometime soon this kind of comparison will be feasible...

I'm really interested to know if Vista lives up to the hype, personally I don't think it will... all the DRM stuff just doesn't wash with me, I'm gonna stick with XP until Voxengo and a few others release their AU versions, and then jump ship completely to Leopard (in theory...)

I am actually switching in the next week.
I wanted to wait for Leopard because I am also going with Logic to play with LIVE, but am trying to wait out the "new" logic or whatever Apple is cooking. I am forced to switch right now because my PC died the other week.

Going to dual boot with XP, so not going VIsta in the near future.

Vance · Post by **Vance** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:25 am

I actually already use a Macbook (2.0ghz CD) but I use WinXP under Bootcamp right now because there's still too many critical plugins I use that either aren't AU or UB, or both... e.g. Voxengo stuff, Minimonsta (although that should be coming in a couple weeks by the look of it), plus some others that escape me right now...

It's not so much Leopard itself I'm waiting for, I just don't expect those plugs to be available until well after Leopard is released... by which time I'll also upgrade to a Santa Rosa MBP too

Herne · Post by **Herne** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:23 am

I make performance about 3-5% better on Vista than XP. Latency [for me at any rate] is at 3ms, with breakup at 80% [Creative ASIO]. Just like when XP was first released there is a lot of sky falling talk, people have such short memories. If you know what you are doing with a PC Vista is MUCH more stable than XP, I haven't had one crash or lock-up yet.

M-Audio doesn't have any drivers yet for Vista, although simple devices that need only Plug & Play support work fine. I'm using an Axiom 61, BCR2000, BCF2000, padKontrol, and a Keystation 49e in Vista.

Having used Vista since December, I take issue with progjm. Vista hasn't had any issues I am aware of. There have been no security updates in three months, just some definition updates for defender, spam filter lists and some compatibility fixes for other manufacturers programs. It's true to say that some apps have issues with Vista, but since I've had access to code for 18 months, and access to frozen code since October, you should talk to the developers of your apps not MS, they should have better access than me.

To lay the DRM bollocks to rest, there is no DRM enabled in Vista. There is, however, support for third party DRM users to use the DRM support in Vista, such as iTunes and Plays For Sure, but it's up to the ISV to use it [or not]. MS provided the tools, whether they get used or not is not up to them. The DRM model in Vista is the same as XP, and very similar to OSX. OSX is actually slightly more restrictive, due to built in iTunes support.
I'm not an MS fanboi, I'm just a bit sick of hearing OOOOh DRM bad... with no research or facts.

muscleandhate · Post by **muscleandhate** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:28 am

XP/OSX.10.4.9 here, and that is the way it will stay. XP is fine in isolation.

mauriziodami · Post by **mauriziodami** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:23 pm

The only thing I can say is: avoid Vista. I never spent so many times on a microsoft operative system since windows 95.
You can't have any control on it. It's much more difficolt to set your system properly.
After days and days of cleaning up I still have hesitations and glitchs in the audio output. Note I got all the drivers for Vista (Indigo and Edirol).
ciao
maurizio

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:10 pm

I would avoid changing an OS until maybe a year after it's release, every new release of an OS is buggy as hell, and (in windows) it always takes months or years for companies to write decent, stable drivers for the new OS.

Vista should be more solid and have more driver support than it currently does imho, Microsoft have had more than 5 years to work on vista. They still didn't incorporate MIDI timing fixes (also missing in XP) that musicians have been pressing for for years, it's nuts that my Atari 1040 ST from 1987 runs MIDI way tighter and with less drift.

All my programs and vsts work great in XP sp2. I'm not in any hurry to replace that with instability and beta drivers, but kudos to those people who need have to have the latest, greatest etc. and rushed out to get Vista in the first week of release and who are in effect being unpaid beta testers.

Vance · Post by **Vance** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:31 am

So has anyone done this kind of comparison as yet? I see lots of generalisations like "Just install XP" and stuff like that, but I'd be keen to see how they actually stack up in the performance stakes...

I had Vista on my MBP (under Bootcamp) for a couple hours when I first got it, just to check it out & see what the fuss was all about... the Live 5 Performance Test ran well, seemed to perform quite competitively with XP, but unfortunately all the meters were redrawing veeeeeeeery veeeeeery sloooooowly... does anyone on Vista experience this as well, or know what the available fixes are?

brycebsp · Post by **brycebsp** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:41 pm

Vista has been a nightmare so far. I am having it removed and XP installed. The only reason I ended up with Vista is because it came pre-installed on a new laptop i bought.

Vista has no ability to recognize devices. M-audio finally has beta drivers for my Fasttrack pro. My midi controller (Alesis Photon X25 won't work at all). I had a simple cruzer 512mb memory stick and Vista couldn't even recognize that.

I have tons of issues with locking up, blue sreen of death, random reboots, etc. This is a 1.7 ghz processor with 1.5 gig or ram. If i open two processes at the same time like explorer and say windows media player boom instant lock-up. I'm not even talking about running audio programs here but just basic wndows programs. I can't get past all these problems to even consider trying doing some real audio apps.

Am I a computer whiz? No but I definilty can figure most things out. This has been one of the most frustrating computer experiences ever.

TRUE STORY. I am a serato user for three years now (its a rock solid product). I install the new software that supports vista. Open Serato import my tracks (all is normal) assign a track to one of the tables and start the scratch record. As soon as the time code is recieved BOOM the computer reboots on its own. I was ready to throw the computer through a wall.

Bryce

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:53 am

Technically this post should be called "Vista vs. XP for hosting Live", or "Live performance in Vista vs. XP."

That is all.

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:16 am

interestingly those results are the exact opposite of those found in this kvr thread - http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2631205 using nuendo 3 and cubase 4. who do you believe?

Vista vs. XP performance in Live

Vista vs. XP performance in Live

I'm using Live under Vista