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AMD Threadripper or Intel i9?

Sounds great.

What is your buffer setting?
I tried 128 buffer on my Mac Pro ( 4 core, 3.7 Ghz)
-Playback works fine. Cpu on PC reaching 56% at max. Few times, max spikes on few cores on the Mac Pro.
-Surprisingly recording a new track while the template plays back, works fine.
-I had to reduce the 4 Strings instruments from 4 to 3 mics due to disk streaming overload at the climate on the composition (quite annoying half of the strings players suddenly goes for coffee brack), which I dont understand. Is 5 string instruments x 3 mics + 4 string instruments x 4 mic with Spitfire symphonic string Performance Legato to much for a Pci ssd (1700 Mb/s)?
 
x4 32gb sticks
I did not know the 9900K chips will support 128GB of RAM
All the boards i have found only do 64GB

But I also have a slave machine when it's Cubase that would be my 12-Core 2012 64GB MP
When I am running Logic Pro X the slave is my i7-4770K 2011 32GB PC

I am likely looking at i9 9900K, ASUS Maximus VI Formula, 32GB (for now) Corsair LPX RAM and a 512GB NVMe 970 Pro PCIe SSD
Already got the cooler, PSU, drives and the Case :)
 
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I did not know the 9900K chips will support 128GB of RAM
All the boards i have found only do 64GB

But I also have a slave machine when it's Cubase that would be my 12-Core 2012 64GB MP
When I am running Logic Pro X the slave is my i7-4770K 2011 32GB PC

I am likely looking at i9 9900K, ASUS Maximus VI Formula, 32Gb (for now) Corsair LPX RAM and a 512GB NVMe 970 Pro PCIe SSD
Already got the cooler, PSU, drives and the Case :)
What case did you get? I'm casually looking at the moment
 
Your system looks very impressive!

If you're planning to spend that much on a system I wouldn't settle for any less than 64GB.
Thanks man.

Yeah, I will be using it for work running Virtual machines and likely testing ESXi too. So will be good to see what you can get out of these new chips.

A friend of mine who is an IT Contractor just built an AMD Threadripper rig and so I was looking at that, but oddly came here to see that Intel is still what DAWs are optimised for.

Which makes sense. Apple use Intel only, so macOS DAWs will be optimised for Intel there too. From the little I understand about coding and development that is.

The reason for only 32GB right now is the insane RAM prices, which are rumoured to drop in a few months.
I was going to get 32GB on building it and then 32GB next paycheck :)
 
What case did you get? I'm casually looking at the moment
I have a Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition. Then the R6 released only a couple of weeks later :blush:

So I would recommend that or an NZXT case. Personally my R5 is whisper quiet like my FD R4 Black Pearl was though :dancedance:
 
Intel is still what DAWs are optimised for
It might be less that DAWs are specifically optimizing for Intel, but more that:
  • Single core performance is a significant factor for low-latency realtime performance and at the moment Intel still has a handy lead on AMD in that department.
  • The majority of desktop software just weren't prepared for the sudden leap in core counts that occurred since Ryzen entered the market (and we can all thank AMD for forcing Intel's hand with some healthy competition).
    • This is equally true for Windows itself whose scheduler couldn't cope well enough with asymmetric NUMA architectures (which was especially problematic with AMD's 24- and 32-core Threadrippers). Meanwhile the symmetric architecture of Intel's higher core count processors worked better on Windows.
My 2950X vastly outperformed my 8700K on Kontakt voice count across many tracks, but by pretty much every other measurement the 8700K was better for DAW use. (That's not to say the 2950X was bad -- it was good enough for me that I still switched over to it.)

These are actually really exciting times for PC enthusiasts. Finally we're seeing some competition in the market, and AMD is continuing to push things forward to try to close some of those gaps with Intel. AMD is in the process of lapping Intel on fabrication (they've moved to 7nm for this year's products, while Intel will mostly still be releasing 14nm chips this year and we aren't expected to see products using their 10nm process until later in the year) which will bring higher clock speeds and/or lower power consumption (with the trade-off between those factors varying by SKU); operating systems will improve their schedulers to work better with asymmetric NUMA; application developers will enable their software to work better with drastically higher core counts.

I'm really interested to see what these kinds of conversations here look like later in 2020.
 
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My 2950X vastly outperformed my 8700K on Kontakt voice count across many tracks, but by pretty much every other measurement the 8700K was better for DAW use

Interesting, tack. In what way did the AMD machine outperform? More voices, but higher latency? That's what I think I keep reading.

John
 
Interesting, tack. In what way did the AMD machine outperform? More voices, but higher latency? That's what I think I keep reading.
It's encapsulated on the chart in this post, but that's the crux of it: at an ASIO buffer of 512 (what I normally keep my DAW at), DAWBench VI's results are significantly higher on the 2950X. I didn't properly test all buffer sizes (since my benchmarking was for my own decision-making purposes between the two platforms and 512 is what I run at), but in casual fiddling with DAWbench VI the performance drop-off slope of lower buffer sizes was much steeper with the 2950X than with the 8700K. I'm afraid I don't have proper data with that so those are really just informal observations.

But it does at least make sense: as buffer size lowers, we become increasingly reliant on faster single core performance to keep those buffers full at all times.
 
Still waiting for the graphic cards for gaming to come down to what they were before. I'll hang out with Charlie Brown in the pumpkin patch.
For GPU I was looking at the Sapphire AMD Radeon 580 Nitro+ about £190

I was told a while ago by someone who worked with AMD in the past and is a long-time Apple user. That the Reference designer for AMD are Sapphire and so they should ahve the closest to the original design of the card!

Currently have a Sapphire 7950 Mac in the Pro and it is nice and quiet :)
 
I'm curious to know what the performance of the new AMD Threadripper 2970WX 24 Core processor is like with a heavy Kontakt load. A 512k buffer doesn't bother me. This machine I'd build would be mainly for virtual instruments. (I have a separate rig for audio recording) Any thoughts are appreciated!
 
I'm curious to know what the performance of the new AMD Threadripper 2970WX 24 Core processor is like with a heavy Kontakt load. A 512k buffer doesn't bother me. This machine I'd build would be mainly for virtual instruments. (I have a separate rig for audio recording) Any thoughts are appreciated!

That would be killer for video. I hope AMD keeps getting better since I still think Intel is pricey. Rumor has it Apple may be doing their own processor instead of Intel.
 
Paul, I hope both you and the new build are doing well. It would be great to hear how its going and what you settled on. Or what you're still deciding on. Whatever you decide, it sounds like you'll have quite a beast in the end!
 
I don't know if AMD is superior or not. I went for two i9-9900k CPUs in slave PCs and was able to drop my buffer from 512 to 128 on one. The strings still between 128 and 256, depending on whether there's a lot of Spitfire's more heavily scripted strings (i.e. "performance legato").

Those patches are great but demanding. Like children, or high-strung dogs.
 
I'm waiting for the 3rd gen of Threadripper. It seems it will blast away actual Intel's CPU. Intel is stuck making their 10nm process while AMD already got the 7nm process in the pipeline on their GPU and now their CPU.

Next AMD TR should be way more powerful, better TDP, with unbeatable price per core.

I've been using Intel for almost 15 years now, but it might go for AMD this year :D
 
Intel is stuck making their 10nm process while AMD already got the 7nm process in the pipeline on their GPU and now their CPU.
That's not accurate. You can't compare these numbers because they are not representing the same and pure marketing driven naming. Intel's 10nm process is comparable to AMD's / TSMC's 7nm process. Intel's 10nm should be slightly higher clockable and the used architecture will have at least the same IPC as AMD's 7nm (IPC -> Instructions per Cycle; the reason why a Intel 3GHz CPU is still faster in single core performance than one from AMD).

I am really intersted to see whats AMD coming up with. It is good for a healthy market and will push innovations. But I would not go so far to say "it will blast away actual Intel's CPU".
We have to wait until they are out and someone benchmarks them.
 
That's not accurate. You can't compare these numbers because they are not representing the same and pure marketing driven naming. Intel's 10nm process is comparable to AMD's / TSMC's 7nm process. Intel's 10nm should be slightly higher clockable and the used architecture will have at least the same IPC as AMD's 7nm (IPC -> Instructions per Cycle; the reason why a Intel 3GHz CPU is still faster in single core performance than one from AMD).

I am really intersted to see whats AMD coming up with. It is good for a healthy market and will push innovations. But I would not go so far to say "it will blast away actual Intel's CPU".
We have to wait until they are out and someone benchmarks them.

I do agree with you. I've been talking a bit too fast. Let's wait for AMD to release the 3rd gen first as you mentioned, and a tier to try it out.

I just hope AMD will release something that will kill Intel's prices. I want a fair match between the two manufacturers.

EDIT: I expect a CPU with competitive TDP, good frequency and high number of cores for a fair price. A CPU that last for years. And not for $2500.
 
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