Does Pro Tools benefit from multi-core CPUs?

[Onager1286]

Just as the title says, I was wondering if Pro Tools scales well with more cores. Right now I'm running an AMD Phenom II 720, a 3-core processor, at 2.8 GHz. It's been pretty spritely but then again, I really haven't run any truly large sessions on it, and when I load on the virtual instruments like Kontakt and Kore, it can choke up a bit at lower buffer levels.

With everyone getting so excited about Sandy Bridge, I feel like it's easy to forget that AMD's Bulldozer is right around the corner. And Bulldozer will likely put a powerful 6-core processor out. So would it be worth it to go for more cores, or is clock speed more important for audio processes?

[Park Seward]

Yes. I m running six physical cores and have 12 multicores.

To see how the different processors perform, here is a Mac example:

http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/mac-benchmarks/

Which is most important depends on your sessions. But performance wise you see a six core running close to an 8 core since the 6 is faster.

[Onager1286]

Interesting, thanks for the help. Is anyone else thinking about AMD solutions or is everyone pretty much Intel?

[sunburst79]

The more cores the better.

Dump a 199.00 X6 HT1055 in there.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Onager1286

Interesting, thanks for the help. Is anyone else thinking about AMD solutions or is everyone pretty much Intel?

Back in the days of Windows XP, PT7.x, and using two dual-core AMD server class Opterons, that was the Quadzilla beast and Intel was lagging behind. For the last 2-3 years however Intel is leading the performance race with the Core2Duo, Core2Quad and now the i3, i5, i7 processors. We live in interesting times indeed.

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

Back in the days of Windows XP, PT7.x, and using two dual-core AMD server class Opterons, that was the Quadzilla beast and Intel was lagging behind. For the last 2-3 years however Intel is leading the performance race with the Core2Duo, Core2Quad and now the i3, i5, i7 processors. We live in interesting times indeed.

Late 2006. It's been like 5 years already.

It does seem like yesterday however.

[albee1952]

Ah yes, and it was PT7 that was the first version to work with multiple cores

[qtheproducer]

I apologize for resurrecting an old thread but I have a question....

How many cores can pro tools support on PT 10?

The reason I ask is because I am about to purchase a i7-3930k processor and a lga 2011 socket motherboard...

The i7-3930k is a six-core cpu/ 12 threads. I am wondering if PT 10 will take full advantage of all my cores/threads..???

[CME]

Originally Posted by qtheproducer

I apologize for resurrecting an old thread but I have a question....

How many cores can pro tools support on PT 10?

The reason I ask is because I am about to purchase a i7-3930k processor and a lga 2011 socket motherboard...

The i7-3930k is a six-core cpu/ 12 threads. I am wondering if PT 10 will take full advantage of all my cores/threads..???

You'll be on the bleeding edge with that build, but yes pro tools will see and use as many cores as you can give it.


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[qtheproducer]

Originally Posted by CME

You'll be on the bleeding edge with that build, but yes pro tools will see and use as many cores as you can give it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The bleeding edge? Is that a good thing or a bad thing CME?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleeding_edge_technology

According to that article it can be good , but then again, it can be bad