Macbook Pro Santa Rosa Performance

[Lo-Fi Massahkah]

Power schemes in Windows allow control over CPU steppings, seems like there is no such thing on Mac OS (beside Coolbook). <shrug>

Strange. Isn't it.

I just switched from PC to Mac.

-M

[guille]

I'm using Coolbook now. Before Coolbook I got 67%-78% CPU with crackles and 8 or 6 tracks using Live 6 & 7 Performance Test.

Now I get 47% CPU with 8 tracks.

This is my tested configuration:

- 800 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1200 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1400 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1600 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1800 Mhz 0.8625V
- 2000 Mhz 0.9125V
- 2200 Mhz 0.9625V
- 2400 Mhz 1.0250V

Temp limit: 75ºC
Throttling level: Medium

[R.J.Dubya]

I'm using Coolbook now. Before Coolbook I got 67%-78% CPU with crackles and 8 or 6 tracks using Live 6 & 7 Performance Test.

Now I get 47% CPU with 8 tracks.

This is my tested configuration:

- 800 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1200 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1400 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1600 Mhz 0.8500V
- 1800 Mhz 0.8625V
- 2000 Mhz 0.9125V
- 2200 Mhz 0.9625V
- 2400 Mhz 1.0250V

Temp limit: 75ºC
Throttling level: Medium

You had coolbook set to have 8 steps and still got that low of a cpu hit (47%) ?

I thought people tended to have just one or two settings to get the maximum power.

[Machinesworking]

I actually don't think this is Apples fault. Basically Live and other Apps produce dropouts (or in the case of Logic CPU overload messages) as a precautionary measure IMO. Probably the fear is, righteously so, that you'll blow your ears etc. out with such a drastic change etc. so the app reports the CPU change too slowly to the the OS / chip.
I think it's obvious that there is a way around this at the application level. We have a solution, and Ableton are I'm sure considering the benefits or cost of instituting any sort of change in architecture to rectify. The thing is it's not that hard to implement on either OSX or XP, so maybe the Abes, Apple, and Intel are all just not going to do anything.
First of all, if it's a simple matter of overriding the speedstepping settings, then Intel will no doubt do nothing. If it's a matter of only audio applications, and the implementation of some sort of override feature at OS level might possibly mess with performance in other areas, then Apple, Microsoft will do nothing.
Ableton might not be able to circumvent their drop outs without possibly negative side effects, ( bad VST/AUs killing people's ear drums ).....

if that's the case then $10 for an application that pretty much fixes it on OSX, and probably something similar on XP, is a good solution.

[Machinesworking]

Oh and I'm not worried about the performance test, it's not accurate as it's not to failure. I'm talking about audio drop outs.

[dango]

ok, i am done spazzing out about Live's shite performance and am ready to give into the 3rd party coolbook. i want to keep using Live.

but does this coolbook always keep running on your computer and can this cause any damage to the computer?

I have not bought it yet, but just running the demo download, when i turn up the 'cpu load' dial to about 3 it drops the cpu strain in live down by 50% (from 60% to 30%). what is this doing exactly when i do this? is it ok for the system? answers please.

Happy New Years!

d~

[Homebelly]

ok, i am done spazzing out about Live's shite performance and am ready to give into the 3rd party coolbook. i want to keep using Live.

but does this coolbook always keep running on your computer and can this cause any damage to the computer?

I have not bought it yet, but just running the demo download, when i turn up the 'cpu load' dial to about 3 it drops the cpu strain in live down by 50% (from 60% to 30%). what is this doing exactly when i do this? is it ok for the system? answers please.

Happy New Years!

d~

I would like some more clarity on this issue,,,
Also,,,
How exactly are you supposed to use this,,,??
I'm really not all that clear on it, I've tried all the settings in this thread, but i'm not sure i have my head around using this application at even the most basic level.
For example,,
Does it run all by it's self all of the time, or do i need to start it up then set it every time??
Should i put it into my start up folder??
Should i just run it with live??

I'm sooo confused

[Lo-Fi Massahkah]

I'm thinking this third party app works just like the built-in power schemes in windows (only with some more control). If so - it's a driver that'll make sure your CPU is using all of it's power. All the time.

It's like a car. If you're driving in third gear all the time - you do get from a to b. It takes a little longer and you save gas.

Coolbook controls at what frequency your CPU is running. If max performance is 2000 mhz that'll drain your battery faster than running at 1000 or even 700 mhz. But tasks fly. Coolbook could either gear up or down. Us Live users usually wanna gear up. If you're travelling or doing business for a whole day maybe you wanna gear down to save power and be able to do Excel sheets all day long.

-M

[Timur]

Watch out for possible performance problems with automated stepping when using Coolbooks though. Since I have no experience with Mac OS I can only guess. But most likely this application runs in User space at realtime priority which is worse than running in Kernel space at driver priority. This is equivalent to Rightmark's CPU Clock Utility on Windows which also gives alot more control compared to the simple CPU driver when it comes to speedstepping.

Problem is that a user application running at realtime priority will interrupt your DAW several hundred times per minute. This can lead to decreased audio performance (clicks/pops at regular intervals). So better test this with your DAW and if you experience these kinds of problems then set your CPU clocks to maximum and if possible lower the thread priority of Coolbooks after that. This will make sure your CPU runs at maximum power while Coolbooks wont interrupt your DAW by unnecessarily monitoring your CPU at high priority. Rightmark's CPU Clock Utility changes its priority automatically once you switch from automatic clocking to any manual mode (like maximum or minimum clock speed). But since Windows does that, too, I replaced Rightmark with Windows own energy management again.

[tylenol]

Since I have no experience with Mac OS I can only guess. But most likely this application runs in User space at realtime priority which is worse than running in Kernel space at driver priority.

Coolbook uses a kernel extension, you basically can't do any of this stuff from user space in os x. And the architecture of os x is different enough from windows (cf. mach, bsd) that it's not really possible at all to use knowledge of windows to predict how either user space or kernel space applications will behave.

[Timur]

Well, I can predict as much as this: To monitor the CPU load and switch the clock several dozend times a second (aka fast enough) in software you produce CPU load yourself and most likely need to call several dozend interrupts per second as well. This will interrupt your precious DAW calculation times and thus it is a good idea to check wether Coolbook compromises your DAW's performance when running in automatic mode or if maybe it would be better to just clock the CPU to max and leave it there while you're working in your DAW.

I don't have to care, I'm just offering free hints out of my vast computer background! Besides, Mac OS X is running on a BSD Unix kernel as far as I know and the differentiation and logic between kernel and user space is not a Windows only thing.

[zeropoint]

Well, I can predict as much as this: To monitor the CPU load and switch the clock several dozend times a second (aka fast enough) in software you produce CPU load yourself and most likely need to call several dozend interrupts per second as well. This will interrupt your precious DAW calculation times and thus it is a good idea to check wether Coolbook compromises your DAW's performance when running in automatic mode or if maybe it would be better to just clock the CPU to max and leave it there while you're working in your DAW.

I don't have to care, I'm just offering free hints out of my vast computer background! Besides, Mac OS X is running on a BSD Unix kernel as far as I know and the differentiation and logic between kernel and user space is not a Windows only thing.

I think you're right on this. Having originally set Coolbook to my processor's maximum, I experimented with a full set of steps. High drain AU presets which ran smooth as silk when clocked to the max immediately started producing dropouts.

[Homebelly]

Well, I can predict as much as this: To monitor the CPU load and switch the clock several dozend times a second (aka fast enough) in software you produce CPU load yourself and most likely need to call several dozend interrupts per second as well. This will interrupt your precious DAW calculation times and thus it is a good idea to check wether Coolbook compromises your DAW's performance when running in automatic mode or if maybe it would be better to just clock the CPU to max and leave it there while you're working in your DAW.

I don't have to care, I'm just offering free hints out of my vast computer background! Besides, Mac OS X is running on a BSD Unix kernel as far as I know and the differentiation and logic between kernel and user space is not a Windows only thing.

I think you're right on this. Having originally set Coolbook to my processor's maximum, I experimented with a full set of steps. High drain AU presets which ran smooth as silk when clocked to the max immediately started producing dropouts.

This was my experience, which was why i was starting to think that i wasn't using CB properly,,

[dvbfilth]

Was reading through this looking to see if anyone else was having a sync problem with Logic and Live ReWired, and thought I'd try out the Coolbook app.

Haha, I can honestly say that what everyone says is true, and the difference it makes to Live (standone) is absolutely incredible. As one person put, "I don't know how I worked without it" and they were completely right!

Macbook Pro SR 2.4 / 4GB Ram / Tiger 10.4.11 / Live 7.0.1

[R.J.Dubya]

ok, i am done spazzing out about Live's shite performance and am ready to give into the 3rd party coolbook. i want to keep using Live.

but does this coolbook always keep running on your computer and can this cause any damage to the computer?

I have not bought it yet, but just running the demo download, when i turn up the 'cpu load' dial to about 3 it drops the cpu strain in live down by 50% (from 60% to 30%). what is this doing exactly when i do this? is it ok for the system? answers please.

Happy New Years!

d~

I would like some more clarity on this issue,,,
Also,,,
How exactly are you supposed to use this,,,??
I'm really not all that clear on it, I've tried all the settings in this thread, but i'm not sure i have my head around using this application at even the most basic level.
For example,,
Does it run all by it's self all of the time, or do i need to start it up then set it every time??
Should i put it into my start up folder??
Should i just run it with live??

I'm sooo confused

When you save the coolbook settings and have the throttling on and the 'use coolbook' box checked, you don't have to re-open it, it will always work how you have it set (different settings for battery/adaptor).
Put wherever you want, I keep it in appliations. You may just want to turn it on when using Live, or just when things get a bit power hungry, it'll save you drop outs when you max it out.

However, it is not suggested to run it maximum cpu speed with the default voltage associated with it, that may burn your computer out. But the key is to undervolt. Follow the manual instructions and do tests to find your minumum stable voltage with your maximum cpu speed. You can maximimize the clock speed with thedemo version, however you cannot adjust the voltage, so I wouldn't leave that maxed out. It's just for testing purposes. When using Live, I use my full 2.17 Ghz with 1.05V.