Protools Mac vs PC

Rav · #1 04-23-2005, 01:22 AM

I'm a protools user with a digi 002 rack and since I've been using it I've only ever had mac's hooked to it.

So today I had my recording gear at home for the first time in awhile and decided to hook it up to my home PC just to see how it performed.

On my G4 Dual processor Mac with 1 gig of ram I can generally run with about 24 tracks of audio with 1-2 plugins per track with out much of a problem. Some of the extremely high CPU load plugins like Amplitube I can maybe run 5-6 copy's of it on a 24 track session without too many problems. Anything past that and I get DAE errors from CPU overload.

I loaded PT 6.7 on a 2 year old PC I have here at the house. It's an AMD athlon 1500 with 1 gig of ram. I was amazed at how fast it is. I loaded up 32 tracks 1-2 plugins per and 17 copies of amplitube and was only at 50% CPU load.

Not to mention the only reason I was running on a G4 instead of a G5 in the first place is because from my experience G4's run PT faster.

All I can say is either digidesign or apple OSX has some major code performance issues.

-Rav

Tash · #2 04-23-2005, 04:21 AM

Which version of OS X is it? Prior to 10.3 there were some very serious bugs in OS relating to CPU resource handling which bogged down many systems.

Also I have heard many people complain about the quality of Digi's Core Audio drivers.

Rav · #3 04-23-2005, 05:36 AM

The Mac is on the latest patch of 10.3 and the PC is on XP with service pack 2 and latest updates.

Ironically Digi says they are incompatible with my motherboard chipset and with windows XP service pack 2 and it seems to work fine.

-Rav

C-5KO · #4 04-23-2005, 02:41 PM

Check out the Digidesign website User Conference, and search for the Bernstein Machines. There's a cheap version I think under $1000, that out performs most G4's. I have a G4 dual 1.25, and am in the process of putting together an AMD system to switch to PC.

Rav · #5 04-24-2005, 10:44 PM

Considering Digi develops on the mac platform and promote the mac as the platform to use this is pretty sad.

-Rav

msquared · #6 04-24-2005, 11:00 PM

The G4 has nowhere near the processor power of that AMD, despite what spin Steve Jobs chose to put on his product at the time. I don't know what specific G4 you have or what motherboard you're running in the PC, but you'd probably also find that the system bus has more bandwidth as well. No offense to your gear (which is nice gear and all) but the Motorola processors used in the G4 are way behind the times. Even with the difference in driver quality between Mac and PC for the Digidesign stuff, this performance gap is to be expected.

Rav · #7 04-24-2005, 11:30 PM

The main problem with the PC for protools from what I can tell so far is that digi certifies very little of it to work. And every version update its hit or mis if your computer is going to continue to work.

I have 5 PC's at my house and 2 MAC's and protools only works reliably on one of the PC's. I think building a PC just for protools could be a nightmare of guessing and trial and error.

It might be part of digi's marketing slant to keep people on mac's or maybe just coincidence but the PC's they do certify and guarantee to work seem to be slow outdated junk.

-Rav

**Basschair** · #8 04-25-2005, 08:29 AM

Very true. This is why, if you're planning to try PTLE on a PC, you should go to duc.digidesign.com, go to the PC user section, and one of the stickies is by Allen Halleda. It's not a "Bernstein" machine you should be searching for...it's an "Allenstein" machine. He has (or had) dedicated his time to researching and verifying compatibility with the latest and most powerful PC parts. AND, it's far, FAR cheaper than a Mac of comparible power.

I'm not against Macs. I love Macs. On my desk at work, I've got a Mac and PC sitting next to eachother, and will use both. To me, it's a matter of money/power/performance. The frustrations that come along with PC compatibility are worth it. Go with one of Allen's prescribed machines, work out any bugs, and you'll have a killer machine, and end up spending at least $1,000 less overall.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rav

The main problem with the PC for protools from what I can tell so far is that digi certifies very little of it to work. And every version update its hit or mis if your computer is going to continue to work.

I have 5 PC's at my house and 2 MAC's and protools only works reliably on one of the PC's. I think building a PC just for protools could be a nightmare of guessing and trial and error.

It might be part of digi's marketing slant to keep people on mac's or maybe just coincidence but the PC's they do certify and guarantee to work seem to be slow outdated junk.

-Rav

Sonic Seamus · #9 05-02-2005, 02:36 PM

I wish I had found this thread a while ago. My drummer and his finance came into some money so they went out and got a new G5 dual 2.5 w/ a GB of DDR to run a Digi 002 and PTLE. He's only running 8 simultaneous tracks for the time being but he's eventually gonna go to 24.

msquared · #10 05-02-2005, 02:55 PM

That's kind of like using a DeLorean to build a time machine....

Sonic Seamus · #11 05-02-2005, 02:59 PM

I think one of the big things that sold him on it was being able to export his work to other studios or for mastering since PT is pretty much the standard.