8 Core Mac What should I set my Playback engine too?

[kd_special]

We just bought 8 core Macs for some of the mix rooms. What should I set my playback engine too?

We mix TV shows and commercials mainly.

I got the basic idea of settings that work well (default settings with Long delay Comp 85% PC usage). . But now we have so many more processors that show up under processor (16 as opposed to the 4 previous). Should I use all 16 of them? What are the benefits of using more? Are they used for RTAS? we never use RTAS.

PT 8.1cs2
OS X 10.6.5

thanks in advance

kd

[mikevarela]

many have said that for best performance, one should run the system 1 shy of full capacity.

[kd_special]

Cool So what exactly is the processors used for more RTAS? or general computer stuff like importing files etc?

kd

[mikevarela]

Yep, generally the system uses available cpu... though I believe Pro Tools isn't multi-core compliant yet, so it stays to 1 core. However, RTAS is written to take advantage of the extra cores available. Pro Tools also hijacks memory and processing as soon as you turn the mac on, so to me it felt like with a core dedicated to the system and PT, everything was happy... leaving the allocation of the other cores dedicated to processing.

I can't wait till Avid re-writes the core code to take advantage of multi-core systems, it's then that these 8 and 12 core native systems will really begin to shine.

[kd_special]

sweet ..thanks

kd

[SDDP]

Originally Posted by mikevarela

Yep, generally the system uses available cpu... though I believe Pro Tools isn't multi-core compliant yet, so it stays to 1 core. However, RTAS is written to take advantage of the extra cores available. Pro Tools also hijacks memory and processing as soon as you turn the mac on, so to me it felt like with a core dedicated to the system and PT, everything was happy... leaving the allocation of the other cores dedicated to processing.

I can't wait till Avid re-writes the core code to take advantage of multi-core systems, it's then that these 8 and 12 core native systems will really begin to shine.

Or better yet, goes 64, then we'll be able to use more than the 4gig cap.
Most 3rd parties offer 32 gigs at around $1,200 now. If it could EVER tap into half that using up to 7 cores out of the 8.... um, I think it could do some serious mxing in 5.1.