Is this true? Logic and hyperthreading

Yes and yes, it looks like HT works but Logic is limited to using 8 cores total.

Ravich wrote:
Is it true that logic doesnt support hyperthreading on 8 core Mac Pros, and that benchmarks in logic with quad cores are similar to 8 core mac pros?
Mike Conolly: Yes and yes, it looks like HT works but Logic is limited to using 8 cores total.

Any prove for the second "yes"? This is not true based on my findings, our quad cores (showing up as 8 cores in Logic Pro) are definitely not providing similar performance numbers like our similar clocked "real" 8-cores....

21th

Here's a specific benchmark. With the "evan" benchmark referenced in other threads, four cores with HT gives about 50 tracks while eight cores with HT at the same clock speed gave 57 tracks. So a slight improvement, but not much. On an i7 with a higher clock speed I was able to get 60 tracks (that one was a $1300 machine).

So it seems like there is a modest improvement from having eight full cores, but way smaller than you'd be seeing if all cores were used - I'd say it's close enough to call "similar" but that's a matter of opinion.

Hi,

I am quite sure that the single 6-core will be supported soon, maybe not with the current Logic Pro 9.1.1, there it will show up high likely as a quad core, but the dual 6-core will show up as a 8-core in Logic Pro.

Best,
21th

If you have an eight core machine and simulate a six core machine by disabling two cores (which seems to work fine in other apps), in Logic it gives performance that's worse than four core.

Whether that will happen with real six core machines or not, who knows, but based on how Logic supports multiple cores in general, it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Ravich wrote:
Where can I find current information on how other DAW programs (Cubase, DP, Sonar, etc) support multiple cores and hyperthreading? I'm starting to wonder about staying with logic.

You know, I see these types of threads often enough to have to ask you :

Is this "Hyperthreading" feature so important to you in your daily work, that you absolutely must have it?

Is it making your music / sound actually be of better quality? Is it mowing your lawn too?

I just don't get it when people get so caught up in the minutiae of a computer's innards, that they end up making music that I just don't care to listen to.

Or am I wrong, and I must now make an Album entitled "Hyperthreading"?

Cheers

Ravich wrote:
Where can I find current information on how other DAW programs (Cubase, DP, Sonar, etc) support multiple cores and hyperthreading? I'm starting to wonder about staying with logic.

That's a good question. We know how logic runs - maybe other apps run better, maybe worse. I'm surprised nobody has done a review/comparison/benchmark across the different apps to compare cpu use.

noeqplease wrote:
Is this "Hyperthreading" feature so important to you in your daily work, that you absolutely must have it?

If you have sessions that are CPU intensive and you are getting errors running out of CPU (especially when half the cores on the machine are sitting there doing nothing, then yes it definitely is important.

It's really the same issue as deciding between how many cores to get, how much ram, how big/fast/how many hard drives etc. Audio is intensive on a computer and users need to be able to run their sessions without getting errors.

I'd be curious to read the details. Link?

The way I see it, it's all a total crapshoot, and benchmark tests mean close to nothing. Here's how I'm looking at this, tell me if you agree...

Say you set up a benchmark test using only Logic plugins and a particular kind of interface, or maybe even built-in audio. Is that test supposed to compare in any meaningful way to the same computer (or even the same project) running substitute 3rd party plugins for those sounds and a different brand of interface?

Seems self-evident: it couldn't possibly compare.

Logic is like a "hub" for all kinds of 3rd party hardware and software. The likelihood of two people running the same system with the same plugins, track count (audio and MIDI), hard drive configuration, degree of disk fragmentation, and free amount of HD space on the system drive (which we know contributes to performance, yes?) is about nil.