i5 / i7 MBP / Logic Pro benchmark test

Not getting worked up. Just responding to the other guy who was getting worked up.

The bottom line is that Express or Pro, Logic is hands down the best DAW available. I've used them all, extensively, and I've found that Express is better than a turbo-charged app like Nuendo, and any core audio machine being built these days—short of the mini—has enough horsepower to handle most projects.

Again, I don't see what all the disappointment/alarm is about. In fact, I think your benchmark tests kind of did me a disservice because they suddenly had me thinking my machine could be inferior, so I wasted fifteen minutes downloading the test and running it.

Much ado about nothing.

Truth is, I need to stop listening to concern posts and just concentrate on my music.

Sorry for adding input where it obviously wasn't wanted.

Message was edited by: robgb

robgb wrote:
Sorry for adding input where it obviously wasn't wanted.

Nah, "input" is definitely appreciated here. We're just not fans of being told by random anonymous internet folk that our choice of hardware/software is stupid.

Dude, I didn't say your choice of hardware or software was stupid.

What's stupid is obsessing over benchmarks. Everyone knows they're a crock anyway.

Whatever.

Didn't you have music to concentrate on?

"and any core audio machine being built these days—short of the mini—has enough horsepower to handle most projects." - robgb

Thats not true, I would love it to be, and I would love my i7 MBP to do what my MacPro can but it's not there yet!
I frequently lay down several guitar tracks using modelling plugs (GR4, Amplitube, GTR) in projects plus additional orchestral tracks using Kontakt and Vienna Symphonic ...
plus... Omnisphere, Alchemy, Kore2 all processed and mixed using Waves, Izotope, Logic in built e.t.c..... this is all in one typical arrangement.
Plus I run Ableton Live in re-wire mode for some beats ...
...while all working to picture!

So that new i7 MBP I've just bought, it would be nice if it and Logic used all its power when I'm on the road, at my Mum's, by the beach e.t.c.

thedomus wrote:
"and any core audio machine being built these days—short of the mini—has enough horsepower to handle most projects." - robgb

Thats not true, I would love it to be, and I would love my i7 MBP to do what my MacPro can but it's not there yet!
I frequently lay down several guitar tracks using modelling plugs (GR4, Amplitube, GTR) in projects plus additional orchestral tracks using Kontakt and Vienna Symphonic ...
plus... Omnisphere, Alchemy, Kore2 all processed and mixed using Waves, Izotope, Logic in built e.t.c..... this is all in one typical arrangement.
Plus I run Ableton Live in re-wire mode for some beats ...
...while all working to picture!

So that new i7 MBP I've just bought, it would be nice if it and Logic used all its power when I'm on the road, at my Mum's, by the beach e.t.c.

Indeed, I do the same kind of work and having more power to be able to produce our work is not something we should have to justify to anybody.

While I agree that benchmarking can sometimes be a silly, pointless exercise of nerdy obsession over stats, sometimes it really is very useful. If I hadn't done some proper tests - making a test project with a lot of tracks and plugs and running it on my MBP i7 and my old MBP Core 2 Duo, I might never have realized that there is a big problem with Logic not using the full power of the new MBPs at all. As it stands now, Logic is the only pro software I use that doesn't make an attempt to use the HT capability of the mobile i7 in my new MBP, which means that it runs as if it were running on a plain-vanilla dual core machine. A project which pushes Logic's CPU into the red on the i7 is clearly not using all the available resources, because Activity Monitor (which displays 4 CPU bars, not 2 like in Logic), never goes anywhere further than 50% usage on all the 4 cores. So it was a very valid thing for me to discover that, despite the very large performance increase the new machines have when you look at the general benchmarks, my brand-spankin new machine can only barely outperform the old MBP Core 2 Duo I bought in 2006, only when running Logic.

When you do your research about a new machine that comes out, with a vastly superior CPU design to the old machine from a previous generation you had before, it is pretty logical to presume that the big leaps in computing power should obviously apply to all of the software you use - especially the flagship music production software made by Apple themselves. But through doing some actual tests, it turns out that this is not currently the case. I even took it further to test other audio apps (Protools LE) and found that it does benefit from the power of the new machine. Ie, I was able to make a Protools session that could run around 30 more reverbs on my MBP i7 vs my old MBP Core 2 Duo, which couldn't come anywhere near handling that amount of work.

So, this information is actually useful and productive.. because if someone were to ask me if they should upgrade to a new i5 or i7 MBP right now, for the sole purpose of getting more power to run more instruments/plugs/tracks or video in Logic, over a Core 2 Duo MBP they already own, I'd have to say no it's not a wise choice right now.

It really shouldn't be that hard to put oneself in other people's shoes and to imagine that it's possible other people need more CPU power for the work they do. For some people who work on music in a certain way for certain purposes then yes - every Mac or PC you can buy these days completely spoils you with what it can accomplish compared to only a few years ago. If you're one of those people, then you're lucky.. things have never been better, you can work unhindered and life's great. But for those of us who sometimes (or always) work on very big projects which regularly push our machines to the limit, d*mn straight we want to know what performance we can get from upgrading to a new machine. It's vital information to be able to spend our money wisely.

68 tracks on my machine, low latency setup.

When can Logic users except this problem to be solved?

EDIT: I mean the problem, that Logic Pro is unable to recognize the four threads of the Core i7, treating the machine like a "normal" Dual Core

Did the Logic developers have given an official opinion about this issue

(sorry, if this has been already posted. I just skiped the thread, but didn't find anything)

Message was edited by: demon-from-the-crypt

People definitely need to file bugs on this one. The regular feedback page is fine, but bugreport.apple.com is probably better (requires registration but you may get a response, make sure you follow the reporting instructions carefully or they'll probably just ignore it).

I have no bug to report. I want to buy a Mac Book Pro in the next days. The Core 2 Duo (2.4 GHz) - or the Core i7 - model. The performance under Logic Pro is a key factor for my decision

If I can except the problem with Logic Pro not to be solved before (let's say) January 2011, I would buy the Core 2 Duo model now ... and then – after the problem with Logic Pro is fixed - , switch to the Core i7 Model, expecting the price for this model will decrease until then.

Message was edited by: demon-from-the-crypt

Nobody knows when it may be fixed, although bug reports may push apple to solve it sooner.

I'm really hoping that with these various problems with Logic, not seeing cores on mobile i5/i7 and the continuing RAM not-releasing issue in 32bit mode, are not being fixed quickly because a serious update is due any moment!
On other forums the talk is that Logic over the past 10 years is at its worst state as a DAW right now!

(unless you one of Jay Asher's clients! 😉 )

Definitely agree that an update is WAY overdue, it was great to see 9.1.1 fairly quickly but there are still plenty of things that still need fixing.

Interesting that people are saying that. There are definitely some issues in the latest version, but overall I'm happier with the state of logic now than the 7 or 8 versions. And while there are issues with CPU use and 64 bit growing pains, from what I've heard about other mac apps, things don't seem to be much better. It would be very interesting to do a benchmark of various audio apps to see how Logic really stacks up when it comes to ability to run plugins.

thedomus wrote:
the continuing RAM not-releasing issue in 32bit mode

äääh ... more problems I don't know yet!

Could you tell a bit mor about this problem EDIT: If I buy MBP, it would be a c2d or ci7, with 4GB-RAM, and MAC OS X 10.6
How would this problem manifest itself under this setup?

Thx!

Message was edited by: demon-from-the-crypt

Message was edited by: demon-from-the-crypt

This problem does not necessarily manifest. Some people never experienced it at all. That is what makes this problem such a difficult one: there is no clear set of recreatable circumstances under which the problem manifests. So you can't do anything to prevent it, nor can you do anything to provoke it. You might never encounter it.