# Need help putting the scanproaudio dawbench in context.



## thevisi0nary (Jul 2, 2020)

I am seriously interested in an AMD workstation. Unfortunately I have that stubborn anxiety with jumping ship to a new platform, as I've been using the 4790k since it came out and have no experience with Ryzen. I could use some help putting the scanproaudio daw bench in context with a real world work flow. 



http://www.scanproaudio.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DB-DSP-Q1-20.jpg





http://www.scanproaudio.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DB-VI-Q1-20.jpg



I would expect the 10900k to be somewhere about 20% better than the 9900k, but even with that the 3900x still looks fantastic here. The setup they use with Reaper + Rme Babyface is the same as mine so that is reassuring. My question is how these numbers apply to different projects. 

1. Would these results look the same with heavier kontakt instruments? Say like OT capsule.

2. What happens when you have a ton of (say 60) instrument tracks, and then start putting fx on the master bus? Is the multi core benefit with a lot of tracks / plugin instances hampered by whichever one signal chain has the most fx?

3. How would AMD compare to Intel with cpu heavy synths? (Or is that not really relevant?)

Thank you for your help.


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## Kent (Jul 2, 2020)

Funny you should post this, as I am looking at the exact same thing this morning. I'll be watching this thread!


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## thevisi0nary (Jul 2, 2020)

kmaster said:


> Funny you should post this, as I am looking at the exact same thing this morning. I'll be watching this thread!



It's nerve wracking ain't it lol.


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## Kent (Jul 2, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> It's nerve wracking ain't it lol.


Especially considering I'm coming at it from a Hackintosh slant, yes.


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## Solarsentinel (Jul 2, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> I am seriously interested in an AMD workstation. Unfortunately I have that stubborn anxiety with jumping ship to a new platform, as I've been using the 4790k since it came out and have no experience with Ryzen. I could use some help putting the scanproaudio daw bench in context with a real world work flow.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think you could watch this in order to answer your 3rd question :


This guy have switch from intel to an ryzen 9 3900X and seems pretty happy.
Personnaly i've switch from an I7 7700k to an Ryzen 7 3700X and there is a serious jump for handling big vst synths, and i find my new plaform much more stable.

Another one with a real project with synths:


And it is a test with kontakt and samples library, but it is not a real performance test, but it can give you some idea of the performance :


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## thevisi0nary (Jul 2, 2020)

Solarsentinel said:


> I think you could watch this in order to answer your 3rd question :
> 
> 
> This guy have switch from intel to an ryzen 9 3900X and seems pretty happy.
> ...




Funny I actually just watched this! Thank you for sharing. I wonder how much of a difference this test would make inside Reaper, Ive read that Ableton is not as efficient at allocating tracks to more cores.

This makes me really appreciate how well the 4790k has done, I have ran some huge and horribly organized / optimized projects with it. This is why I’m so curious about the difference.

_In reality_ both processors will probably be indistinguishable, but it doesn’t hurt to be absolutely sure before spending $2k+ lol.


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## Solarsentinel (Jul 3, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> Funny I actually just watched this! Thank you for sharing. I wonder how much of a difference this test would make inside Reaper, Ive read that Ableton is not as efficient at allocating tracks to more cores.
> 
> This makes me really appreciate how well the 4790k has done, I have ran some huge and horribly organized / optimized projects with it. This is why I’m so curious about the difference.
> 
> _In reality_ both processors will probably be indistinguishable, but it doesn’t hurt to be absolutely sure before spending $2k+ lol.


Yes indeed!


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## Wonky (Jul 5, 2020)

So I've got a build from Scan due in the next couple of weeks. I was in the same situation as you and comparing Intel to AMD. After speaking to Pete at Scan I ended up ordering an Intel 10900k based machine and here's why...
Compatibility
There is a real issue with USB3 compatibility and also some PCI cards. Not with everything, which is why you get the 'I've got an AMD and never had a problem' posts, but it does exist. 
So my thinking is that I'm musician first before any of the computer stuff and for the sake of a small amount of processing power gain (subjective), it's really not worth the compatibility issues for me. If I didn't have any existing gear at all it may be different, but when you consider that whilst many issues are being solved with software updates, the UA arrow for instance is still incompatible with AMD processors! Just an example and not one that effects me, but it is something that is a real issue to consider.
You could look at benchmarks all day long, but the top end processors are all banging solutions for audio production. I just thought that I'm spending £2500 on an audio PC and I want it to work, without acception, with everything I have.
Just my thoughts and you should go with your heart on this.


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## Pictus (Jul 5, 2020)

Wonky said:


> So I've got a build from Scan due in the next couple of weeks. I was in the same situation as you and comparing Intel to AMD. After speaking to Pete at Scan I ended up ordering an Intel 10900k based machine and here's why...
> Compatibility
> There is a real issue with USB3 compatibility and also some PCI cards.


The USB problem also happens in the Intel side, the solution is to use a different 
USB port and if unsuccessful, buy a cheap PCIe USB card with the proper chipset
like NEC/RENESAS 720202 or Fresco FL1100.

The PCIe problem with UAD is real, but I have seem BIOS updates, do not know
what is the current state.








The AMD Ryzen & UAD 2 Thread - Page 9 - Gearspace.com


Quote: Originally Posted by vkinetic ➡️ Updated the BIOS to 2.6 and now the UAD QUAD is recognized in any PCIe slot (not just the graphics slot which is where I initially got mine to work). The big BUT is that when you install a graphics card (I had originally a Ryzen 3200G and therefore had to...



www.gearslutz.com




Some unknown rare PCI/PCIe may have a problem, but who uses those cards?
As I see the hardware is not much a problem, because in both Intel/AMD you have
to check if your current hardware is compatible with the new PC.

For AMD the main problem is that you may need more BIOS tweaking...


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## Jan16 (Jul 5, 2020)

Wonky, what kind of cooler did you get for the CPU?


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## thevisi0nary (Jul 10, 2020)

Just bumping to get more info on the first questions =)


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## Wonky (Jul 11, 2020)

Jan16 said:


> Wonky, what kind of cooler did you get for the CPU?


Sorry for the delay, it's been a very busy week.
So the cooler is the one Scan recommended, which is the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4.
Hopefully does the job


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## chimuelo (Jul 12, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> I am seriously interested in an AMD workstation. Unfortunately I have that stubborn anxiety with jumping ship to a new platform, as I've been using the 4790k since it came out and have no experience with Ryzen. I could use some help putting the scanproaudio daw bench in context with a real world work flow.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Still using the 4790k Devils Canyon too.
3700X loads more synths but doesn’t fare as well with core locked synths or samplers.
But the way around Kontakt is to load more instances, then it works really well as a sample workstation.

I still can’t find a CPU that works as well as the 4790k for ZebraHZ.
Of course any Intel would work, but I’m @ 4.4GHz 100+ watts/68C.
Other 8086k’s, 9700k’s are also capable but way too much power & heat for me.

Vermeer APU/Zen 3, and Desktop Tiger Lake i7’s look like a good upgrade.
I want more cache, less watts, etc.

8 Cores is nice, but if you can’t get the work done on 8, the other 4/8/16 won’t be much help. Faster, cooler, bigger L2/L3 cache for me.


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## thevisi0nary (Jul 12, 2020)

chimuelo said:


> Still using the 4790k Devils Canyon too.
> 3700X loads more synths but doesn’t fare as well with core locked synths or samplers.
> But the way around Kontakt is to load more instances, then it works really well as a sample workstation.
> 
> ...


 
The 4790k has been a magic chip, I’m seriously surprised how far I can push it sometimes. The main reasons I’m nearing an upgrade is partly because of everything else in the PC. I’m limited to 32gb ram on the mobo and it doesn’t make sense to put money into a new one for this chip. Also this cpu does unfortunately show its age in Lightroom, which behind Reaper is my second most used program.


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