Nehalem Processors Audio Performance Degradation

[phaseout]

Interesting article over at Ars:

Nehalem Mac Pros take 20% performance hit when playing audio

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...ying-audio.ars

Would Digi's avoidance of Core Audio mean PT wouldn't be affected by this?

[christopherleary]

This one has me worried. I'm not the type to panic about every rumour I hear but I'm about to buy a MacPro (PC just died) which is a huge investment for me.

In fact it's problems like these that I was hoping to avoid by buying a MacPro.

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by christopherleary

This one has me worried. I'm not the type to panic about every rumour I hear but I'm about to buy a MacPro (PC just died) which is a huge investment for me.

In fact it's problems like these that I was hoping to avoid by buying a MacPro.

It seems to be a software issue, specifically the kernel extension dealing with advanced power management, like the SpeedStep & TurboBoost in the Xeons & i7s. This raises hope that it will be fixed in a software update. But Apple hasn't publicly acknowledged the problem yet. But then again, they seldom do, until they fix it

[blastula]

anyone try this yet?

Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0

[Kling3]

Originally Posted by blastula

anyone try this yet?

Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0

Apple discussions picks up with the results here.

[adogg4629]

I updated the audio nahelam fix the other day and ever since then I've had digital static hits from my mbox 2 whenever it plays audio. Don't know if it's the mbox or the update. Going to swap it out and see.

anybody else have issues with this update?

[Premo]

I installed the update, used my 003r+ over the weekend, analog ins, spdif in, tried optical spdif out and coaxial spdif out, all seemed gravy on 10.6.2 Quad 2.26 Mac Pro Nehalem w/PT LE 8.0.3cs1

I haven't noticed any white noise or issues of any kind, knock on wood.
I suppose my machine is running better, but I didn't have iStat or any way of knowing its previous cpu temps comparative to what they are now. I'm trusting Macworld and Apple that it helped with reducing power consumption and CPU overhead, etc. It's hard not to want to install this update. I'd just have time machine or similar on 'just incase', esp if you're in the middle of a project!

I'd be interested to know if your white noise followed the mbox2 to a different machine? Or if you reverted the OS if that 'fixes' the white noise.