I’ve seen a few people swear by their Intel core-i7 machines, and having asked advice from other techy minded friends, they do indeed seem to be the bees knees.
However, I simply cannot afford one of these machines. But I can afford one of the -i5 machines.
I run Cubase E5, and most of my VSTs are via NI Komplete (modern drums, PBass, session strings etc). Most of my plug-in effects are the oboard Cubase ones.
I use it for songwriting, so there might be vst drums, bass, piano & strings; then 2 or 3 guitar parts and 3 or 4 vocal tracks.
Is it worth favouring the -i5s over the cheaper -i3s?
i aint sure bout this either, i just ordered an i7 from pc specialist only to change it to an i5 after i read this on the steinberg website.
HYPER-THREADING
For an overview on how Hyper-Threading actually works, please see this Wikipedia article (external link)
So how does Hyper-Threading affect the performance in our applications?
We have found that - depending on the system environment - having Hyper-Threading (HT) enabled can lead to performance issues and spikes in the VST performance meter. At very low latencies, even dropouts may occur.
If you are running a single Pentium 4 CPU system, enabling Hyper-Threading results in an increase of processing power.
If you are running a Xeon HT multi-processor system (not all Xeon models support HT) or a Pentium Extreme Edition dual-core system, you should disable HT in the BIOS.
The same applies to the new Intel i7 (“Nehalem”) processors that re-introduced Hyper-Threading. We are currently investigating using an Intel i7 with HT enabled in conjunction with our sequencers. As long as our tests are still ongoing, we recommend turning off Hyper-Threading if any performance issue appear. On PC you can still disable the HT in the BIOS.
so i quickly went online and changed my order to an i5 (messing in bios is over my head) only to then find a few threads that suggest steinberg are talking out their blow hole as most seem to get the benefits of H.T, i dont know enough about computers to take the chance so i’ve stuck with i5 but it would be nice to know the deciding factors in which make it work or not
overall this is good advice although sometimes not. my new pc was only gonna have 8gig ram but ended up with 16gig, totally overkill for my purposes but the difference in price was about £35, so why not, it only makes it more future proof, i just think its the same with i5 vs i7
One thing I am not sure about, though, how he simplified the answer is not really the way things look like in the knowledge base file he is linking to in the referenced thread :
We have found that - depending on the system environment - having Hyper-Threading (HT) enabled can lead to performance issues and spikes in the VST performance meter. At very low latencies, even dropouts may occur.
If you are running a single Pentium 4 CPU system, enabling Hyper-Threading results in an increase of processing power.
If you are running a Xeon HT multi-processor system (not all Xeon models support HT) or a Pentium Extreme Edition dual-core system, you should disable HT in the BIOS.
The same applies to the new Intel i7 (“Nehalem”) processors that re-introduced Hyper-Threading. We are currently investigating using an Intel i7 with HT enabled in conjunction with our sequencers. As long as our tests are still ongoing, we recommend turning off Hyper-Threading if any performance issue appear. On PC you can still disable the HT in the BIOS.
It doesn’t say Cubase does not support HT, but is merely pointing out the performance issues with HT in some systems. With Nehalem, it is recommended to turn off HT “if” any performance issues become apparent.
As far as I can tell HT causes zero problems on 2600k, even at 4.3GHz overclock I’m using at, and I see even loading on all 8 processors in task manager. I wonder if it is a case where Steinberg has not tested HT on 2600k, and therefore is not officially supporting it because of past cases, rather than “HT doesn’t do a damn thing for Cubase”.
I use my computer for music production only here, also, as that is all I do here. What I don’t understand is that HT is working fine, and there’s no sign that it isn’t on my machine. How else should I have load on all 8 processors in task manager?
Fwiw, I have an i7 860. Following extensive testing I settled for: HT OFF, C-State OFF, SpeedStep ON, TurboBoost OFF. On benchmark projects (adding MBCs until it chokes up) I can load far more with HT ON but on a normal project load, which is for me 15-20%, I get smoother performance and even a slightly lower CPU Load with HT OFF.
This would seem to back up what Steinberg say.
Also, I have an idea that not all i7 models support HT.
SOFTWARE
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Cubase 6.0.5 64-bit
Device Setup: Steinberg Audio Power Scheme ON
Device Setup: Multiprocessing ON
HARDWARE
Focusrite Saffire LE (FW400) v.1.5
Dell XPS 8100 Desktop
i7 Hyperthreading in the new generation cpu’s isn’t degrading performance. I’ve read more places, that the sandy bridge i7 cpu’s will give you 30-40% more speed in Cubase than the i5 cpu’s. I can’t say for sure, that the HT will benefit performance, but I’m about 95% sure, that the sandy bridge i7 HT will give you much more performance.
I know that the old first released intel HT in the old P4 cpu’s could make performance worse. But for newer i7 cpu’s, I don’t think there is any problems.
Please correct me If I’m wrong, as I think will put my eyes on another cpu when I’m upgrading for a sandy bridge or sandy bridge-e DAW setup.