Quad-core 3.2GHz powerful enough for ProTools?

[frankiem]

Hello all,

I am on the market for a Mac Pro or iMac to do some sound design work using ProTools Standard. This would be my first set-up, and because I'm not a professional my budget is small.

I mostly do work for short films, so don't use loads and loads of plug-ins, SFX etc. However, it's essential that the Video Engine works properly as I need to sync sound to image.

I have found a Mid 2012 Mac Pro 5,1, Quad-Core 3.2GHz, 8GB RAM for £300 (so cheap as the notorious top handles of the casing are damaged, but this doesn't bother me.) I would upgrade the RAM of course.

Does anyone know if a Quad-Core is powerful enough for ProTools? Perhaps not 2020, but maybe PT12? I'm aware that PT12-2020 are only officially supported by the Westmere 12-core 2.66GHz and 6-core 3.33GHz models. I would buy much older versions of ProTools and Mac Pro to save money but I do want to future proof a little.

A 6-core 3.33GHz 16GB RAM second-hand is £600. Is it worth saving some money by opting for the 4-core, or will it simply not be powerful enough?

[Eric Lambert]

I'd be concerned about the limited power available from that generation of MacPros. It would likely be a stretch running today's scoring plugins, and *certainly* an issue in the future where complete obsolescence is just around the corner. If it were me, I'd be looking at the trash-can MacPros. We still have several of them in rotation, doing a lot of CPU-intensive work, and they're holding up splendidly.

[ejinbc]

Frank

That system is a waste of money for ProTools - the CPU Mark is only 3.2

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html

Given all the uncertainty and challenges in Mac-Land right now, I would go for an inexpensive Windows 10 Machine. I use the machine listed below. I am pretty sure you could find a used 8700K system out there for less than $1000 CDN (https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van...152923497.html). For reference the 8700K (a 3 year old chip) has a CPU Mark of 13.8. While CPU is not everything, you would be significantly limited with a CPU score below around 7.

Not a Mac/PC thing - simply a recommendation for someone that appears cost sensitive. I also think PT 2020.x is worth it - on a PC running Windows 10, on a properly configured machine (YMMV), kept off the interweb, only used as a DAW.

IMHO, YMMV, EIEIO.

E


Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor;
Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler;
Asus PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard;
Kingston HyperX Fury RGB 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory;
Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive - x2 system/samples and tracking;
Western Digital Red Pro 6 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - x2 completed work and backup;
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 2 GB OC Edition Video Card;
Fractal Design Define R4 Blackout ATX Mid Tower Case;
EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+ Gold Power Supply

[Bob Olhsson]

If you aren't a musician using virtual instruments for scoring, you might be fine. I would probably look for a more recent Mac mini. A used five year old HP or Dell PC workstation is also a really good value as they are typically used briefly and then replaced by software developers as opposed to gamers.

[Darryl Ramm]

All the above advice.

And the question is not just for Pro Tools but for Pro Tools with video. What software and computer are you using now? (Are you going to be OK with Pro Tools standard with one video track or do you need more? i.e. do you need Pro Tools Ultimate?). You posted this question in a Pro Tools 2020 forum area and you are not going to be running 2020.... you might have wanted to ask in a Post area. Do you need to be compatible with collaborators and their versions of Pro Tools or plugins?

That generation of Mac Pro can be *great* for tinkerers who need the PCIe slots. And can deal with upgrading the CPU, memory, adding fast SSD storage etc. as needed. Unless that describes you I would tend to skip it. You should also think through upgrades you might need to do that that Mac before buying it, they could be significantly more than the price of the Mac.

What audio (and video?) interface are you going to use? Do you need Thunderbolt 3 etc (not on those Mac Pro). You might well need nothing and just use Built-In Output on a Mac if you are just mixing stereo audio for a short and on a budget... but we can't guess your needs.

But unlike other advice here... If you are a strong Mac users, or collaborate with folks in a Mac environment, I would pick a Mac. If you are more agnostic then absolutely look at PCs as well. Neither is better or worse, it's all what you are comfortable with and what other folks use (to make things easy and to get help if needed). Macs are migrating to ARM based processors and eventually (~4 years??? Nobody really knows.) new macOS support will go away on current Intel based Macs... so maybe more of a concern for folks spending $$$ on new Macs now, but buying the right used Mac should still give you long use of it... and if you do well with your video projects you will end up replacing it well before it's absolute end of useful life.

[JFreak]

Hi, welcome to the community.

That Mac Pro 5,1 will be just fine processor power wise (and can be upgraded later for more performance) but you will want to order 32GB memory upgrade if you are doing video with it. For sure 8GB will not cut it. If you want to spend more money on your tower, pick a dual-cpu model which once upgraded will be very nice even by current software standards.

[frankiem]

Thanks all for the wonderful advice and prompts for questions to ask myself when looking at models.

Apologies for posting in the wrong section. I couldn't find an area for hardware, and as I'm building my first set-up, it seemed ProTools 2020 could be a useful place to start. I'll be sure to ask in a Post area with future questions like this.

I learned to do sound work on my university's iMacs on PT Ultimate. Annoyingly, I never thought to check the specs of the iMacs. I am concerned about the video track count, but the price of Ultimate isn't very accessible to me right now.

My current computer is a Late 2013 MacBook Pro, 2.3GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, and unfortunately not powerful enough to host PT.

Thank you all again for your comments. I'll be taking them with me into my next stage of research!