iMac 5K and PT12 ?

[cybership]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Avoid the Fusion drive

I know the Fusion drive was a problem early on but I wasn't sure if those issues had been sorted out with 10.11. Probably best to avoid them if possible though. Problem is they are standard issue on all iMacs unless you custom order.

[bradch00]

Originally Posted by cybership

Sorry to hear your having trouble. I see your using an external SSD. Do you use a Fusion drive for the OS and PT? Are all of your plugins updated to the latest version? Even when not in use, some plugins may cause problems if not up to date. If you haven't already please go over the troubleshooting list below. Let us know what you find.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/t...Optimize-10-11

Originally Posted by cybership

I know the Fusion drive was a problem early on but I wasn't sure if those issues had been sorted out with 10.11. Probably best to avoid them if possible though. Problem is they are standard issue on all iMacs unless you custom order.

My 5k is a custom order 1TB flash drive internal drive that I have had no troubles with. That being said, I do run about 70% of the time from a thunderbolt 2 connected external SSD system drive, again with no issues. ( I use external drives for testing and QA). Audio sessions are stored on another SSD with samples served from a USB3 attached SSD.

[stormking69]

Originally Posted by cybership

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me more about your iMac? Which Hard Drive, i7/i5 and RAM? Also is it Haswell or Skylake?

Sorry for the delay. It's the late 2015 model, Skylake processor. i5, 16 gig RAM, internal HD is good old fashion spinner(1TB), record to external Glyph drive(500GB). Using the TB to FW connectors.

[cybership]

Originally Posted by bradch00

My 5k is a custom order 1TB flash drive internal drive that I have had no troubles with. That being said, I do run about 70% of the time from a thunderbolt 2 connected external SSD system drive, again with no issues. ( I use external drives for testing and QA). Audio sessions are stored on another SSD with samples served from a USB3 attached SSD.

Thanks for the info. Do you notice any fan noise from your 5k when running larger sessions? I need to be able to record acoustic instruments in the control room. I've read some complaints about fan noise while others say it's rarely an issue. Which processor do you have Haswell or Skylake?

[bradch00]

Although purchased in early 2015 it is a late 2014 release, therefore an i7 Haswell. The 2011 i7 it was brought into replace, did produce more fan noise under heavy load. The 2014 model (at least this one) is quiet.
BTW it was purchased with minimum RAM and I installed Crucial RAM for considerably less than Apple factory.

[Leon550]

Thanks for helping, and sorry for the delay.

I was booting from an usb 3 SSD. For testing I moved the session over to the built-in SSD, brand new user, with the exact same response. As far as I know, all my plugins are up to date.

I did a comparison video showing how the iMac and a Mac mini compares, using the same boot drive, and the same work drive. I would really appreciate your ideas as to why the new imac is so slow.

I feel that in this comparison, I have eliminated all variables except the computer hardware. Correct me if I'm wrong on that please! Also, the audio interface is different. (Mac mini has RME UFX usb, iMac has Apogee Symphony i/o usb).

Originally Posted by cybership

Sorry to hear your having trouble. I see your using an external SSD. Do you use a Fusion drive for the OS and PT? Are all of your plugins updated to the latest version? Even when not in use, some plugins may cause problems if not up to date. If you haven't already please go over the troubleshooting list below. Let us know what you find.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/t...Optimize-10-11

[nstu]

Originally Posted by Leon550

Thanks for helping, and sorry for the delay.



I was booting from an usb 3 SSD. For testing I moved the session over to the built-in SSD, brand new user, with the exact same response. As far as I know, all my plugins are up to date.



I did a comparison video showing how the iMac and a Mac mini compares, using the same boot drive, and the same work drive. I would really appreciate your ideas as to why the new imac is so slow.



I feel that in this comparison, I have eliminated all variables except the computer hardware. Correct me if I'm wrong on that please! Also, the audio interface is different. (Mac mini has RME UFX usb, iMac has Apogee Symphony i/o usb).

That looks very bad. I am waiting for the Mac Pro update but the iMac 5k would be my second option. Are there others with the same problem? If it only happens with protools than it must be a PT bug with the latest OS.

[RythmSurfer]

Hey guys, I just ordered an iMac 5k 27 inch with 3.3 GHz i5 processor and 2 TB fusion drive. Subsequently learned about these issues and contacted avid. Here is their reply (posted to another thread on this forum as well...)


1. ARE THERE ANY KNOWN ISSUES WITH PRO TOOLS ON MACS WITH FUSION DRIVE ?
Ans: Case to case basis. May or may not have issues. But on the tech's side they've encountered issues with Fusion Drives and SSD's. But officially, supports Fusion Drives starting on Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks

2. WHICH VERSION OF PT IS COMPATIBLE WITH EL CAPITAN?
Ans: Pro Tools is compatible with OSX 10.11 since Pro Tools 12.3

regards,
Avid Audio

This sounds crazy to me!!! What do you guys think I should do? Is HDD a bett option?

[Jacksonland]

I watched the video. I'm not seeing any of this lagging on my new iMac, but I have the i7 4 GHz. Curious why your Mac mini is an i7, and the new iMac is an i5.
Interestingly, my 5K Skylake with 4 GB GPU did have a lot of fan speed noise when I first turned it on and ran PT or even less demanding programs, but it hasn't been noisier than my older iMac since then.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by RythmSurfer

Hey guys, I just ordered an iMac 5k 27 inch with 3.3 GHz i5 processor and 2 TB fusion drive. Subsequently learned about these issues and contacted avid. Here is their reply (posted to another thread on this forum as well...)


1. ARE THERE ANY KNOWN ISSUES WITH PRO TOOLS ON MACS WITH FUSION DRIVE ?
Ans: Case to case basis. May or may not have issues. But on the tech's side they've encountered issues with Fusion Drives and SSD's. But officially, supports Fusion Drives starting on Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks

2. WHICH VERSION OF PT IS COMPATIBLE WITH EL CAPITAN?
Ans: Pro Tools is compatible with OSX 10.11 since Pro Tools 12.3

regards,
Avid Audio

This sounds crazy to me!!! What do you guys think I should do? Is HDD a bett option?

I can just repeat it-if possible get the 4k 21.5" i7 Quad Core iMac with 16GB Ram and the 512GB Flash drive! This will be a great machine for Pro Tools 12.
Definitely better than the 5k 27" i5 iMac even if you can get an SSD instead of the Fusion drive.
The 5k 27" models have got graphic problems with OSX El Capitan and Pro Tools 12.5 at the moment (which may be solved by future updates) which the 4k
21.5" models seem not to have and the i7 Quad Core processor is a much better choice for Pro Tools than the i5 Quad Core.

Anyway if you cannot get the 4k 21.5" iMac, you may get the 512GB or the 1TB Flash drive for your 5K 27" or if this will not be possible as well just split up
the Fusion drive like described in one of my posts in the other thread and use the small 128GB Flash drive wisely (keep it clean and lean) and use the HDD
for other applications like Pro Tools audio or backups.

As mentioned in my prior postings with the 512GB or the 1TB Flash drive you even may skip the external Pro Tools drive as these are fast and large enough.
With any other set up you will have to use your external drive for your Pro Tools sessions and audio files further on.

The best of success to you.