Ableton Forum

Hi peeps,

I just received my brand new laptop which has pretty insane specs. Spent a few days installing all my plugins, and then I tested out how it would run compared to my 4 year old desktop. At first I was getting insanely high CPU usage, but then I found out that in order to dramatically decrease CPU load, I need to 1. turn the high performance power option on, and 2. connect the laptop to the charger. Now I did a small test, where I used 5 instances of Omnisphere all playing at once (pretty heavy synth/multi-sample plugin) plus about 10-15 processing plugins (reverbs, effects, etc). My laptop uses about ~20% CPU whereas my desktop uses maybe 15%. The point is that on my desktop, the CPU usage meter is lower compared to that of my much stronger laptop... It's sort of concerning. I bought the laptop specifically with the intention of doing large-project live sets in the near future and not having any stability/performance issues. :S

My laptop specs are:

- 7th Gen i7-7820HK, 2.9GHz, 8M L3 cache (literally came out a few weeks ago)
- 32gb DDR4 RAM @2400MHz
- Intel 600p SSD 256gb + 1tb 7200rpm (Ableton and all plugins/audio related software are installed onto the SSD)
- Nvidia 1060 GTX (probably doesn't matter)

My computer specs are:

- i5-3570 @ 3.4GHz
- 32GB DDR3 RAM
- Older Intel SSD, with all plugins installed onto a 2tb sata harddrive
- Nvidia 660 GTX

It's clear that the laptop destroys the desktop in terms of power... so does anybody have some advice as to what is going on here? Should I worry about the higher CPU usage on the laptop? Just doesn't seem right. I spent 3k on the laptop, I want to see that damn CPU meter go down I just worry that when I start to use big projects with maybe 50 plugins, it will start to fail somehow.

Really appreciate any help.

Thanks

I'm afraid what you're seeing is the difference in clock speed. Both of those processors are quad core, but the lower clock speed on the newer processor is actually causing it to perform slower overall than the older processor. I did a couple quick Google searches and the websites I saw confirmed it.

The effect of processor speed is logarithmic, not linear. So 3.4 GHz is significantly faster than 2.7 GHz, enough to compensate for the older architecture.

So are you telling me that my old computer performs better in Ableton compared to basically every single laptop available? (Unless overclocked).

That just doesn't seem right. Surely it's not directly related to just clock speed..

Breezydbr wrote: Now I did a small test, where I used 5 instances of Omnisphere all playing at once (pretty heavy synth/multi-sample plugin) plus about 10-15 processing plugins (reverbs, effects, etc). My laptop uses about ~20% CPU whereas my desktop uses maybe 15%. The point is that on my desktop, the CPU usage meter is lower compared to that of my much stronger laptop...

There's a huge amount of confusion around the CPU meter and how to properly do a performance test on these forums in particular because the perfonance test people use is 100% inaccurate, shows next to nothing and should have been deleted in my opinion. There is only one way to properly measure the performance of a CPU in a DAW, stack plug ins until the CPU crackles and fails, back off until it's fine, then do exactly the same to the other computer. Use the same MIDI, same everything.

The Live CPU meter reads differently for different CPUs, in my case the exact opposite was true, the laptop when the CPU isn't pushed to failure looks like it reads lower than the desktop, but to failure the 12 core desktop skunks the 4 core laptop.

Live hits 80% quick on the desktop here, then loads in three times more plug ins. Lives CPU meter is drunk.

Machinesworking wrote:There's a huge amount of confusion around the CPU meter and how to properly do a performance test on these forums in particular because the perfonance test people use is 100% inaccurate, shows next to nothing and should have been deleted in my opinion. There is only one way to properly measure the performance of a CPU in a DAW, stack plug ins until the CPU crackles and fails, back off until it's fine, then do exactly the same to the other computer. Use the same MIDI, same everything.

The Live CPU meter reads differently for different CPUs, in my case the exact opposite was true, the laptop when the CPU isn't pushed to failure looks like it reads lower than the desktop, but to failure the 12 core desktop skunks the 4 core laptop.

Live hits 80% quick on the desktop here, then loads in three times more plug ins. Lives CPU meter is drunk.

That is exactly the kind of answer I want to hear. Thank you!

Do I need to have the same buffer size, channel configuration (inputs/outputs) etc?

Thanks

essentially there is no straightforward measure that you can use to compare two different systems.

what the Live processing meter is telling you how much of the available audio processing time is being used. for example, at 44.1 kHz with an 128 sample audio buffer, the buffer needs to be refilled at least every 2.9 milliseconds. the Live meter is telling you roughly how much of those 2.9 milliseconds is being used to process audio.

another thing about laptops versus desktops is that laptops have more thermal issues, which causes them to slow down to prevent overheating. i've been dealing with this recently as it has been really hot where i am...

Breezydbr wrote: Do I need to have the same buffer size, channel configuration (inputs/outputs) etc?

Yes. use the same Live set, same buffer size, same sound card if you can.
It's still possible that the desktop is more powerful than the laptop, (better system bus etc.) but tests not to failure do not prove anything. Live's CPU meter bounces all over the place without crackling or messing with the audio, so it's essentially meaningless in terms of songwriting, of course for performance you want it under 50% but beyond that you can push it on multicore systems beyond what a simple 20% or so usage test would suggest.

Alright I will try it when I have some time.

I perhaps overestimated the power of high performance laptops. I just assumed the high end macbook pros could run very large sets in Ableton. Would it make sense that my laptop would still be 'stronger' than the 4.5k new MBP? I mean the specs are better, but obviously there is difference in build quality, but I don't know if that would have a direct relationship with the performance in Ableton.

hello everyone. I bought 480 gb ssd harddrive. But ı am not sure how ı can keep my sample pack or libraryi VST etc... I didnt decided yet.

I am thinking that I keep on my all VST( ı used too many- Omnisphere, Trilian, Dune, serum, too many:)) in my SSD harddrive, but for my sample pack, ı didnt think the same.

Do you guys have a good advice for it? I need that advice too much.

Thank you all from now..