New Mac Pro 16 core...

[priorytools]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Congratulations!

It’s a beast of a machine to be sure. I’m having the most stable, trouble-free Pro Tools experience I’ve had for years.

Hi Marsdy.
I have to set up 2 new 16core Mac Pros, (for sister studios).
I have been watching Neil Parfitt on YT & looking at your recommendations in the New Mac Pro (7.1) thread. I am going with SONNET Fusion SSD M.2 4x4 PCIe Card - Silent-Loaded with 3 x 2TB scratch / sound libs & 1 x 1TB to run the system on. . . And putting that in slot#3 as per your recommendation.
I am HDX2, plus a UAD card, do you have any slot number recommendations for these ?

To be honest I haven't had time to even open the boxes yet, but am assuming they've come with Catalina. .

I am hoping to find some time next week. .
What OS & PT versions are you using that's giving such a trouble free experience?

Stay safe . .

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Hi Marsdy.
I have to set up 2 new 16core Mac Pros, (for sister studios).
I have been watching Neil Parfitt on YT & looking at your recommendations in the New Mac Pro (7.1) thread. I am going with SONNET Fusion SSD M.2 4x4 PCIe Card - Silent-Loaded with 3 x 2TB scratch / sound libs & 1 x 1TB to run the system on. . . And putting that in slot#3 as per your recommendation.
I am HDX2, plus a UAD card, do you have any slot number recommendations for these ?

To be honest I haven't had time to even open the boxes yet, but am assuming they've come with Catalina. .

I am hoping to find some time next week. .
What OS & PT versions are you using that's giving such a trouble free experience?

Stay safe . .

My HDX1 is in slot 6 but I’ve also had it in slot 5. I moved it to slot 6 (x8) because it’s a x4 card so I figured there’s no point in using up a higher bandwidth slot. It’s worked perfectly in both and you don’t need the Belkin power cables providing you have the original cables that came with your HDX cards (the smaller of the two 6 pin cables fits). I’d go with the Avid recommendation of slot 5 and 6 for HDX2.

Slot 3 is indeed the best place for the Sonnet proving you don’t have a second GPU. That slot is x16 and has a direct pipeline to the CPU for maximum bandwidth. The Sonnet needs a x16 slot (slots 3, 4 or 5) for best performance. A word of warning though, the Sonnet is often quite hard to get your hands on in the UK. I got mine from scan.co.uk .

Yes it will come with Catalina. Mine came with 10.15.2 in May which was already two versions out of date! Now is probably a good time to get the new Mac Pro because I guess they’ll come with Mac OS Big Sur soon.

I’m currently running 10.15.5 and PT Ultimate 2020.9.1.

[thebeatless]

It really is great to see that some of you are happy with these machines. Personally, I feel like I've been duped by apple. While waiting for this machine to be released last year, I built a modest windows computer to test/play around with. It ended up being the most stable computer for pro tools that I had ever used, so I kept using it for about 8 months. Sure, it had a couple of occasional issues, but for the most part, it would go all day, sometimes weeks, without a single hiccup. But... I'm heavily sucked into the apple ecosystem, and I missed a few things. Sadly, the number one thing I missed was imessage! haha SO.... I purchased a 16 core mac pro. It couldn't play back sessions from my i9900ks PC without constant cpu errors and crashes. These aren't large sessions, even a smallish 44.1 session could bring the mac pro to it's knees. I returned it and went back to using the PC. Friends and other users kept telling me there was something wrong with that mac pro, and they were bragging about how amazing theirs are. I tried it again, and this time I can't return it because I was too slow at getting it setup. Now that it's setup and I'm working with it daily, I HATE IT! Just like the previous machine, it can't play sessions from my PC without constant CPU errors, and some of the CPU errors won't allow playback until I relaunch pro tools, or reboot the computer. I definitely can't open sonnox drum gate during playback! If I do that, I'm guaranteed a 5 minute break for a reboot and session relaunch. It's a fine computer, but when a PC that costs 8k less outperforms it, it's just hard to convince myself to keep it. I'm sure it's great for other applications, but I just don't think this is a great pro tools machine.

[priorytools]

thebeatless . .
Oh dear, that doesn't sound good. .
I'm sure you've probably been around the houses fault finding, but, having read a few might I ask, which graphics card do you have & do you have anything other than a display plugged into it?
Marsdy might have some fault finding tips for you . . ?

[thebeatless]

Just the 580x

[audioluche]

Originally Posted by thebeatless

It really is great to see that some of you are happy with these machines. Personally, I feel like I've been duped by apple. While waiting for this machine to be released last year, I built a modest windows computer to test/play around with. It ended up being the most stable computer for pro tools that I had ever used, so I kept using it for about 8 months. Sure, it had a couple of occasional issues, but for the most part, it would go all day, sometimes weeks, without a single hiccup. But... I'm heavily sucked into the apple ecosystem, and I missed a few things. Sadly, the number one thing I missed was imessage! haha SO.... I purchased a 16 core mac pro. It couldn't play back sessions from my i9900ks PC without constant cpu errors and crashes. These aren't large sessions, even a smallish 44.1 session could bring the mac pro to it's knees. I returned it and went back to using the PC. Friends and other users kept telling me there was something wrong with that mac pro, and they were bragging about how amazing theirs are. I tried it again, and this time I can't return it because I was too slow at getting it setup. Now that it's setup and I'm working with it daily, I HATE IT! Just like the previous machine, it can't play sessions from my PC without constant CPU errors, and some of the CPU errors won't allow playback until I relaunch pro tools, or reboot the computer. I definitely can't open sonnox drum gate during playback! If I do that, I'm guaranteed a 5 minute break for a reboot and session relaunch. It's a fine computer, but when a PC that costs 8k less outperforms it, it's just hard to convince myself to keep it. I'm sure it's great for other applications, but I just don't think this is a great pro tools machine.

Oh, damm. Verry sorry for you the Beatless.
I'm sure there is something wrong with your setup.
The 16 core is really rocking with Pro Tools here, big sessions, tons of tracks and cpu taxing plugins like Multiplicity, Dyneone, Altiverbs, etc..etc..
No sweat at all.

Dont give up, i hope you will be able to find the problem.

[thebeatless]

I wouldn't call it giving up if I go back to the PC. It can handle my workflow better, and selling the Mac Pro puts some money back into my bank account. I JUST moved from the LA area to the Nashville area, and I have to build a new mix room, which is going much slower than I'd like! Selling the mac pro would help with the huge expense, and I can try apple again when they've got an ARM Mac Pro. Kind of want to say "instead of ARM and a leg Mac Pro", but that's taking it too far. I truly do like and prefer mac OS.

[priorytools]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

My HDX1 is in slot 6 but I’ve also had it in slot 5. I moved it to slot 6 (x8) because it’s a x4 card so I figured there’s no point in using up a higher bandwidth slot. It’s worked perfectly in both and you don’t need the Belkin power cables providing you have the original cables that came with your HDX cards (the smaller of the two 6 pin cables fits). I’d go with the Avid recommendation of slot 5 and 6 for HDX2.

Slot 3 is indeed the best place for the Sonnet proving you don’t have a second GPU. That slot is x16 and has a direct pipeline to the CPU for maximum bandwidth. The Sonnet needs a x16 slot (slots 3, 4 or 5) for best performance. A word of warning though, the Sonnet is often quite hard to get your hands on in the UK. I got mine from scan.co.uk .

Yes it will come with Catalina. Mine came with 10.15.2 in May which was already two versions out of date! Now is probably a good time to get the new Mac Pro because I guess they’ll come with Mac OS Big Sur soon.

I’m currently running 10.15.5 and PT Ultimate 2020.9.1.

Hi Marsdy.
Jeeez . . Today I've actually found time get one out of it's box. .

How does this slot lay out strike you ?
1-Graphics card
2-UAD-Octo
3-Sonnet M.2 NVME card
4-Sonnet USB C card
5-
6-HDX#1
7-HDX#2

How does that look dude ?
And how's this for a plan of action ?

I plan to:
1-initialise the machine on the internal Apple NVME with the 8GB stock RAM.
Test.
2-Install my 3rd party RAM. Test.
3-Install Pro Tools with just stock plugins. Test.
4-Install UAD card. Test
5-Install Sonnet USB C card. Test.
6-Set up the Sonnet M.2 card, install, CCC the system NVME onto the 1TB NVME on the Sonnet card, boot from that & test.
7-Install 3rd party plugins. Testing after each manufacturers batch.

Your thoughts & suggestions would be much & hugely appreciated. .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Hi Marsdy.
Jeeez . . Today I've actually found time get one out of it's box. .

How does this slot lay out strike you ?
1-Graphics card
2-UAD-Octo
3-Sonnet M.2 NVME card
4-Sonnet USB C card
5-
6-HDX#1
7-HDX#2

That looks OK. Here's the order I used:

1- GPU
2- GPU
3- NVMe card
4- HDX #1
5- HDX #2
6- UAD Octo #1
7- UAD Octo #2
8- Apple I/O card

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by priorytools

Hi Marsdy.
Jeeez . . Today I've actually found time get one out of it's box. .

How does this slot lay out strike you ?
1-Graphics card
2-UAD-Octo
3-Sonnet M.2 NVME card
4-Sonnet USB C card
5-
6-HDX#1
7-HDX#2

How does that look dude ?
And how's this for a plan of action ?

I plan to:
1-initialise the machine on the internal Apple NVME with the 8GB stock RAM.
Test.
2-Install my 3rd party RAM. Test.
3-Install Pro Tools with just stock plugins. Test.
4-Install UAD card. Test
5-Install Sonnet USB C card. Test.
6-Set up the Sonnet M.2 card, install, CCC the system NVME onto the 1TB NVME on the Sonnet card, boot from that & test.
7-Install 3rd party plugins. Testing after each manufacturers batch.

Your thoughts & suggestions would be much & hugely appreciated. .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like a plan.

The HDX card in slot 7 would be right by the main CPU. I’m just wondering if heat from the CPU might make it more likely the fan on the HDX card triggers. If the Mac is out of earshot then that wouldn’t be an issue of course.