PT 8, Nehalem Mac Pro report

[Judson]

from http://www.secaudio.ch/

SEC tests Mac Pro Nehalem with Pro Tools HD: Absurdly Fast

After our initial tests with the new Mac Pro 8-core “Nehalem”, we’re happy to report that the new machine is extremely fast and even quieter than the last generation. Running Pro Tools HD 8.0cs2 with HD3 Accel, we enjoyed super fluent workflow, great graphics speed - even with center playhead - and absurdly fast RTAS performance.

Thanks to the Xeon Hyper-Threading, the 8 cores show up as 16 logical processors in Pro Tools contributing tremendously to the processing speed: in a not-quite-real-world-oriented test we were able to run 500 D-Verbs simultaneously while happily recording on 60 audio tracks. Yes, that was five-oh-oh simultaneous reverbs.

But don't try this at home as the Nehalem generation is not yet supported by Digidesign. Stay tuned to this page to find out when Pro Tools is qualified for the new speed king.

[ronwasserman]

Thanks for the info.

Does PT 8 crash faster as well. (Couldn't resist.)

[lwilliam]

I'm glad to hear they're quieter than the existing 8-cores.

However, I'm wondering why you didn't run into the issue of multiple plugins on the same track causing problems...

Everyone else seems to be reporting that. That indicates one of two things:

1. You have a unique setup which allows this flawless performance (please tell us the secret)
2. You are performing tests that tell us nothing about whether it's usable.

I don't mind the dverbs as a test per se, but I do find it odd that you seem to be the only one reporting NO problems with hyper-threading and multiple plugins/track. With 500 dverbs, you must have at least 50 tracks (and 10 dverbs per track). I thought there was still a bug in using inserts 5-10 on tracks. Were you able to actually record something for at least 60 seconds with no errors?

Can you try your test with Eleven Free or something a little more CPU-intensive?

[Judson]

I didn't actually do the tests, just posting info i found while doing my own research. I also came across that plugin problem on the forum after reading that report. bummer. I can't imagine it will be too long before they figure it out though.

[GordonFreeman]

Originally Posted by ronwasserman

Thanks for the info.

Does PT 8 crash faster as well. (Couldn't resist.)

The new nehalem crashes Pro Tools in a matter of seconds! A huge improvement from the old quad cores, which took several minutes to accomplish that

[Tarmo Simola]

Hi all, Im' the guy who did the 500 D-Verb test. It was just a quick'n'dirty, tongue-in-cheek way to get a feeling how fast the then new Nehalem Macs were with Pro Tools 8 HD. We had no problems or crashes while running the 500 'verbs and simultaneously recording to 60 tracks (yes, more than a minute) even if it was not a supported system back then. But obviously it was a not a real production with editing, automation, etc.

You can crash any system by pushing it too hard, I'm pretty sure you guys didn't work back in the 80's with a Synclavier, Fairlight CMI or WaveFrame. Boy, were those babies easy to crash if you just pushed one button after another wee bit too fast.

As for the instability of Pro Tools and/or secret for stability: Our clients routinely run Pro Tools for weeks without crashes. And they continue to sell millions of records and crunch out feature films and TV shows on Pro Tools. Clean install, experience (since SoundTools, remember that?) and common sense go a long way.

- - -

http://www.secaudio.ch

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by Tarmo Simola

Hi all, Im' the guy who did the 500 D-Verb test. It was just a quick'n'dirty, tongue-in-cheek way to get a feeling how fast the then new Nehalem Macs were with Pro Tools 8 HD. We had no problems or crashes while running the 500 'verbs and simultaneously recording to 60 tracks (yes, more than a minute) even if it was not a supported system back then. But obviously it was a not a real production with editing, automation, etc.

You can crash any system by pushing it too hard, I'm pretty sure you guys didn't work back in the 80's with a Synclavier, Fairlight CMI or WaveFrame. Boy, were those babies easy to crash if you just pushed one button after another wee bit too fast.

As for the instability of Pro Tools and/or secret for stability: Our clients routinely run Pro Tools for weeks without crashes. And they continue to sell millions of records and crunch out feature films and TV shows on Pro Tools. Clean install, experience (since SoundTools, remember that?) and common sense go a long way.

- - -

http://www.secaudio.ch

Hear hear


Chris

[kopper]

Originally Posted by You can crash any system by pushing it too hard, I'm pretty sure you guys didn't work back in the 80's with a Synclavier, Fairlight CMI or WaveFrame. Boy, were those babies easy to crash if you just pushed one button after another wee bit too fast. [url

http://www.secaudio.ch[/url]

Not sure when you actually experienced a Synclavier crash from pushing buttons too fast, but I've had mine since 1980, still use it, and don't have issues at all. And yes, I work fast... (Pre 9600 system equivalent, full DSMS)

I mostly agree with your point about "pushing" a computer system, but totally disagree with your applying that to the Synclavier.

kopper

PS: my new 27" iMac i7 simply screams...

[Tarmo Simola]

Hi Kopper,

Sorry, I didn't want to bash Synclavier, it was much more stable than most of the systems back in the day when the Berlin wall was still up. Glad to hear that yours is still alive and kicking. I didn't have a chance to do music with Synclavier, just couple of post jobs (no idea which model/setup) and I remember how it used to drive me mad to wait the waveform to draw on the green-on-black screen. To me it always made much more sense as a musical instrument than a post production tool. Some of my all-time favorite albums were done on it.

As you noticed, I just tried to put the "Pro Tools crashes in minutes/seconds" comments in to some perspective. Software is buggy and will always be. The question is just how buggy. And IMHO, working with this stuff since the stone age, PT is still way more stable than most of the competition. Don't use latest software release for daily work, don't use kracks, don't fill your HDD with pr0n and try to record a 64-track session to the last free 5% of the disk capacity, use a dedicated machine for audio, RTFM, etc. So yeah, back to common sense and experience.

PS. I hear you, gotta love my fresh 27" i7 iMac as well. Mind-blowing display. I "downgraded" my office machine form a Mac Pro 8-core Nehalem and can't feel any speed difference whatsoever. Even when searching for Aliens (SETI) in the background the whole day...

[kopper]

Tarmo,

Glad to hear your new iMac is doing the job for you! Thanks for the reply.

kopper