better performance from 7 cores than 15 cores?

[stevesound]

Hi.

just wondering if anyone can tell me why ProTools 9.0.2 runs best on my mac when I use 7 out of 16 cores? I tried lots of different settings (DAE, etc) and kept going between 14-16 cores but was overrun with crashes and DAE errors, but when I went down to 7 cores everything started running smoothly. Does Protools only run off 1 of the processors?

[lexaudio]

I assume when you say 16 it is hyperthreaded.

Probably because PT isn't coded for it.

You really only have 8 physical cores.

[SolutionRoom]

Or 12. My 8 Core runs without a single hiccup set at 6 cores. At 8 cores, it pukes randomly with a CPU overload error. No more. But, to answer your question... I do not know why that is, other than assuming that PT is using all the cores and leaves not enough processing power for other common Mac OSX tasks. My guess. Worth maybe 2 cents.

[stevesound]

thanks for the answers! Was just wondering if there was a problem or something, good to hear it's a common thing.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by lexaudio

I assume when you say 16 it is hyperthreaded.

Probably because PT isn't coded for it.

You really only have 8 physical cores.

There are a lot of reasons... but that isn't one. Pro Tools has been designed to handle all logical cores... physical or virtual.

It's not that Pro Tools can't handle them, it's more likely that you have a lot of background resources going on. Running other software in the background, running ReWire or running certain plugins that have dedicated resources outside of Pro Tools can all be factors.