Any advantage to Ventura compared to Monterey?

[itsjustmeee123]

I've seen a few people mentioning a performance boost with an OS update. I'm currently running Pro Tools Ultimate (22,12,0) with Monterey (12.6.1) native on a
2019 iMac (3.6 GHz 8-core intel core I9) with 64 gigs of ram and all SSDs. Would I get any performance boosts, quicker load times if I moved up to Monterey?

[Ben Jenssen]

I don't know.
But this is my experience; I went from Big Sur to Ventura recently on my M1 Mini, a couple of weeks before I got a base model M2 Mini. On the M1, PT performance, and performance in general was the same w/both OS versions. With Ventura on M2, I get around 25% faster startup, 25% faster PT launch, and that's about it, and it's due to the M2, not Ventura. I haven't tried pushing/testing PT performance.

With these M processors, the general performance is so good that it's not easy to even see a difference. No matter what processor or OS versions.

Ventura advantages? No. I could go back to Big Sur today, and I wouldn't miss a thing from Ventura.

[Eric Lambert]

I upgraded my laptop to Ventura and wish I hadn't. I'm getting beachballs I wasn't getting with Monterey and there are other seemingly random system halts. I have no idea why but it *feels* like it's being more careful when analyzing files or when adding network drives to the system (which is, in a sense, the same thing). Perhaps Ventura employs stricter security measures. I don't know but I don't like it. And although I've nearly adjusted to the new System Settings I adamantly disagree that this new architecture is an improvement over the previous one, which was never broken IMO.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

I upgraded my laptop to Ventura and wish I hadn't. I'm getting beachballs I wasn't getting with Monterey and there are other seemingly random system halts. I have no idea why but it *feels* like it's being more careful when analyzing files or when adding network drives to the system (which is, in a sense, the same thing). Perhaps Ventura employs stricter security measures. I don't know but I don't like it. And although I've nearly adjusted to the new System Settings I adamantly disagree that this new architecture is an improvement over the previous one, which was never broken IMO.

There is some mention in the PT Release Notes about how Ventura does some excessive indexing on drives which can cause performance issues. Perhaps that's what you are seeing? I'm not clear if this is a "one-off" with any and all new drives or an ongoing problem.

Dominic

[thin ice]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

There is some mention in the PT Release Notes about how Ventura does some excessive indexing on drives which can cause performance issues. Perhaps that's what you are seeing? I'm not clear if this is a "one-off" with any and all new drives or an ongoing problem.

Dominic

Can you simply not turn off Spotlight to solve this?

If you have a Time Machine backup Eric, the laptop can be reformatted with Monterey and just migrate the old system in. Obviously take a separate backup of anything you need.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by thin ice

Can you simply not turn off Spotlight to solve this?

Not really. Pro Tools needs Spotlight on to work these days (as specified in the Release Notes). So that's your system drive with compulsory Spotlight and slowdown already. And while you can turn it off for each external drive when you first mount the drive, I would expect that you might want to search that drive at some point?
I still have a copy of EasyFind - old program but works on Monterey - which I use for searching drives including hidden files and folders. Works well, but takes an age. It's a good old traditional brute-force search, no indexing. Not sure if it will work with Ventura. But I'm not averse to turning off Spotlight, it just can cause more trouble than it's worth.

"Poor Pro Tools playback performance on macOS Ventura when running Spotlight. (PT-289806)
Running Spotlight on macOS Ventura can impact Pro Tools playback performance. The impact on Pro Tools is worse in recent macOS releases because of additional tasks now performed by Spotlight such as parsing images for image recognition. To avoid performance issues, do one of the following:

• Exclude any folder or drives from Spotlight indexing and parsing that may be causing Spotlight to parse files during audio playback. This is particularly relevant when parsing large image or video files.
• In the Terminal, run “sudomdutil-a-Ioff” to turn off spotlight until the next reboot. Consider running this command when you know you will be using Pro Tools on startup. 

• To permanently disable Spotlight, in the Terminal, run “sudolaunchctlunload-w/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.meta- data.mds.plist”.

Of course, this is completely inconsistent with the advice to leave Spotlight running, as Pro Tools needs it to work.
A bit like how you should have your WiFi off. And also on.

Dominic

[dominicperry]

From the same Release Notes:

Enable Spotlight for best performance when relinking files and indexing in the Workspace (PTSW-183818)
For best performance with relinking and Workspace indexing, enable Spotlight. While enabling Spotlight is not required, it will improve performance in this area with Pro Tools.
When Spotlight is enabled, long record passes (over 50 minutes) may stop recordings after 50+ minutes. Consider disabling Spotlight for long recording sessions and then re-enable it when you are done recording.

So, not compulsory. But needed. Sometimes. Clear now?

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

...I still have a copy of EasyFind - old program but works on Monterey...

FWIW, I was also an EasyFind fan and used it frequently, but it seems like it has gotten more and more broken over the years, and I wasn't able to install it at all on Ventura. Find Any File from Thomas Templemann does essentially the same thing and works well and is actively supported - I don't like the UI as much as EasyFind, but it does what I need - give it a try if you're looking for an alternative.

best,
rich

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by Rich Breen

FWIW, I was also an EasyFind fan and used it frequently, but it seems like it has gotten more and more broken over the years, and I wasn't able to install it at all on Ventura. Find Any File from Thomas Templemann does essentially the same thing and works well and is actively supported - I don't like the UI as much as EasyFind, but it does what I need - give it a try if you're looking for an alternative.

best,
rich

Thanks - just trying Find Any File - $6 seems like a bargain.

Dominic

[James Steele]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

Thanks - just trying Find Any File - $6 seems like a bargain.

Dominic

+1 for Find Any File! It’s helped me find things when all else failed.