Hi,
Let’s talk about CPU audio performance.
I have always been under the impression that more cores are more important.
The amount of processing actually done during a clock cycle will vary from system to system but generally, a 2.4 Ghz quad-core will give you better performance than a 3.2 Ghz dual-core, right?
The term “multiprocessing” just says that the use of multiple cores is possible. It’s up to both, the system and the DAW, how the cores are used. Which means differences, which means different results.
Higher clock speed definitely helps calculating faster, but there are many situations where a faster calculation is less important than the parallel processing of multiple tasks. VSTis make use of SSE (2 or higher), which allows for a parallel processing of instructions, independent from the number of cores (SSE exists since 2000 or so). For one VST instrument clock speed is more important than core count, since they already process instructions in parallel, which means on a per-cycle-basis.
It’s dependent on whether or not your DAW, its included plugins, and/or third party plugins are written to utilize multiple cores. For instance; in Logic, cores will be read automatically (or input manually) and the application does its best to use all the power available. However the limitation on how the program or plugins were written becomes apparent when you start piling plugs onto a single channel or buss. That’s where the CPU’s single core speed matters more than the amount of cores.
That’s how I understand it at least. Is this right?
What are your thoughts about this?
CPU audio performance : Processors with faster cores v.s. a higher core count?
And most important: How does Cubase utilize multiple cores?