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Level 1

16 points

i5 / i7 MBP / Logic Pro benchmark test

So I have been thinking about consolidating both my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro into one newer MBP i5 or i7. I stumbled on a benchmark test and ran it on both my Mac Pro and MBP.

http://www.evan.se/logicprobenchmark/EvanLogicBenchmark.zip

My MacBook Pro is a 2.2 Core 2 Duo (3.1, not unibody) and I was able to play around 18 tracks by dragging the loop point right before the tracks, un-muting all tracks, starting playback and then dragging each track one by one until it can't played anymore.

I did the same thing with my Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 Xeon (first gen). I was able to get about 28 tracks going.

I got to stop in the Apple store for a short while tonight and was really disappointed by the new i5/i7's with this benchmark test. I actually got better results with the i5 than the i7 (really strange). I tried the i5 2.53 and was able to get about 22 tracks going and on the i7 2.66 I was only able to get about 16 tracks going.

Something is definitely wrong because the i7 should definitely be able to do more than the i5. I for sure thought the i7 would at least be able to match my current Mac Pro.

One more thing is that Logic Pro is not loaded on the Macs in the Apple store, only Logic Express is, so Space Designer was not present in the test at the Apple store. This was even more of a let down because when I was running the test on my Macs, Space Designer was obviously running as well.

Other people have gotten similar results in this thread on Gearslutz:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/371545-logic-pro-multicore-benchm arktest.html

Please run this benchmark test and give some feedback on your results, there might be something I'm missing here...

Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Logic Studio, iPhone, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 1, 2010 12:21 AM

169 replies

May 3, 2010 2:59 PM in response to djanthonyw

While iMacs and MBPs are both i5 and i7, the i7 in the MBP is dual core while the one in the iMac is quad (with hyperthreading in both versions). There's going to be a big difference in performance right there for any apps that use multiple cores.

It's confusing naming, they really should make the difference between the dual and quad versions of those chips more obvious (or make i5 dual only and i7 quad only).

And I don't know if trying the test with Logic Express is going to give you a result that can really be compared since it doesn't include Space Designer.

maceasy

Level 1

24 points

May 3, 2010 3:46 PM in response to Mike Connelly

Thanks, Mike, that explains the discrepancy. As you say it is not clear that the i5's are so different. So what we really need in the MBP is a quad i5 or i7, then we will see some progress.

Pancenter

Level 6

14,644 points

May 3, 2010 3:54 PM in response to Mike Connelly

Fired up FauxMac, (dualcore) it managed 29 tracks with Logic-8.

pancenter-

djanthonyw Author

Level 1

16 points

May 3, 2010 4:02 PM in response to Mike Connelly

My Mac Pro is first generation and doesn't have 8 cores, it only has 4.

djanthonyw Author

Level 1

16 points

May 3, 2010 4:02 PM in response to Mike Connelly

Yes, but my point is that my 2.2 C2D 2007 MBP can play 18 tracks from that test vs 22 on a new MBP i7. Something doesn't seem right at all, it should be on par with my first gen Mac Pro which can play 28 tracks.

Also, I did post the test with Space Designer removed and with that I got 25 tracks on my MBP and 45 tracks with my Mac Pro. As I also mentioned earlier, my test with the all of the new MBP's, i5 and i7 were about the same as my MBP. Something is surely not right.

maceasy

Level 1

24 points

May 3, 2010 4:07 PM in response to djanthonyw

Sounds about right to me. The new ones aren't a massive speed bump on the old ones.

May 3, 2010 4:25 PM in response to djanthonyw

As I said, there may be something about Logic Express that makes the comparison invalid.

The new i7 laptop should be a big improvement since the i7 includes hyperthreading, meaning it has two full cores plus two partial cores (which Logic does use) for a total of four. In many benchmarks they have been as much as 50% faster than the old ones, which I'd consider a big improvement.

Muzicman

Level 2

254 points

May 3, 2010 8:43 PM in response to djanthonyw

64 tracks on the 2008 2.8 8-Core Mac Pro. Maybe I could get a few more because only 7 of the 8 Cores were maxed. This was using Logic 9.1.1 in 32 bit.

70 tracks looping well using 64bit.

I'm satisfied with the old Mac dog showing some new tricks.

May 3, 2010 9:41 PM in response to Helander

Thanks for this benchmark, it should come in useful.

I got up to 19 tracks on my MacBook (early 2008) 2.4 GHz Core Duo with 4 GB memory. After that, my lights dimmed, and dogs started howling all through the neighborhood.

thedomus

Level 1

20 points

May 3, 2010 11:42 PM in response to Helander

Oh Dear!
I can run 22 tracks on a C2D 2.93ghz MBP from early 2009!
Thats no improvement in Logic for the i7's

djanthonyw Author

Level 1

16 points

May 4, 2010 1:03 AM in response to thedomus

I know, that's what I can't quite understand. It seems the benchmarks are showing a huge improvement with everything except for Logic.

Eriksimon

Level 6

15,416 points

May 4, 2010 3:30 AM in response to Pancenter

FauxMac? What's that?

May 4, 2010 8:16 AM in response to djanthonyw

Checked at home and got 60 tracks on my i7 tower. That's about what my eight core MP can do, but with twice as many cores.

Apple REALLY needs to update Logic to use more than eight cores, right now on the high end MP it's not even trying to use half the cores (including HT).

Mental78

Level 1

0 points

May 4, 2010 10:10 AM in response to Mike Connelly

i haven t bought a new MBP to get these poor performance in logic !i hope they fix this !

May 4, 2010 10:22 AM in response to djanthonyw

How many processor meters do the old and new MPBs show in Logic? The old should show two and the new should show four (because of HT). The quad i7 (and quad MP) show 8 (HT).

i5 / i7 MBP / Logic Pro benchmark test