Looking for more Macbook Pro performance tests...

[Poopants]

I know this has been covered in other threads, but I am about to take the plunge in the next couple of days and get either a Macbook Pro C2D or a Mac Pro Tower. I'd really like to get the Macbook Pro for the portability, but I'm nervous that it's not going to be enough power.

Does anyone have any real-world insight as to how much this thing will handle? How many (and what kind of) plugins could you get before it got uncomfortably slow? Could this thing handle a full-on ITB 48 track rock mix easily or at all? For example, with most of the tracks loaded with plugins, automation going everywhere, and 2 convolution reverbs or so.

I'm looking for specifics, if someone could do a test with the Waves SSL channel that would be PERFECT, and preferably on PTLE, but whatever you've got works.

Thanks guys!

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by Poopants

Could this thing handle a full-on ITB 48 track rock mix easily or at all? For example, with most of the tracks loaded with plugins, automation going everywhere, and 2 convolution reverbs or so.

I got the 1.6 MBP when it came out because I needed it for work. It has the full load of RAM.

My recording computer is an (almost) three year old dual 2 Gig G5.

I tried recording with the MBP using PTLE and it was disappointingly slow.

I thought I'd have to replace the G5 soon, but it's been very solid as far as track count and plugin capability. I upped the RAM to 6 Gigs and it helped a lot.

The MBP chokes on one Revolver, or one BFD. Also, I have two UAD cards and I was gonna have to get a Magma to run them with the MBP.

Even at 44.1 the MBP is slooow. Heck, it's even slow at non-recording stuff like photoshop. I know it's not a real-world test, but I can go down the applications folder in my G5 and open every single application and it does fine. They just start opening one after another until the dock icons are really tiny. If I do that with the MBP I get the beach ball immediately, and eventually it'll just crash.

On the upside, the MBP is hot enough that you can make grilled cheese sandwiches on the keyboard.

[kenn.michael]

Hmmm... something has to be wrong with your OS or hardware.... My MBP is faster than my Dual 2.5 G5 in all aspects (except apps that are not Universal Binary). It can handle mixes that will choke the G5.

[vudoo]

Max,

There's must be definitely something wrong with your set up. Same as Kenn, i find my Macbook Pro faster than my G5 Dual 2 Ghz with tons of ram. I use my MBP to edit uncompressed 10 bit video, ProTools, Digital performer.
I just did a rough mix for a film project in DP...i had close to 50 tracks of audio, with EQ, compressors on every channel and 4 stereo reverbs. The CPU and disk meter was barely moving, ( about 5-8 % ). The same mix would easily hit the 60% mark on my G5. Just make sure ALL your plug-ins are UB compatible. This makes a huge difference.
BTW, it's normal that Photoshop is slower on the MBP as oppose to your G5 since it's working in Rosetta mode. Most of the Adobe stuff are still not UB compatible. Any video or graphic apps in Rosetta mode is SLOWWWWWWWW.

[Poopants]

Originally Posted by vudoo

Max,

There's must be definitely something wrong with your set up. Same as Kenn, i find my Macbook Pro faster than my G5 Dual 2 Ghz with tons of ram. I use my MBP to edit uncompressed 10 bit video, ProTools, Digital performer.
I just did a rough mix for a film project in DP...i had close to 50 tracks of audio, with EQ, compressors on every channel and 4 stereo reverbs. The CPU and disk meter was barely moving, ( about 5-8 % ). The same mix would easily hit the 60% mark on my G5. Just make sure ALL your plug-ins are UB compatible. This makes a huge difference.
BTW, it's normal that Photoshop is slower on the MBP as oppose to your G5 since it's working in Rosetta mode. Most of the Adobe stuff are still not UB compatible. Any video or graphic apps in Rosetta mode is SLOWWWWWWWW.

Are these the stock EQ's and compressors in DP or are they more CPU intensive ones?

And Max, you almost gave me a heart attack with that post...I'm glad that it's probably more of a software issue....

[vudoo]

It was the stock plugs. The point here is to compare between the my G5 dual 2 Ghz versus the MBP c2d 2.16 Ghz. Basically by using the same session i got 55-65% of CPU and Disk activity versus barely 8-10% on the MBP. This is using exactly the same session and drive.
Also, being able to rough cut 2-3 streams of uncompressed 10 bit video on a portable is VERY impressive.
BTW, if you don't intend to do video, especially 3D, then the low end Macbook might be all you need. It is a great deal. I was using a 1.83 Macbook with Protools for nearly 2 months doing pretty heavy editting and it was faster than my G5. These new intel chips are pretty amazing, even though, the first batch of MB and MBP were full of bugs & problems.
I also have Win XP running on the same MBP. It's great, i'm getting sessions from various post house using Nuendo. All i have to do is boot my MBP in XP, open Nuendo, export what i need then reboot the machine in OSX and back to work on Protools...all this with my little MBP 15 '' 2.16 Ghz by the pool at the country house.

[beranie]

i will get my 17" MBP on monday and will post some experiences somewhere here. I´m currently working on a 3GHz Pentium with 2GB RAM and it´s just not enough. I really hope the MBP will blow me away... for the money, it should.... i almost got a heartattack while reading max´s post, too! phew...

[Poopants]

Thanks for your thoughts guys, I just took a trip to the Apple Store and played around with Logic on a MBP and a Mac Pro and I was very impressed. The Mac Pro was UNBELIEVABLE, totally unshakeable. I had to try hard to overload it. I loaded it up with the most CPU intensive plugs I could find. Like 30-40 bass amp plugins, 30-40 platinumverbs, 30-40 multiband compressors, a bunch of synths & instruments. It overloaded WAY past the point of any session I'd do.

The Macbook Pro was impressive too, and I think it'll be more than enough power. It maxed out more easily but when I say easily I mean after an insane amount of platinumverbs and bass amp plugs. When I got a little more realistic about it and only kept 5 reverbs (lol who uses 5 reverbs) and filled the rest of the tracks with multiband compressors and eq's, after filling about 30 tracks with 5 plugs each the CPU was only up to about 25-30%. So I think it's a go! The other thing is that even when the CPU was hitting the red and almost stopping playback, everything was still pretty responsive, so it tells me I can push the session to the max and still be able to function.

SWEEET

now the only question is do I go for the 15" or 17"....



I'd still like to hear the experiences of anyone else with these things. I'd assume that performance between PT and Logic would be similar, but does anyone else have MBP and PT experience?

[kenn.michael]

PTLE runs super fast on the MBP over here. ProTools' limitations (track count) kick in before the machine tops it's CPU out.

[beranie]

sounds great guys! mine will arrive on monday!! really looking forward!

[kudzu]

Originally Posted by max cooper

I got the 1.6 MBP when it came out because I needed it for work. It has the full load of RAM.

My recording computer is an (almost) three year old dual 2 Gig G5.

I tried recording with the MBP using PTLE and it was disappointingly slow.

I thought I'd have to replace the G5 soon, but it's been very solid as far as track count and plugin capability. I upped the RAM to 6 Gigs and it helped a lot.

The MBP chokes on one Revolver, or one BFD. Also, I have two UAD cards and I was gonna have to get a Magma to run them with the MBP.

Even at 44.1 the MBP is slooow. Heck, it's even slow at non-recording stuff like photoshop. I know it's not a real-world test, but I can go down the applications folder in my G5 and open every single application and it does fine. They just start opening one after another until the dock icons are really tiny. If I do that with the MBP I get the beach ball immediately, and eventually it'll just crash.

On the upside, the MBP is hot enough that you can make grilled cheese sandwiches on the keyboard.

Max, I have the same G5 as you ... its finally very stable (with Logic Pro 7.2.3, 3x UAD's in Magma 4, Duende, FW1884) ... Recently got a Macbook Core2, 2.33 Ghz, 3Gb Ram, 160Gb perp. HD. Use it with a RME FF800. Been using it all week for an intense location recording ... Man, Macbook Pro has muscle. It feels more powerful/stable than my G5.

[Poopants]

OMG I can't wait to get this thing...tuesday hopefully!!

[Iscralatchtical]

I am eager to find out how PTLE on Max's MBP was slow? Pro Tools has always been UB, am i correct? I have learned of the Photoshop performance issues, and such but this seems peculiar.