Is my MONSTER 12-core 3,33GHz Mac Pro underperforming on low buffer sizes?

[Kroon]

Personally I think this talk about the ssd's in a pcie slot being an issue is a red herring.

At least I think we can safely assume that the audio drive being on a PCIe SSD adapter is not causing the problem, as I was able to record successfully to it when running PTHD 10 on Mountain Lion.

In that scenario however, the OS was on a spinner in a regular drive bay.

So I'll rip out both PCIe adapters as soon as I get the chance, to try and put the theory to rest, and move the system and audio SSD drives back to the optical bay SATA connectors where they lived earlier.

Please note that the PCIe adapters have only been in this computer for a few weeks, and I had problems even before I installed them.

[audiobob]

Originally Posted by TNM

well sorry, i did not go back and search your original post nor did you link to it..I didn't know there *was* more info to find on that, as I simply quoted and answered what you told me in context there on the spot.But I apologise if you think I was purposely ignoring your situation, as i promise i wasn't. Just crossed wires.

No worries! All good. I did chime in to this thread about my experiences so always welcome ideas. I've just seen so many posts and problems on this topic and I've tried pretty much everything so to me trying to figure it out anymore is futile. I just bit the bullet and went HSX. I appreciate your thoughts and knowledge.

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by guitardom

A "spinner" will have read write times well under 200MB/s. A WD Black for instance averages about 180MB/s. A good 10,000 rpm drive might hit 200MB/s in a best case scenario.

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Why are we talking about the OP's Mac not beeing up tp scratch because he use Samsung 850's

I can run the same sessions he posted that his machine can't run properly on a 15 y/o PowerMac so let stop chasing the wrong dog here (SSD's not the Best) one's and focus on why this is happening to a FULLY Capable Mac Pro!

This computer should be able to run 100's of tracks and plugins without issues, not as he say "a few tracks and minimal plugins" so the problem obviously lay elsewhere.

Originally Posted by TNM

I disagree with this.. unless in a raid array, there is no way a mechanical disk can hit 400 mb/s..
no more than 200, and that's for the really good drives.

850 pro is a huge improvement.

You know, when we use those disk programs to test our drive speeds.. in real world scenarios for audio use, we don't get anywhere near saturating the speeds like those apps do.. This is why sata SSD is plenty for audio use.

Guess I have to clarify my post.. First I was recounting the HDD read/write speeds from memory (apparently questionable and wrong ) so I may indeed have been speaking out of turn. I ran some Black Magic speed tests on my HDD but it was 3 or 4 years ago years ago so my memory could certainly be faulty .......

But all I was actually saying and replying to was that the Samsung 850 at speeds of 550 MBs while certainly an improvement are not the maximum improvement possible (which seemed OP was indicating he believed he had) I was only noting this this because I do remember that with the same Black Magic speed tests I ran on the Samsung SM 951 I have in my machine last year is now is showing read/write in the 1200 to 1400 MBs range

Also I clearly stated and the first words in the first sentence in my post I wrote were " There could be a number of reasons but one thing to note from your system list is your machine is not really maxed to top performance."

Just thought I would clear that up because I certainly was not intending to give any false information or mislead the OP as to what the problem might be ............ CARRY ON

[LightWing]

I'm just curious being a Windows guy here...is your SSD drive connected to a SATA II port?

A..."left field" observation.

I had issues early on with PT 12+ on an SSD connected to one of those on my system board. I ended up getting a SATA III card connected to a MB slot and throughput went up to the full 6GB/sec the drive can run optimally at. Seemed on SATA II it was running at 3GB/sec.

Just a thought. :)

[Kroon]

Is your SSD drive connected to a SATA II port?

I ended up getting a SATA III card connected to a MB slot and throughput went up to the full 6GB/sec the drive can run optimally at. Seemed on SATA II it was running at 3GB/sec.

I used to have the SSD drives connected to SATA II ports in the optical bay of the Mac Pro.

To my knowledge, such a configuration is completely valid but it limits the performance of 6GB/s drives like the Samsung 850 to 3GB/s. It should be OK for audio work anyway though.

However, a few weeks back I purchased two OWC Accelsior S PCIe adapter cards.

The only difference I noticed after installing the drives on the cards was that I measured faster read and write speeds. I'm not sure if I remember the figures correctly, but I think they went from about 250-275 MB/s to 525-550 MB/s.

I didn't experience any other differences. I had problems recording on low buffer sizes in Pro Tools before the upgrade, and I still have problems.

[bartosz idzi]

TNM, why dont you just mute the user.
I find your posts thought out and helpful, always.

There is absolutely _no_reason_ to address his "remarks" that are non constructive whatsoever.

to the OP:
I am recording 25 tracks on a 2 x 6 core Mac Pro 3.46 under PT 2018.1 /w MIO 2882/2d and Sierra 12.2.6 as i write this post. and there are a lots of other things in the background, including youtube video

Yes, the processors are getting long in the tooth,yes there are newer better performing at low latency designs. But, it should be working with the settings you are trying, period. Remove the pcie cards one by one and try fresh.

Originally Posted by TNM

so it's starting again.

I actually pressed the button to see his post, cause of your post Tom

are you going to allow this targeted bullying to continue?

And why doesn't he give a counter argument to sat why it's "nonsense"?

[Audiofarm]

What graphic card do you have Bartosz?

Originally Posted by bartosz idzi

to the OP:
I am recording 25 tracks on a 2 x 6 core Mac Pro 3.46 under PT 2018.1 /w MIO 2882/2d and Sierra 12.2.6 as i write this post. and there are a lots of other things in the background, including youtube video

Yes, the processors are getting long in the tooth,yes there are newer better performing at low latency designs. But, it should be working with the settings you are trying, period. Remove the pcie cards one by one and try fresh.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Sardi

??

Pro Tools 12 up to v12.5 was fully supported under Mountain Lion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually PT12.4 was the last version officially supported in OSX 10.8.5. Kroon is running PT2018.1; I don't know if he mentioned what PT12 version he has.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...tibility-Chart

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Actually PT12.4 was the last version officially supported in OSX 10.8.5. Kroon is running PT2018.1; I don't know if he mentioned what PT12 version he has.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...tibility-Chart

Glad you looked that up.

Now please explain how my my advice to him is ‘not even remotely compatible’ considering there’s (according to that chart) 7 revisions of PT 12 that the OP could try on his ML partition?

I never said install PT2018. I suggested that he try PT12 to see if it’s an OS issue.

You really do like to argue for the sake of arguing don’t you?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kroon]

What graphic card do you have Bartosz?

I would also like to know that.

Actually, I just had a conversation with a helpful guy at Create Pro.

He said that there have been some issues with the older GTX cards in Sierra, and that trying a standard card such as the 5770 could help. Or, even better, the RX 560 4GB, as it uses native drivers in 10.12.6 and newer.

I might spend the money and try the RX if nothing else works.

But first: Installing PTHD 12.8.1 on a fresh Yosemite partition as we speak. Eager to see how that performs.