Old 06-04-2021, 05:02 AM   #1
GaryG
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Default Laptop processors?

Hi, looking at some lower/mid range laptops and found a couple with a choice of ryzen 5 or i5 10th/11th gen processors for about the same price. The benchmarks (I know, not strictly relevant to audio use) are broadly similar too but wondering if the fact the Ryzen has six cores as opposed to the i5s four could be a deciding factor? Reaper seems to have a rep for spreading its load over cores efficiently so thought the AMD may be best in this case? Anyone have experience here?

Thanks.
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Old 06-04-2021, 09:04 AM   #2
Lynx_TWO
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One thing to consider is that, while Reaper does use multiple cores fairly well, for the most part, audio is a serial process. So, all cores being equal, I'd stick with whichever CPU can boost and sustain the highest single-thread performance. Of course, there are diminishing returns, and there may be a way to mathematically calculate where that would be... but I'm not sure if that would be a linear calculation or not...

Now that I'm thinking about it, for the Reaper Team, would it be possible to create a benchmarking project specifically to render in Reaper across systems? My own system has 2 Xeon 14-core 2690 v4 for a total of 56 threads, and I'd be really interested in such a benchmark...
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Old 06-04-2021, 12:15 PM   #3
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Unless you want to do some "live" work, there are ways to deal with weak hardware.

-Michael
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Old 06-06-2021, 03:15 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschnell View Post
Unless you want to do some "live" work, there are ways to deal with weak hardware.

-Michael
Do you have some examples? I'd be interested, always looking for better ways to get things done!
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Old 06-06-2021, 10:05 PM   #5
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(Only know this grom reading this forum...)

Freeze, Subprojects, offline rendering ...
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Old 06-07-2021, 01:36 AM   #6
GaryG
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx_TWO View Post
One thing to consider is that, while Reaper does use multiple cores fairly well, for the most part, audio is a serial process. So, all cores being equal, I'd stick with whichever CPU can boost and sustain the highest single-thread performance.
Thanks, the i5 delivers a bit better on single-thread performance but was wondering if the fact the Ryzen then delivered another two cores of that kind of performance mattered significantly. My gut instinct is to stay with Intel but maybe that's just irrelevant memories of long ago when AMDs were often a nightmare hardware compatibility-wise.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mschnell View Post
Unless you want to do some "live" work, there are ways to deal with weak hardware.
Oh sure, I freeze a lot on larger projects (old 3rd gen i5) though surprised how well it still deals with more modern 'demanding' plugins.

Thanks all.
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Old 06-07-2021, 05:09 AM   #7
toleolu
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It's always helpful with questions like this to provide some detail on your recording/mixing environment.

Are you recording live and if so, how many tracks?

Number of tracks in a typical project and how many effects and plugins do you typically use.

Stuff like that is a lot more relevant than cores in a CPU.
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Old 06-08-2021, 01:23 AM   #8
GaryG
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Fair point.

Pretty much all ITB, a few external noisemakers, guitars etc but everything else on the laptop wherever I pitch up (not studio bound hence the laptop).

Generally only a dozen or so tracks, only ever record a track at a time (clean guitar with ampsims/effects in Reaper). Normally a few heavier VSTis (bx_oberhausen, Reaktor Blocks etc).

After that I tend to edit, resample, chop up, pile on the effects which is where I need the power I reckon.

Also dabble with virtual modulars which is where I really tend to max things out.

Thanks.
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