Ableton Forum

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:48 am

so, let's try to steer this topic back on track.

does anyone have g5 benchmark figures for live? i'm curious how the new processors compare to my PC. i'm sure they're not slouches. i owned a g4 500 a few years back, but jumped ship when i couldn't get enough juice. the g5s look might tempting.

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:45 pm

I'm afraid I have no time for a serious benchmarking proceedure but here are some on the fly observations:

On my IBM ThinkPad P3 700 MHz I once managed to mix a song of eight tracks and not too many effects. The CPU usage went all the way up to 100 percent.

On my G5 double 2 GHz I just finished a song of thirteen tracks with plenty of effects. The CPU usage never went over 53 percent.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:41 pm

Per Boysen wrote:I'm afraid I have no time for a serious benchmarking proceedure but here are some on the fly observations:

On my IBM ThinkPad P3 700 MHz I once managed to mix a song of eight tracks and not too many effects. The CPU usage went all the way up to 100 percent.

On my G5 double 2 GHz I just finished a song of thirteen tracks with plenty of effects. The CPU usage never went over 53 percent.

nothing serious, just run the default projects in live 3 and tell us what the peak cpu meter hits

gambit 6 · Post by **gambit 6** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:03 pm

so, it's at least as fast as a p3 1400?

Anonymous wrote:
Per Boysen wrote:I'm afraid I have no time for a serious benchmarking proceedure but here are some on the fly observations:

On my IBM ThinkPad P3 700 MHz I once managed to mix a song of eight tracks and not too many effects. The CPU usage went all the way up to 100 percent.

On my G5 double 2 GHz I just finished a song of thirteen tracks with plenty of effects. The CPU usage never went over 53 percent.
nothing serious, just run the default projects in live 3 and tell us what the peak cpu meter hits

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:23 pm

gambit 6 wrote:nothing serious, just run the default projects in live 3 and tell us what the peak cpu meter hits

Ok. The Demo Arrangement is typically using 15 percent with one single peak at 19 percent. This is on a dual 2 GHz G5 without any additional audio hardware; I'm just running everything on the built in audio.

It would be interesting to hear about how other machines perform on this Demo Arrangement song file. Maybe it's already posted somewhere on this forum?

gambit 6 · Post by **gambit 6** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:33 pm

p3 2ghz = 7%

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:19 pm

gambit 6 wrote:p3 2ghz = 7%

That's very interesting! Is this a laptop?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:40 am

Per Boysen wrote:
gambit 6 wrote:p3 2ghz = 7%
That's very interesting! Is this a laptop?

i'm getting about 12% peak cpu on the live 3 demo. i'm running on a centrino 1.5ghz laptop.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 2:41 am

Anonymous wrote:
Per Boysen wrote:
gambit 6 wrote:p3 2ghz = 7%
That's very interesting! Is this a laptop?
i'm getting about 12% peak cpu on the live 3 demo. i'm running on a centrino 1.5ghz laptop.

fyi centrino = intel's mobile chipset with low power consumption CPU

Per Boysen · Post by **Per Boysen** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:34 pm

I tried the Demo Arrangement on my IBM ThinkPad P3 700 MHz laptop and it used 30 % with a peak to 50 %. That's pretty good! Obviously a slow Mac is a bad choice for running Live. The G5 is ok though, but I did not by it only to run Live since this machine really kicks as with Logic in the first place.

Thanks to this thread I now know that I do not have to save up for a future G5 laptop. Any cheaper PC laptop will be as good with Live to use on stage. Seems like "studio G5 and PC laptop" is a good concept, if you don't happen to hate PC's or Macs

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 9:09 pm

Per Boysen wrote:I tried the Demo Arrangement on my IBM ThinkPad P3 700 MHz laptop and it used 30 % with a peak to 50 %. That's pretty good! Obviously a slow Mac is a bad choice for running Live. The G5 is ok though, but I did not by it only to run Live since this machine really kicks as with Logic in the first place.

Thanks to this thread I now know that I do not have to save up for a future G5 laptop. Any cheaper PC laptop will be as good with Live to use on stage. Seems like "studio G5 and PC laptop" is a good concept, if you don't happen to hate PC's or Macs

i say use both if you can afford it. PCs still have best bang for the buck, but you get OSX and those intangible gooey good feelings from the mac. i've owned both, and neither platform is perfect. but they both can get the job done.