Multi-thread Software

Question

Level 1

20 points

Multi-thread Software

BACKGROUND

I'm considering a new Mac. My primary uses will be internet browsing, large, complex Numbers files, simple Pages files, and managing large Music and Photos libraries along with a small bit of photo editing.

I read that single thread software benefits from increased clock speed, while multi-thread software is better served by multiple core processors. I intend to use this machine for a long time.

QUESTIONS

Which, if any of Safari, Numbers, Photos, Pages and Music are multi-threaded?

Is it foreseeable that any of these are likely to move from single to multi-thread in the next several years?

Posted on Mar 4, 2020 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

58,299 points

Mar 4, 2020 1:19 PM in response to jack3030

Yup. Memory counts here more than anything.

Most apps nowadays are pretty good about quiescing themselves when they're not active, or at least yielding to the frontmost app that's doing something meaningful, but multiple tabs in Safari (for example) will require memory and insufficient memory is far more likely to be your bottleneck than threads or CPU cores.

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Answer 2

jack3030 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 4, 2020 12:11 PM in response to Camelot

Thanks, very helpful. I understand your point about none of these applications being particularly demanding, but allow me one follow-up. If I'm a 'sloppy' user, working with multiple applications open and large numbers of Safari tabs simultaneously, am I at all likely to reach a point where this choice matters? (I'm guessing you might tell me that memory would be a more important consideration?)

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Answer 3

dialabrain

Level 10

135,893 points

Mar 4, 2020 12:16 PM in response to jack3030

jack3030 wrote:

(I'm guessing you might tell me that memory would be a more important consideration?)

Good guess.

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Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

155,318 points

Mar 4, 2020 12:45 PM in response to jack3030

In addition to the others' comments, do not consider any Mac with a rotating hard disk drive, including "Fusion Drive."

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Answer 5

jack3030 Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 4, 2020 1:21 PM in response to Camelot

Thanks, again.

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Answer 6

Camelot

Level 9

58,299 points

Mar 4, 2020 12:05 PM in response to jack3030

None of your apps are going to stress a modern machine in either single-threaded or multi-threaded applications.

The reality is that *all* applications nowadays are multi-threaded. The modern OS model almost demands it for all but the simplest tasks.

For example, Safari is multi-threaded - a separate thread for each web page, a separate thread for managing network connections, separate threads for downloading content, etc.

Photos is multi-threaded - threads for manipulating photos; threads for syncing with iCloud; threads for performing facial recognition, etc.

Music is absolutely Muti-threaded - threads for each instrument/track; threads for managing the Ul threads for managing devices, etc.

However, none of these apps are heavy-duty apps - things like 3D rendering, 4K video editing, AI modeling, etc. are the apps that are going to stress your system, but it doesn't sound like that applies here.

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