Will a new processor really make that much difference?

[tbcam88]

Hi,


I'm currently running 8.2.2. on Win 7 32bit. The project I'm working on ATM has around 80 channels running and I'm starting to encounter performance issues...

The audio is beginning to lag/become choppy when playing and Ableton's CPU meter is hitting as high as 120%

Anyway, I want to genuinely confirm that a new system build will be able to handle this kind of workload (and more...) flawlessly before I spend that kind of cash. It would probably be an Intel i7-3820 I would go for.

I've held off until now since Ableton can only utilise 4GB of RAM anyway but I feel the processor may be a necessary upgrade for me to go any further.

My current spec is :

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Gigabyte EP43-DS3 Motherboard

Educated opinions welcome!


Cheers.

[pencilrocket]

The tech review article says 2600K and i7-3820 are almost same performance in benchmark test except memory access test. You'll get much better performance with either CPU.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
3820 @ 3.60GHz 9678
2600K @ 3.40GHz 9095
E8500 @ 3.16GHz 2370

[1.A.M.]

First....why in the hell you need 80 channels? what do you record, the jungle animals each in his own channel? please don't understand me wrong but you can reder multiple tracks into one and freeze/flatten so that you don't need so many channels at once and reduce cpu stress
Yes an i5/i7 processor WILL do a big difference, an SSD drive also.
Here with an i5 2500k and 8gb ram i never passed 50% cpu with more than 20-30 tracks with alot of automation (W7x64) and some hungry Vst's.

[Gab]

A 2500K (or 3570K, its Ivy Bridge counterpart) will be rougly twice as powerful as your E8500, based on the chart here : http://www.hardware.fr/articles/778-14/moyenne.html

[lethal_pizzle]

You can probably get a better CPU which will enable you to do more number crunching.

Although your existing CPU is probably more powerful than 99.99% of CPUs that have been used to finish computer based projects throughout the history of computer based music making. Time to bus/freeze/flatten some tracks?

[Forge.]

It's more likely RAm or HD - I rarely reach my CPU limit, and if you do with that many tracks it's probably because it's trying to deal with them all.

But seriously, that's a crazy workflow. How on earth can you really manage 80+ tracks? I have enough trouble managing a quarter of that a lot of the time.

[tbcam88]

Hi,


Why is eighty channels too much? The track ain't even finished yet lol! Don't know what to say really... There's plenty of plug-ins running, they each need a channel obviously. Here's the arrangement so far...





I'm aware a solution would be to simply bounce audio, thus reducing the number of active plug-ins but this really isn't an option in this case.

This project is a tutorial that I reference pretty much every day. All the plug-in data etc. has to remain as is, otherwise I would lose the information showing how the desired sound/effect was created in the first place. Bouncing audio is kind of a no-go in this instance.

The guy I wrote this alongside is on Mac and he finished a track recently that was just short of 300 channels, absolutely riddled with detail, and it was only at that point that his machine started to max out.

I'm more than willing to build a new system but I want the piece of mind that I could run at least twice as many channels/instruments without experiencing problems.

What is an SSD drive, how would this help exactly?


Thanks for the input so far btw!

[cotdagoo]

What is an SSD drive, how would this help exactly?

http://www.google.com

http://forum.ableton.com/search.php

[tbcam88]

I have already checked google for an explanation. I was asking the OP for his input on how this might help MY problem specifically.

If you have nothing worthwhile to contribute then don't bother posting... It's exactly your type that drag the forum community down as a whole.

[pencilrocket]

SSD won't help solve CPU max out.

[oddstep]

Cpu will make a difference. Will it make enough of a difference tho?

[cotdagoo]

I have already checked google for an explanation. I was asking the OP for his input on how this might help MY problem specifically.

If you have nothing worthwhile to contribute then don't bother posting... It's exactly your type that drag the forum community down as a whole.

Sorry, your question seemed very open ended, as if you had not bothered to even look yourself.. I was going contribute some help until I read the last bit and made some suggestions where to get the answers you were asking (as SSDs have been discussed at length in the forums over the past year).

Clearly the information already contained in the forum is no good to you, and you must have others spoon feed you every answer without actually doing work yourself. I'm sure with a little bit of reading you'd have found the required information to answer your initial question, but again you make a post asking others to do the work for you..

I have plenty worthwhile to contribute.. much more than you've contributed here (so far I see little contribution to the forums from you at all) - it's exactly my type that logs into the forum daily to see if others need help. I don't actually post much of anything else around here.. so I'm really sorry for dragging the community down as a whole.. you've been registered here for what.. a few months?

[tbcam88]

it's exactly my type that logs into the forum daily to see if others need help.

Yes. Your initial post on this thread was MOST helpful.

you've been registered here for what.. a few months?

lol... What difference does it make in the SLIGHTEST how long I have been a registered member. An absolutely ridiculous attempt at an argument.


I aint on here to argue with people... You're a negative time-waster. Go pollute another thread.

[cotdagoo]

it's exactly my type that logs into the forum daily to see if others need help.

Yes. Your initial post on this thread was MOST helpful.

I'd hazard it's still more helpful than you've ever been to someone on these forums..

Pointing someone in the right direction must a horrible nuisance.. at least when you need everything handed to you on a silver platter.

you've been registered here for what.. a few months?

lol... What difference does it make in the SLIGHTEST how long I have been a registered member. An absolutely ridiculous attempt at an argument.


I aint on here to argue with people... You're a negative time-waster. Go pollute another thread.

It makes a difference in you (someone very new) telling me (someone registered for years, who often helps out others) that I'm dragging the forum community down as a whole.. You're not even part of this community unless you need some questions answered..

So yeah.. I'd say it makes a difference. You're just another person who wants fast answers without doing any research or work and could give a crap about this community unless they don't give you the answers you want. This is what is dragging down this community.. posts like yours pop up here almost daily.. People get tired of it.. You contribute nothing yet ask for everything..

And if you aint on here to argue.. you got off on a bad foot when I posted relevant links. I was just trying to help and you tell me I have nothing worthwhile to contribute and not to bother posting.. Then tell me I drag the community down.. Sounds pretty damn argumentative to me.. You could have just used the links to get the info you needed.. but instead decided to be a knob.

[mdk]

I'm more than willing to build a new system but I want the piece of mind that I could run at least twice as many channels/instruments without experiencing problems.

Depends what plugins you use. If you run Diva in highest quality mode then you wont get too many tracks, but if they're straight audio with no plugins then you'll be able to run a lot more but for audio tracks your ram / HD are more likely to end up being the bottleneck rather than the CPU.
You might be running some plugins which have oversampling options, maybe they're set high and can be turned down.

You know if you freeze a track you can unfreeze it, you don't have to destructively bounce to audio. You can also bounce a set of tracks with heavy plugin usage to a seperate audio track and then switch off all the plugins. you don't have to delete the original tracks.


Obviously getting a better CPU will allow you to run more CPU heavy stuff but no-one can say 'sure it'll run 300 tracks' because we don't even know whats on the tracks.

Try a stress test on your machine, see how many plain audio tracks you can run in parallel before you hit a bottleneck (Ram / HD / CPU)