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Macs vs PCs - is there really noticeable difference in latency?

what should we do?

  • Stay with your PCs , forget the Mac

    Votes: 12 40.0%

  • Stay with your PCs, by Mac latter

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sell PC, buy mac

    Votes: 9 30.0%

  • Buy 5 year supply of carrots.

    Votes: 9 30.0%
  • Total voters
    30
R

ROGI

Apr 25, 2005
770
304
Croatia, Europe
#1
I've been wondering about that. are macs really that better for audio in terms of system latency than PCs? I have intel i5 3570k cpu (and it's not even overclocked) with 16gb of ram and 120gb ssd and with behringer x18 digital mixer i get 2.3ms in and 2.3 ms out latency when set on asio 64samples, while total cpu usage with reaper and bunch of vsts howers around 15% (2% ish in reaper).
I can't really hear any delay in sound when i play / record. guitarist and i tried to push system to the limit, added bunch of FXes to dozen of track (bias amp sim, ignite amps sim, every track had some FX) , all set to record on 12 tracks, etc etc, cpu didnt even get over 35% usage and there was NO dropout in signal at any moment. i did mistake some clipping for minor droput :D silly me. then i sent white noise for 60 seconds and waited for dropout... none. nada. all is fine.

now, i also have laptop (HP, really nice 17" display) that has i7 920m cpu (first gen i7), 8gb of ram, and 120gb ssd. that laptop would be the backbone and foundation of our live system. while i didn't try to push it as i did with desktop, i expect it not to corss over 50% of cpu usage when driven live (we'll have all of our signals going from behringer into reaper and then back to in ears and FOH). if this all works live and with that small latency then we are all set.

BUT!
I've been hearing all the raves about how macs have miles better audio paths and lower latencies. Is that really true? Is the mac worth it ? i've seen macbooks pro with quad core i7 cpus that cost +2000$. I've bought my laptop (hp) used for 400$ and pimped it with more ram (8gb instead of 4) and ssd for 100$ more . that's 500$ machine that does it's job without breaking a sweat. i know newer macs are all the rave 6th gen i7 cpus, but that's beside the point. also, dual core macs are just making me uncomfortable considering them, we are running reaper on our setup with multiple tracks and FXing, eqing... and that's just for now, our basic system, even if dual core cpus can run that, we are probably unable to expand.

So, what's your opinion? is the mac worth it? should we stay with our system and go down PC lane, stay with our system and buy mac at some point in the future, or just get a mortgage and buy a mac cos eating is overrated anyway?
 
#2
Buying a Mac or a PC is not a decision to be made based on latency. Both manufacturers are equally capable of achieving latency benchmarks relative to their respective processing power for a given machine. I'm an Apple guy and get great results. Some of my friends are PC guys and also get great results. A lot of PC guys tend to use ASIO4ALL to sort out any latency issues which isn't required on a Mac, but since it's free it becomes a non-issue. Go with whichever one you like for a multitude of other reasons than latency and you'll be in good shape. As long as it's got the horsepower...
 
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#4
seamonkey said:
Mac MINI is fun idea to wet your whistle.
Click to expand...
I've got a mid-2012 model (2.3ghz quad core i7, 16gb RAM) and it will run any "conventional" session I can throw at it. I've had absurdly high track and buss counts with zero issues. You can max it out by deploying multiple instances of CPU hog VSTs like Omnisphere, or plugins like Ozone6, but that would be the case with any machine that isn't an absolute powerhouse. Very solid platform and affordable to most as long as the cost of adding peripherals doesn't push the build cost up to high relative to other comparable systems.
 
#6
so i'm staying with my laptop :) thnx!
i've managed to find breaking point on the desktop. recording 16 tracks all running positive grid bias and some compressors + eq + reverb, and 7 tracks that are in playback mode with bias + eq on 4 of them and eqing with reverb on the rest of them. that was with 64 samples at 4800khz WOW! fun thing is that from what i've seen workload is not linear, i.e. for every one fx/track workload does not go increase proportionally. laptop should handle IMHO at least 60% of that workload and that's miles of headroom snice are running
* 2-3 pre-mastered-mixed tracks (wav drums, synths and samples) that will have no fx
* one guitar track at a time with positive grid bias amp sim + some eqing and fx (reverb, mods)
* one bass track with amp sim vst + eq + reverb
* one vocal track with eq + delay + mods
:cool:
 
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#11
Buy a RME Hammerfall PCIe card, a converter, and whatever computer has a very fast CPU, lots of RAM, and a fast GPU card.

My recommendation is a fast Intel i7 quad core (at least), RME Hammerfall AES32 PCIe, and RME ADI-8 DS MKIII. If you're serious about low latency, it does not come cheap.

Also, read this:
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Finally, Invalid Link Removed has more than a few professional engineers that are quite happy to provide insight into such matters.

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#12
My experience is that latency is a function of the interface, not the OS. Interfaces have to sample, digitize and then packetize audio information sent to the OS. This process can be done a lot of different ways and leads to delays which you interpret as latency or lag issues. Since you aren't seeing max utilization in CPU or RAM, the only other bottle neck has to be the audio connections and switching to Mac isn't going to make that any better.
 
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#13
so there is new development, i'll be getting new laptop, ASUS ROG G750JZ . thing is a beast has i7 4700 CPU, 16 gigs of ram, 250gb SSD. it will replace both my desktop and HP laptop. best part is that it has thunderbolt interface. i've seen that scarlet has launched audio interface with thunderbolt that has amazing >2ms round trip latency. that's more than half the latency i get on my setup. So, as i believe that future is in the thunderbolt interfaces i think i've made the right choice with asus laptop.

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#16
The reason I prefer mac for music is because on mac you rarely have to worry about things like installing drivers for interfaces, everything usually just works. Setting up audio inputs and outputs on mac is a breeze compared to PC. I'm not PC illiterate either, I can build a PC with my eyes closed and used to do I.T for chase bank. I think what it comes down to is that mac computers are very well optimized for OSX, and OSX is very stable. In my experience, OSX is much less likely to commit suicide than windows is. Its also much less likely to crash during an update, and I rarely if ever get error messages. With PC these things are commonplace. On PC everything you plug in and install becomes a hassle, very few things just work effortlessly. When it comes to something like recording or editing, I don't need that headache interrupting my creative process. Protools runs much more smoothly on OSX in my experience, and most studios you go to will be running it off of a mac. Less likely for something to go wrong.
 
#18
It depends on which Mac & which PC--I've used both--and seen good things and bad things in both.
I remember hearing how intuitive Macs were, but I find PCs more intuitive.
So it will vary from person to person and which PC, which Mac.

And if you can afford it--why not both?
 
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