Anybody here using a Macbook Pro for REAL work?

[xrekcor]

Originally Posted by Dalton_Sound

I'm in the same boat. I need a new computer for doing recording, but I need to be mobile and able to work with dense track counts with lots of plugins at high sample rates.

My main concern with the new MBP is the thermals. If the i9 is capping itself because the fans won't cool the computer, am I better off getting a pc? I have software and hardware that also only works on a mac.

On a side note, does PT Ultimate work well on a PC?

I’m thinking unless you’re intending to create broadcast quality productions would thermals really be a big issue. Not assuming that you aren’t going for the best quality you can get.... but maybe the difference between the lappy style and PC (assuming desktop style) there will be a compromise to consider.... along wif the duration of use....etc...etc.... and along with the considerations you have mentioned.

My new MBP just left Hong Kong this morning (I didn’t go with the i9 model).... saying I should have it by Friday (fingers crossed) so I’ll find out first hand if thermals are an issue but having spoken to a few MBP/DAW users this topic has never come up, however I’m not sure of their track counts and plugin use per project but I suspect even though a few of them are seasoned professional muso’s their track counts wouldn’t be that high

I plan to used mine in a semi professional home studio as well as live recording plugged into my Presonus. I was toying wif the idea of building a desktop PC into a road case. But I wanted more mobility in that I didn’t have to leave it at the gig.

[TNM]

whatever you do, if you get a new one with the 6 core, get the base model.. There is literally zero point in getting the 2.9ghz, as the thermals are so bad that it can't even maintain it's base clock.

When testing, the base one of 2.2ghz and the 2.9ghz stayed around the same clock, in the mid 2's.

Of course, for any mac DAW, there'll be an improvement in processing power because of the two extra cores, so you'll basically get more plugins, but low latency performance wouldn't be any difference or even worse maybe than the 3.1ghz quad core.. as that is able to maintain it's base clock much higher than the hex core. Single core clock speed DOES matter for DAW.

To tell you the truth, my imac from 2011 has constantly performed better than my macbook pro from 2015, even though that was three gens newer chip which much better clock for clock performance.. It's just that the imac is always at 3.5ghz without any issue whatsoever nor any noise really.
(i know the new imacs non pros are very noisy at load, but mine never was with the 2600 inside).

I now always use my macbook pro with turbo disabled.. Whenever i am using Cubase or Pro tools, i get consistent performance, and the clock never dips below 2.8ghz base.. It's basically always at 2.8ghz and everything is predictable, and yes, with a good thunderbolt interface, it's very usable for music.
Temps now never go above 80 when using a DAW, and right now on the web with one tab with netflix in the background and another here, it is at 34 degrees. Perfect.

If i had turbo enabled, it would constantly go to 3.4 or 3.5 ghz, hit 95 degrees almost instantly, then 99, then fans would be at 6000 rpm, and the clock speed would fluctuate wildly.

Plenty of confirmed reports about the thermal problems of the hex around, I have investigated it closely and it seems it's a definite issue.

SO.. i say, still worth it for 32gb ram.. but get the 2,2ghz chip, or if you must get the 2.9ghz, disable turbo.. heat will be controlled much better as the initial spiked to mid 3ghz is what will cause heat to rise rapidly.

Or just get a refurb or s/h quad core and wait for apple to improve the thermals. I think they will do that next release, i mean, they have to really.

[TNM]

Originally Posted by Dalton_Sound

I'm in the same boat. I need a new computer for doing recording, but I need to be mobile and able to work with dense track counts with lots of plugins at high sample rates.

My main concern with the new MBP is the thermals. If the i9 is capping itself because the fans won't cool the computer, am I better off getting a pc? I have software and hardware that also only works on a mac.

On a side note, does PT Ultimate work well on a PC?

PT works fantastic on a PC.. this is why I am also considering switching as Cubase works great as well, especially now that there's a registry fix for the multicore issue.. Low latency performance and core spread is SO much better than mac.. A kind gearslutz user made an hour worth of videos for me showing me bootcamp on the same mac and how pro tools was performing SO much better on windows.. He had HDN at 64 buffer and armed 64 inputs and put an effect on every one, and was able to record for 10 mins no problem at all, and you could see in PT meter all cores were evenly loaded.

Very same project on mac could not record at all, and core load in the meter looked like a triangle. The middle core was getting hammered even though it was the same effect on each track.. buffer 128 helped the issue a lot, 256 was where it completely equalled windows performance. That's a huge difference!

Windows is the way to go for PT performance for native systems, if you are hdx or have plans for it, mac will be just fine.

Note, if you use a lot of arturia or uad plugins, you WILL hit the FLS limit on windows very fast and not be able to add any unique new plugins (unfortunately a lot of people don't know about it, it affects every single daw on windows, basically, each process in windows has a finite number of FLS slots, 128 max, minus whatever the daw itself uses.. average free with most daws is about 100 - what happens is, every UNIQUE plugin, will use an amount of those slots till you can't add anymore. For example, just one instance of arturia analog lab uses over 40 slots, because it loads all the arturia synths in the background.. but most plugins use 2 or 3.. So the average is about 40 unique plugins before you run out, and then you can't add any new plugins other than more instances of those same ones.. Projects can re load with plugins missing and all sorts of havoc.. UAD plugins use the slots up fast).

Workaround is VE Pro or J Bridge.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by Dalton_Sound

On a side note, does PT Ultimate work well on a PC?

Yes. I've been using Lenovo Thinkpad W (now "P") series laptops (with max ram and NVMe drives installed) for years.
You can currently go to 64GB of RAM and have 4 drives with 2 of them NVMe drives running at full speed.

The only thing (if you are like me and go back and forth between Mac and PC) is the slight muscle memory of getting used to hitting the different shortcut keys (command, ctrl, windows start, option translation) being slightly different. Also, thanks to AAX, there are rarely any plugins that aren't both on the Mac and Windows now (used to be an issue.) And you can get PC laptops with the numeric keypad (miss the old 17" MacBook Pro) which is pretty necessary for Pro Tools. Used to have to carry a USB keypad but not with the W/P Thinkpads.

[xrekcor]

Originally Posted by TNM

SO.. i say, still worth it for 32gb ram.. but get the 2,2ghz chip, or if you must get the 2.9ghz, disable turbo.. heat will be controlled much better as the initial spiked to mid 3ghz is what will cause heat to rise rapidly.

I must say, I went for the 2.2GHz i7 over the 2.9GHz i9 model, the 32Gb of ram pretty much sold me.... I could have ordered mine a day earlier and missed that.

[Dalton_Sound]

I’m thinking unless you’re intending to create broadcast quality productions would thermals really be a big issue. Not assuming that you aren’t going for the best quality you can get.... but maybe the difference between the lappy style and PC (assuming desktop style) there will be a compromise to consider.... along wif the duration of use....etc...etc.... and along with the considerations you have mentioned.

I want to have a computer that is mobile, because I do a lot of on location recording, but my quality standards exceed broadcast quality. I don't want to get into an argument about quality and wasted space, but I do most of my recording at either 32bit/96kHz or 32bit/192kHz.

Sorry Meads for kinda hijacking this post

[TNM]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

I must say, I went for the 2.2GHz i7 over the 2.9GHz i9 model, the 32Gb of ram pretty much sold me.... I could have ordered mine a day earlier and missed that.

you absolutely made the right call getting the 2.2.. it should work great as is in a DAW without having to worry about turbo or too much thermal throttling.

[Dalton_Sound]

I’m interested to see if anything really changes with the new software update. I know there is still the problem if the chassis design, but it would be nice to see closer to Apples specs in real world use.


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[Meads]

Originally Posted by Dalton_Sound

I’m interested to see if anything really changes with the new software update. I know there is still the problem if the chassis design, but it would be nice to see closer to Apples specs in real world use.


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The update basically made it perform as it should within the constraints that come with the less than ideal design when it comes to heat dissipation. I.e. it is a lot faster than before the update but not fast to the extent of the CPU's actual capabilities.

[Dalton_Sound]

Guess that means I should buy a cooler when I order my Mac lol. I’ve heard the Thermaltake Massive TM is really good.


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