[5184] L8 uses 30% more CPU than L7

[slirak]

I just ran the Live 7 performance test with 7.14, 8.b16 and 8.b17.

The result was somewhat alarming: L8 uses up 30% (relatively) more CPU than L7.
It also uses up about 70 MB more memory. (There was no difference between 8.b16 and 8.b17)

I've used identical settings (per the performance test instructions).

I've confirmed this with both Live's CPU monitor and OS X's Activity Monitor.

I sure hope this is all due to surplus beta code??!!

The math:
Live's CPU monitor: 64% (L8) / 49% (L7) = 1.3
Activity Monitor: 144% (L8) / 110% (L7) = 1.3

/Jonas

[db91977]

I've noticed a similar increase in the resources used, although I haven't quantified it as you have.

Btw I've noticed that Pro Tools LE 8 is also more resource-intensive than 7 was. And it won't even run at all on my computers with older AMD Athlon processors. I guess this is typical of new generations of just about any software.

One thing about new software- it gives one an excuse to upgrade the hardware!

[glitchrock-buddha]

I just ran Tarekith's Performance test as well and was a bit alarmed.

I duplicated some tracks in the test a while ago and now have it with 11 tracks going and the results were as follows:

Live 7: 69%
Live 8: 89% (peaking over 100% on first playback and stuttering the whole time).

This is a pretty big difference. I can't imagine this is all due to debugging code? I'd be awfully disappointed if Live became this much more inefficient.

This is on a macbook pro (OS 10.5.6)

[slirak]

I just ran Tarekith's Performance test as well and was a bit alarmed.

I duplicated some tracks in the test a while ago and now have it with 11 tracks going and the results were as follows:

Live 7: 69%
Live 8: 89% (peaking over 100% on first playback and stuttering the whole time).

This is a pretty big difference. I can't imagine this is all due to debugging code? I'd be awfully disappointed if Live became this much more inefficient.

And that's a 29% difference (relatively). Pretty consistent with my results, so probably not system dependent.

/Jonas

[Emissary]

This is odd, as the early beta's were actually using up about 5% less cpu. Maybe something is running in the background to record crashes which is slowing it all down?

[the unknown wanderer]

betas have the crash reporters imbedded in the code, im sure that is what accounts for the increased cpu

[bulo]

Yep, big increase.
I also tried the Tarekith performance test with beta 7 or 8 and the difference compare to Live 7 was around 5-7%. Now the difference is something like 20%.
WTF?
Have you noticed that Ableton's team have nerver answered anything about questions related to CPU in Live 8?

[emma]

Naaa , that MUST be a Beta related thing , I can't imagine that they increase the cpu hunger this way . Who would buy the update then ? I'm def. not ...

[FRGus723]

When you launch Ableton 8 it says in the title bar "recording events" I believe this is recording all crashes as I got mine to crash and as soon as I re-launched it it asked me if I wanted to submit the crash report. This is most definitely where the CPU spike is from.

[bulo]

This is most definitely where the CPU spike is from.

That's what people say on the forum since the begining. But for sure, those people definitely don't know anything about how a computer works, what is a software or whatever (and I personnaly don't know anything about this).
And, as I said before, Ableton's team has just said nothing about the subject...

So, please stop claiming those empty sciences.

[emma]

This was the first impression on L8 :
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=105571

Strange thing ...

[mikemc]

This is most definitely where the CPU spike is from.

That's what people say on the forum since the begining. But for sure, those people definitely don't know anything about how a computer works, what is a software or whatever (and I personnaly don't know anything about this).
And, as I said before, Ableton's team has just said nothing about the subject...

So, please stop claiming those empty sciences.

I wouldn't say it is 'definitely' the reason, but I also wouldn't say it is out of the question. It is writing to a log file many times a second, writing to that file will use some system resources.

On the other hand, I noticed that when I plug in a mic to my interface and arm a track, CPU usage goes up 20% just from that-- this does not occur on earlier versions. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has seen similar behavior in their experience.

[davepermen]

I can report huge cpu peaks as well. A Track I created in Ableton Live 7 (and added some live8 features) starts has 10% cpu usage while I haven't even pressed play. It plays at around 70% cpu usage and then suddenly explodes to over 500% by stuttering and then killing the audio. I hope it's just the debug code.

I have a Core2Quad with 4x 2.4ghz and 4gb ram (32bit vista right now). It should handle my little track with ease.

It would be nice to be able to switch from Debug to Release build to test if the bug is actually just because of the Debug-Build.

[SubFunk]

i am a bit concerned as well, i understand that L8 will essentially draw a bit more, due to more complexity... but an old set from 6 or 7 should not use much more recources in L8 than in 6 or 7, i hope they tame the CPU usage, i mean i have a pretty powerfull maschine, with loads of ram, etc. i would not now what to do, buying every quarter of the year the latest uber-super-duper maschine??? that can't be for real...

in an eventuelly happening 8.1 update i would rather then an extra function again, see some serious CPU eficiency developement... so you can work with ease.

[Tone Deft]

it's beta software, ya buncha whiny little school girls.

stfu and test.