# Anyone using an 8 core 64gb i9 MacBook Pro?



## jononotbono (Jun 23, 2020)

Just wondering if anyone is using a fully specced out MacBook Pro with 64gb of Ram? I'm toying with the idea that one of these might be a good solution as a writing machines (with Slave computers) but also for portability. An 8 Core with 64gb of RAM seems like it would be a very capable machine?


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## Richard Wilkinson (Jun 23, 2020)

I have one and it's great. I finally have a portable machine that's about as powerful as my main one, and it's been a revelation.


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## Vik (Jun 23, 2020)

Richard Wilkinson said:


> about as powerful as my main one


And your main one is...?


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## jononotbono (Jun 23, 2020)

Vik said:


> And your main one is...?



Yeah good question.

I'm just so torn at the moment of what computer to get/build and I started thinking that a MacBook Pro might be a good option just so I'm portable.

I'm torn whether I should build a PC and just have a killer machine... If Windows isn't a pain in the ass like it used to be. Leaving OSX for Windows... hmmm it's not attractive but neither are Apple Prices.

I'm torn with choosing AMD or Intel if I choose to build a PC.

I'm torn whether I buy a Trashcan just as a temporary machine for the next couple of years.

The Laptop idea is nice but as expensive as an entry point new Mac Pro. It's all rather disturbing.

Maybe I should just buy some beers instead.


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## Richard Wilkinson (Jun 23, 2020)

Main machine is an iMac Pro. Also 64gb. I think this is probably the last time I'll have a main rig and a portable one. MacBooks are powerful enough now for me to eventually just replace my iMac Pro with a lovely big screen.


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## sourcefor (Jun 23, 2020)

Yes I have one and its been great as well..But Catalina or Logic is a bit buggy at the moment..otherwise I have been getting alot of work done with alot of VI's in one session.


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## rgames (Jun 23, 2020)

Depends on your use, of course, but for a typical full orchestra setup I think the latest notebooks with 64 GB RAM are very workable. A desktop is still better in terms of latency and overall workflow but you can definitely work on a laptop these days. Desktop = better. Laptop = good enough.

I got a 6-core Dell about 18 months ago and have used it on a few full orchestra tracks in that time. It's definitely workable.

Definitely go full NVME. I have 6 TB of NVME storage in my laptop. That covers my entire sample/VST library. No external drives necessary, so it truly is portable.

rgames


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## jononotbono (Jun 23, 2020)

rgames said:


> Depends on your use, of course, but for a typical full orchestra setup I think the latest notebooks with 64 GB RAM are very workable. A desktop is still better in terms of latency and overall workflow but you can definitely work on a laptop these days. Desktop = better. Laptop = good enough.
> 
> I got a 6-core Dell about 18 months ago and have used it on a few full orchestra tracks in that time. It's definitely workable.
> 
> ...



Do you have any experience with PCs and Thunderbolt 3? It's my main concern with building a PC. I am currently using a UA Apollo Twin X and I love it so would like to keep that as my interface. I'm just a little concerned with building a PC that it wouldn't be stable. As for using it with one of these new MacBook Pros, I know it will run perfectly. SO that's another plus for getting a MacBook Pro.


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## NoamL (Jun 23, 2020)

No thermal probs with that setup, Richard?


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## jononotbono (Jun 23, 2020)

NoamL said:


> No thermal probs with that setup, Richard?



Good question. Also, what about fan noise?


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## marius_dm (Jun 23, 2020)

I have 3 different PCs I built with about 3-4 fans each right next to my desk. All of them are in fractal define cases. They are completely silent, can’t hear a peep. But when I turn on Logic with a small project on my 2018 MBP 15” i7 16Gb, the fan noise is way too much, 2-3 times as loud as all 3 PCs put together. I always wondered how people work on those with all that noise.


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## jononotbono (Jun 23, 2020)

marius_dm said:


> I have 3 different PCs I built with about 3-4 fans each right next to my desk. All of them are in fractal define cases. They are completely silent, can’t hear a peep. But when I turn on Logic with a small project on my 2018 MBP 15” i7 16Gb, the fan noise is way too much, 2-3 times as loud as all 3 PCs put together. I always wondered how people work on those with all that noise.



That's interesting. I've always thought Logic runs like butter with it being designed to run on Apple hardware.


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## rgames (Jun 23, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> Good question. Also, what about fan noise?


Yes, I can definitely hear the fan at times. But no thermal problems that I've noticed.

Regarding fan noise, I've never encountered a computer that I couldn't hear when it was in the same room, even ones without fans (I can hear the power supply coils at times). Maybe I have really good hearing... I've been in rooms with "silent" computers and they're not silent to me. I've even had people do blind tests and yep, I have near 100% accuracy when walking into a room and telling whether a "silent" computer is on or off. For that reason I always put computers outside my critical listening spaces, laptop or otherwise. It only takes about $100 worth of cable extensions and provides results orders of magnitude better than sound-absorbing cases and materials that cost 10x as much.

Regarding Thunderbolt, no, I don't have any experience there. I expect an 8-core Macbook would perform just fine, so just use that if you know it's good with your interface. I wasn't suggesting a PC notebook. I think any notebook with 6-8 cores, Mac or PC, is workable these days.

rgames


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## Shad0wLandsUK (Jun 24, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> Do you have any experience with PCs and Thunderbolt 3? It's my main concern with building a PC. I am currently using a UA Apollo Twin X and I love it so would like to keep that as my interface.











Apollo Twin & Apollo Twin MkII Windows Compatibility


Note: The information in this article applies to both Apollo Twin and Apollo Twin MkII. About UAD Thunderbolt Compatibility with Windows 10 Systems UAD v9.1 introduces Windows 10 PC mixed multi-...




help.uaudio.com


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## Ivan M. (Jun 24, 2020)

rgames said:


> A desktop is still better in terms of latency



Interesting, I don't see why that would be the case. How much better? What is the latency on your laptop?


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## Richard Wilkinson (Jun 24, 2020)

NoamL said:


> No thermal probs with that setup, Richard?



Not really. It gets warm, and the fan is keener than it was on the older 13", but I think that's how these bigger MacBooks work. Most of the time I'm on headphones using it anyway, so don't notice it too much. The tradeoff between those things and having a super fast 64gb laptop with a (relatively) big screen and blazing fast 4TB drive is absolutely fine from my pov


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## samphony (Jun 24, 2020)

Until apple provides notebooks with apple silicon they are stuck with these small noisy fan designs. In fact a lot of the notebooks these days have that issue.
I have a 2015 quad core MacBook which is with some projects much snappier as my 2013 12 core vader helmet.
If you want to stay with apple get the 16“ 64gb 2,4ghz 4/8tb ssd and use your current machines as vep servers. If you need a portable vep setup just add as many mac minis to your setup as necessary.

as i remember you like using vep in your workflow, right?

so what would an AMD PC give you in that regard?

I am actually in the same position as you and decided to work with my current setup a little longer.

But my tendency is to get a dual boot AMD 3950x hack with thunderbolt for the studio build by someone who knows how to do it right.


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## Vik (Jun 24, 2020)

I thought the newer MBPs have much less noise than the old ones?


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## JoelSim (Jun 24, 2020)

I have a 2019 mbp 16-inch, 8 cores, 64gb ram and 2tb internal ssd as my portable rig. 

It works very well and it beats my 2017 imac in Logic X's core management. (4.2ghz i7 with 64gb ram)

I run my samples from TB3 minibay with 4 SSDs on both computers.

The 16-inch mbp can get relatively loud when loading tracks intensive session. Other than the fan noise and price tag, I'm very happy with the 16-inch mbp.


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## jononotbono (Jun 24, 2020)

JoelSim said:


> I have a 2019 mbp 16-inch, 8 cores, 64gb ram and 2tb internal ssd as my portable rig.
> 
> It works very well and it beats my 2017 imac in Logic X's core management. (4.2ghz i7 with 64gb ram)
> 
> ...



Im tempted.


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## rgames (Jun 24, 2020)

Ivan M. said:


> Interesting, I don't see why that would be the case. How much better? What is the latency on your laptop?


Latency on my laptop is 10 - 15 ms for large orchestral projects with a decent audio interface. But I almost always use the onboard audio which is 20 ms. On my desktop it's more like 4-6 ms. The truth is that 10-15 ms is still perfectly fine, hence my statement that laptops are "good enough" for full orchestral work.

I assume the reason is the power-saving features in laptop chipsets: those features add latency because more things shut off for short periods of time. There's no way to disable a lot of that stuff on a laptop. But that's an assumption on the cause, I don't have any hard evidence to back that assumption. But it is at least a logical explanation.

rgames


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## Alex Fraser (Jun 24, 2020)

New 13 inch MBP here. Re fan noise, with Logic it’s mostly silent. It’ll ramp up occasionally but usually dissipates within a minute or two. 

It depends I think on what you’re using. Some plugins send the fan into a tizz <narrows eyes at Spitfire eDNA> but Logic stock stuff rarely.

There are all sorts of tricks to keep the fan noise on a 16 inch at bay (search Google)


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## Ivan M. (Jun 24, 2020)

rgames said:


> Latency on my laptop is 10 - 15 ms for large orchestral projects with a decent audio interface. But I almost always use the onboard audio which is 20 ms. On my desktop it's more like 4-6 ms. The truth is that 10-15 ms is still perfectly fine, hence my statement that laptops are "good enough" for full orchestral work.
> 
> I assume the reason is the power-saving features in laptop chipsets: those features add latency because more things shut off for short periods of time. There's no way to disable a lot of that stuff on a laptop. But that's an assumption on the cause, I don't have any hard evidence to back that assumption. But it is at least a logical explanation.
> 
> rgames



Thanks! I want to go laptop, so all this info is really valuable to me. Can I ask which laptop are you using?

My theory on latency is cpu throttling.


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## gsilbers (Jun 26, 2020)

fan noise is driving me nuts. its louder than my old mac pro 5,1 AND my 2012 macbook pro COMBINED. 
and its only transfering files . 

it remains somewhat silent with logic and even with adding a ton of plugins and tracks... but just trying to validate new plugins the fans ramps up... its weird when it does the fan ramp up. 
i even have a large silent fan pinting to it. 

but its just not posible to record any instruments in the same room. and on top of that apple announced a new cpu. 

i dont know if ill be able to keep it as the most basic thing just ramps up the fan noise to infinity. and looking around it seems its just the norm.


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## gsilbers (Jun 26, 2020)

here is quick info on someone who did some testing

It became really clear the combined heat from the internal Radeon Pro 5500m GPU and the i9-9880G CPU is too much for the current thermal management system, especially when using all USB-C ports. (I.e., for power, USB-C hub, USB-C to Display Port video cables). From all the testing and heat generated by the unit, it looks like our Radeon Pro 5500m GPU is fried because we are seeing artifacts on text (laptop display and external monitors) but not when we use the eGPU.


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## jononotbono (Jun 26, 2020)

gsilbers said:


> fan noise is driving me nuts. its louder than my old mac pro 5,1 AND my 2012 macbook pro COMBINED.
> and its only transfering files .
> 
> it remains somewhat silent with logic and even with adding a ton of plugins and tracks... but just trying to validate new plugins the fans ramps up... its weird when it does the fan ramp up.
> ...



What’s the fan noise like when looking at VI-C? How many tabs can you have open?


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## yiph2 (Jun 26, 2020)

gsilbers said:


> here is quick info on someone who did some testing
> 
> It became really clear the combined heat from the internal Radeon Pro 5500m GPU and the i9-9880G CPU is too much for the current thermal management system, especially when using all USB-C ports. (I.e., for power, USB-C hub, USB-C to Display Port video cables). From all the testing and heat generated by the unit, it looks like our Radeon Pro 5500m GPU is fried because we are seeing artifacts on text (laptop display and external monitors) but not when we use the eGPU.


I just bought one... i9 2.3Ghz, 64GB RAM, 5500M

Hopefully the fan won't be too loud...


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## ridgero (Jun 27, 2020)

How can a Macbook Pro replace an iMac Pro? Yes, the MacBookPro 16“ has awesome power, but the fan noise is so freaking annoying.

As an musician that noise is not acceptable.


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## gsilbers (Jun 27, 2020)

jononotbono said:


> What’s the fan noise like when looking at VI-C? How many tabs can you have open?



Always not enough


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