Mixdown speed difference OSX/ PC , 2/3x time faster on PC

Cubase
#1

Hi there,

Just did a little comparison using the same cubase project on a OSX configuration and a PC .

The processors arent the same q : Mac mini 2011 is 2ghz quadcore, PC is a I7 2600 quadcore.

Project is full of VST/audio tracks/FX , duration of the project : 5mn.
Interesting thing is it takes only 52 seconds to offline mixdown on the PC while it takes 2 minutes and 52 seconds to bounce on the mac mini . Thats 3 times better for the PC. Well, PC processor is better, but
if we Look at cpubenchmark website, the processors are not so far away, Mini 2011 2ghz quad performs at 6000 while I7 2600 performs at 8300 points. So comparison might not be fair, still I think 3 times better seems a big difference.

Is Cubase OSX version supposed to be that slower compared to the PC one?

#2

Hello r,

With all due respect, what exactly are you looking for? A comparison between Mac and PC in their Cubase handling? Please don’t do that. This has hapenned so many times before, most of them resulting in a battle of different opinions with no satisfying results.

Are you not sure which platform to use and asking a simple question? OK, try them both and pick whichever works best for you. This forum is most likely not the best place to compare platform benchmarks.

All I’m asking you is not to wage another platform war in this forum. Not that I’m judging you are.

I use both, and I’m happy. I also have a Mac Mini server (on 24/7 for home use) which I don’t use for music purposes. I have a Mac Pro (for my work) which is way more powerful than a Mac Mini, which in turn is not the best choice for professional music production.

And as for an exact answer to your question, I wouldn’t know when it comes to apples and oranges.

Cheers.

#3

Yeah it´s weird that the bounce is so extremely slow in Cubase 7.5 for MAC. One day I am going to bootcamp my 6 core MacPro and run it as PC, no benefits from running OSX as far as I can see, only drawbacks.

#4

No i’m not looking for a platform war :wink:

Just that I was so surprised by the bounce speed difference.
I know my mac mini is less powerful, but 3x faster on PC , makes me think there’s something weird going on.
IF mac bounce was something like 2 minutes and PC was 1minutes and 30, I wouldnt complain, but here difference is too big. Mac has SSD by the way, PC runs kontakt libraries on 2 7200RPM HDDS, so it makes the whole thing even more surprising.

Basically, I would like to know if people experienced the same thing , and maybe it would be interesting to have a comparison between an Offline bounce on OSX and one on PC, with the SAME configuration. That way I could make a decision to say on OSX or WIN7.
I’m working in film composing so I often need to bounces revisions, as quickly as possible and I’m starting to wonder what are the benefits to stay on OSX if the performance is so bad in comparison ? OSX interface? Coreaudio? Audioease Snapper ? (it’s really useful :wink: )
Also, C7.5 looks really snappier on WIN7

#5

The mac mini has a mobile processor. A Intel Core i7-2635QM @ 2.00GHz for the server. Since it is a mobile processor
it has limited memory bus and smaller caches. I guess that cubase performance is better on windows that osx. It used to be that before. But there are many variables. So a fair comparison is to use the same hardware. Normally there is no problems to run windows on a mac. But in many hardware aspects mac really sucks. Very much one size fits all. But still I use OSX since it better than windows by my opinion.

#6

Well im sure you’ve just started one

#7

Thanks Cubace for your answer.

I would like to have the best performance I could on OSX. If Cubase
OSX performs at 90 % of what the hardware can while Cubase vers PC performs at 100 % , it doesnt matter so much to me.
But if Cubase OSX performs 2 or 3 times slower than on PC , I think I would have to change OS , sadly.


Goal of my topic would be to find someone who can tests a huge Cubase session with the same hardware on OSX and PC , and tells us how many seconds it takes to do a offline mixdown. This would give me a good indication and would help me decide if I stay in Mac world (and maybe buy a good hackintosh configuration ) or if I move to Windows world.

#8

However, I think you need to put things into perspective and work out exactly how much extra time is wasted using OSX over Windows. I know that you said that you need to do off-line bounce fairly often, but if it only saves you 10 minutes a day to use Windows, I would suggest that you should use the OS that you are more comfortable with.

DG

#9

Flame bait if I ever saw it.

Shut 'er down!

#10

+1 Need to work out the weighted importance of the activity compared to the whole usage workflow.

To the OP: Are there any other workflow issues for YOU with OSX that are tipping the scales away from it?
I ask because typically people have strong reasons (personal or work) for choosing one OR the other, which would tend to make whether rendering takes more time on one or the other of low importance.

In the end, you have to choose what feels comfortable for you to work with, for whatever reasons, and regardless of what other people think.

#11

Regardless of whatever personal biases one has about OSX or Windows, I would think knowing why there are rendering time differences would be advantageous to know, because if it is not actually due to intrinsic differences in OSs, but perhaps due to some obscure Cubase (or even OS) default settings being different for each OS, then one can avoid inadvertently setting it incorrectly, or SB may need to align the settings.