LIVE 4 PERFORMANCE TEST

[MarkH]

Tested my Wintel laptop today.

1) 43%
2) Dell Latitude C840
3) XP Pro SP1
4) Pentium 4 Mobile 1.8ghz
5) 1024 MB Ram
6) Echo Indigo
7) Stock 4200 RPM 30GB HD

[AdamJay]

Upgrade to xp sp2, I went from 28 to 25 percent when I upgraded, sooo it's a 10 percent speed increase

i know a few folks have gotten a decent boost with SP2.
i just installed SP2 and performance didnt change at all, so i reverted back to SP1 via system restore cuz i dont want all the security stuff....

so beware - SP2 isn't a guaranteed performance boost, but its probable.

[dpel]

back to SP1 via system restore cuz i dont want all the security stuff....

so beware - SP2 isn't a guaranteed performance boost, but its probable.

why don't you want all that security stuff?

[AdamJay]

quite simply... i don't need it. and its rather invasive.
i do alot of networking and the SP2 firewall gets in the way. i don't need the popup blocker because i use firefox, which means i dont have any spyware either.

SP2 is great for the average user, but "power users" typically see it as bloated and unnecessary.

i was hoping it would give me a boost with ableton and thats the only reason i ran the update. otherwise my computer is exactly the way i like it with SP1, so since i got no boost with SP2, i have no need for it.

[hugo0]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter = 43-50%
2) Laptop/Desktop? = Laptop, Apple G4 Powerbook 17
3) Operating System = 10.3.5
4) CPU Make Model and Speed = 1.5ghz
5) Amount of Ram / Speed of Ram = 1GB DDR SDRAM PC2700
6) Soundcard = Stock internal
7) Hard Disk Drive Speed = 4200RPM


it's time to all MAC users make some pressure to ableton optimze Live for our machine G4 & G5,the results are a little poor

[jayc]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 30%
2) Desktop clon
3) xp pro sp1
4) athlon 2500+
5) 512ddr400
6) asus A7V8X-X sopund onboard
7) segate 7500rpm 80gb

[Machinate]

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter 30%
2) Desktop clon
3) xp pro sp1
4) athlon 2500+
5) 512ddr400
6) asus A7V8X-X sopund onboard
7) segate 7500rpm 80gb

Those are relatively good results on a really cheap machine, am I right?

[kettensaege]

1.) 33%
2.) iMac G5 17"
3.) Mac OS X 10.3.5
4.) PowerPC G5 @ 1.8 GHz
5.) 512+512 MB DDR400
6.) Builtin audio
7.) stock 80gb SATA HD, 7200 RPM

I tried the test both with the stock single 256 MB RAM and a matched pair of 2*512 MB RAM with no change in results: Ableton Live CPU meter varies between 30-32% with very short peaks at 33%.

[Parametex]

1) 42-44 %
2) Laptop Dell Inspiron 8200
3) XPPro
4) P4 2Ghz
5) 768 mb ram
6) tested w/ built in
7) 5400 rpm

[rachmanoff]

1) 65-70 %
2) 17" G4 Al Powerbook
3) OS X 10.3.5
4) G4 1 GHz
5) 1 GB DDR SDRAM
6) Internal Audio Card
7) 4200 rpm, i believe

[Cryocon]

Setup 1

1) 24-26%
2) Acer TM803 laptop
3) Windows XP Pro sp1
4) Pentium-M 1.6Ghz
5) 512mb ram
6) Echo Indigo
7) 60Gb internal (not sure of rpm)

Setup 2

1) 28%
2) Dell Precision Workstation 650
3) Windows XP Pro sp1
4) Xeon 2.8ghz
5) 1gb ram
6) Motu 828 mk2
7) 40gb SATA 7200rpm

I'm well pleased with the results of my laptop

[raapie]

1.) 33%
2.) iMac G5 17"
3.) Mac OS X 10.3.5
4.) PowerPC G5 @ 1.8 GHz
5.) 512+512 MB DDR400
6.) Builtin audio
7.) stock 80gb SATA HD, 7200 RPM

I tried the test both with the stock single 256 MB RAM and a matched pair of 2*512 MB RAM with no change in results: Ableton Live CPU meter varies between 30-32% with very short peaks at 33%.

So the new iMac seems very powerful after all! thanks for your report.

Can you tell me if your iMac is quiet? I am consifering a Mac but do need a extremely quiet machine.

[kettensaege]

it's funny you're asking, I'm getting my mid-plane replaced because I thought the CPU fan was too loud and the apple support lady thought so as well. I don't mind the swooshing sound of the other coolers but the cpu thing was annoying and I didn't trust it. Check the Apple discussion forums and try one for yourself. My iMac does need a few minutes to heat up but then the cpu fan emits a pretty unpleasant whine that changes with the CPU load. The other noise problem that seems to mostly affect european customers is a buzzing/crackling PSU. Should you be affected by one of these problems, apple can ship you a new part for you to replace yourself.
Apart from that (hopefully soon resolved) issue it's a very nice machine.

[raapie]

thanks for your reply.

maybe I should get one those new iBooks (1.33 gHz, G4 though). it's much slower, but no fan. I also have a fast machine here in my studio (Sony Centrino PC), so an iBook would be more or less okay, although a bit more power would be useful of course.

mmm. I need to think about it.

[kettensaege]

the iMac seems to be roughly three times faster than my iBook G4 800. It scored 89% with the benchmark song. A 1GHz iBook G4 scored 66%. If you don't expect too much you should be fine with the 1.2GHz iBook and I'm so spoiled by its small form factor, portability and time it runs on battery, it's still my main computer and my favourite one. I absolutely love it. Totally quiet unless you torture it with live+reason+monstrous sample libs or a enduring Quake 3 session. And even with the fans running it's more pleasant than the whining CPU fan of my iMac G5. I should receive my new mid-plane tomorrow, and I'm really curious to see if it will change anything. If not, little iMac goes back to the shop, sexy or not. I'm just not willing to spend my money on a bunch of whining fans, be it PC or Mac.