Dual Processors Live 4

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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technam
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Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:36 pm
Location: tempe, AZ

Dual Processors Live 4

Post by technam » Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:31 pm

does anyone with dual processors notice any benefit of having them. is it worth it... ive done a search on this forum and found that Live doesnt support dual proccs, i am new to Live and currently use both winXP PRO and MacOSx, i know both of these OSs support dual proccs, so i guess what i am trying to ask is if the OS gives any benefit within Live 4, ie performance increase, more available resources, that type of shit...much love to all Live users.


thanks
j

asmadeus
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Post by asmadeus » Mon Dec 27, 2004 10:54 pm

I was considering purchasing a dual proc box too, but my feeling is that the OS will give up on processor to Live, and use the second processor for "other" background applications. So if for example your streaming your audio from a HD, and say a file index wakes up to index your files (which I recommend you disable anyway), or say you wish to do something else, like unzip a file, the OS may donate the CPU cycles for that process from another CPU, so INDIRECTLY Live -would- benefit, but only indirectly... Having a proc with hyperthreading turned on *can* do the same trick... so in MHO, save you $$$ -> buy more RAM or better yet, a faster (10,000RPM) main HD.

-mike

tylast
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Post by tylast » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:29 pm


MarkH
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Post by MarkH » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:08 am

On a single processor machine I had Live start to pop and crackle when the CPU utilization reached 70-75%. The interface also became sluggish and the meters weren't smooth anymore. On a dual processor machine (albeit a much faster dual processor machine) I could reach 94% CPU utilization before getting pops and crackles. The interface was able to keep up fine.

Officially, on Mac anyway, the second CPU is assigned to Finder tasks which includes (but not limited to) the graphics engine called Quartz under OS X.

I wish I could tell you more but this is all the information I have at this time.
Accidents are the portal to discovery!

tylast
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Post by tylast » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:12 am

I wonder if that's because the Core & Graphics are seperate threads?

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