Intel i5 or i7 for Logic

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Level 1

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Intel i5 or i7 for Logic

Hi folks

I'm looking to upgrade my music setup from a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz to one of the new 27inch iMac's. I'm specifically looking at either the Quad Core i5 or the Quad Core i7. Money is tight so don't want to spend case unnecessarily. Logic Pro 9 is going to be the main application in use amongst a host of plugins such as Sprectrasonics Omnisphere, Kontakt, East West Symphonic Choirs etc.

Do any of you have any real world examples of the performance of either of these iMac's?

Thanks in advance

Rob

MacBook Pro (core 2 duo), MacBook (core 2 duo), Mac OS X (10.6.6), Logic Studio 9

Posted on Feb 15, 2011 3:06 AM

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Answer 1

May 12, 2011 9:14 AM in response to RobHicksUK

Yes--went from MacBook ProCore 2 Duo 2.4GHz with 6G RAM to the iMac 3.4GHz i7 with 12G RAM. It more than quadrupled the number of tracks I can run in Logic without overloading the CPU. I use Omnisphere very heavily and also Kontakt quite a bit. In 64-bit mode it's smooth and effortless. You will not waste money at all with this upgrade.

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Answer 2

May 13, 2011 6:43 AM in response to RobHicksUK

i7 has extra hyperthreading cores which Logic uses and improve performance. It's not as good as having 8 cores, but partway there.

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Answer 3

guid0

Level 1

0 points

May 14, 2011 8:54 AM in response to Mike Connelly

Yep...an extra Four (virtual) cores go a long way. Check out the last few pages of this huge Logic benchmark test thread over on gearslutz:

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

i7 is a lot more powerful!

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