i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[digi98]

Sorry , yes 4790K and I'd recommend 16g ram, but there are workarounds to get by with 8 by printing , deactivating , using plugins efficiently, etc but all that costs time in production.

[digi98]

Tell me how many tracks you might need and what the longest single audio clip, what plugins you use and I'll try a test if you'd like

[mesaone]

Giving this thread a bump because I have a build question. Specifically about graphics cards.

I'm debating whether a new build will be worth the time/money, and part of this is considering an upgrade to a single 4k monitor (instead of dual 1080 monitiors). Currently I have the Studio Blue build in my signature, and my current GTX470 has a max resolution of 2560x1600 which is not a good replacement in my opinion to 2 monitors at 1920x1080 each. But this card is very quiet and performs so so well, given the aftermarket heatsink I installed.

So what's new in the world of NVidia graphics cards? I'll stay away from AMD simply because I have had three different NVidia cards over the years, and each was trouble-free. Ideally I would want it to have as low noise as possible (so no reference cards with single blower fans) and have it be able to run 1 or more displays at 3840x2160 resolution. Bonus points for being able to squeeze as much Mercury playback engine power out of it, for when I transcode to DNxHD with Media Encoder. Is one of the new gaming-centric cards like the GTX9xx series a good choice for quiet operation and occasionally heavy loads?

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by mesaone

Giving this thread a bump because I have a build question. Specifically about graphics cards.

I'm debating whether a new build will be worth the time/money, and part of this is considering an upgrade to a single 4k monitor (instead of dual 1080 monitiors). Currently I have the Studio Blue build in my signature, and my current GTX470 has a max resolution of 2560x1600 which is not a good replacement in my opinion to 2 monitors at 1920x1080 each. But this card is very quiet and performs so so well, given the aftermarket heatsink I installed.

So what's new in the world of NVidia graphics cards? I'll stay away from AMD simply because I have had three different NVidia cards over the years, and each was trouble-free. Ideally I would want it to have as low noise as possible (so no reference cards with single blower fans) and have it be able to run 1 or more displays at 3840x2160 resolution. Bonus points for being able to squeeze as much Mercury playback engine power out of it, for when I transcode to DNxHD with Media Encoder. Is one of the new gaming-centric cards like the GTX9xx series a good choice for quiet operation and occasionally heavy loads?

Some of the new Nvidia 9xx run with the fans off until they reach a certain temp.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by guitardom

Some of the new Nvidia 9xx run with the fans off until they reach a certain temp.

Wow, that's exactly what I'm looking for then.

My current setup has the fan controller disconnected from the temp sensor, it always runs at 5V regardless of load - and runs about 30 C idle, 36 C when using PT. A more adaptive video card would be better. Which one in the GTX9xx range would you recommend?

[Shatzer]

For anyone interested, I did a new computer build and wanted to post the specs here in case someone is looking at the same thing. I'm running Windows 10 and Pro Tools 12.4 HD software. I've had no issues in the last three days of testing.

CPU: Intel i7 Skylake 6700k 4GB
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8) 2133
Power Supply: Seasonic 650 Watt Gold Series
Hard drive (OS): Samsung 850 Pro 256GB
Hard drive (PT): WD Caviar Black 500GB

I was running an old 1st gen i7 930 2.8GB and Asus Sabretooth X58 that was pretty solid, but upgrading has cut my CPU usage in PT down more than half on this new build. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

[digi98]

@Shatzer, please post your Dverb test results for the 2 systems.

[JuanPC]

Dverb test is outdated....
48khz?
5000 Dverbs?

Wavearts TubeSaturator v1.33 is much more CPU intensive...
The v2.02 is much more CPU optimized, "like 3x"

The most intensive test is the PSP E27 v1.01
96KHz buffer size of 2048.

CPU hungry plugins cannot be inserted serial... In the same channel.
Must be inserted parallel, "one each track."
Stereo track.

Another CPU hungry plugins are the T-Racks3
But have too much variables like over sampling, linear phase, etc...

Also 1 channel must be with pink noise signal generator, to hear when starts to make clicks & pops.

one thing is RAW CPU power, other is Low Latency Power...

Like Ninja vs. Bodybuilder.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=376662
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=376784
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=377629

[TOM@METRO]

It's true that the Dverb test is becoming a bit long in the tooth. But it's still the best way to compare old systems with new systems using a plug-in that everyone has always had installed.

[Bob Olhsson]

People do need to be aware that there was an older version of Dverb that was more efficient. I think the new one began with PT 10 but maybe it was 8 or 9. Anyhow tests made using old PT versions will not be the same as using newer ones.