Hey guys ...
I am wondering if anyone can help and post some advice .
I am in the market for a new laptop . I am trying to decide between the new Intel i5 and i7 processor .
I am just wondering if the i7 will be too much ( and also not take advantage of all 4 cores ) for running Audiomulch ?
Seems like all the research i'm doing keeps leading back to the beginning . Like the i7 is only useful if yo9u are utilizing all 4 cores . But i wonder if anyone has had experience with using this system and if it's worth the money in the long run for music applications ..
Thanks
I don't have direct experience with the i7, but I can say that at the moment AudioMulch will only make major use of 2 cores (1 for the GUI, one for audio). You may see some benefit from the OS being able to do stuff on the other cores. Some plugins (e.g. Kontakt) may be capable of using the other cores in some situations.
I think a lot of DAW software can use multiple cores for audio dsp these days. It's a bit harder to support in a modular application like AudioMulch which is why I havn't done it yet... something for version 3.
Hopefully someone with some experience will answer..
Ted, it makes perfect sense to buy Core i7 if you can afford that. Newer Intel Core processors come with Intel Turbo Boost technology, which is really helpful when you're running certain applications that weren't made parallel (i.e. applications that use single core). The trick is simple: if you have only one core working and others idling, Turbo Boost automatically overclocks the first core while halting others, so the processor won't overheat but instead run your single-core application way faster than, say, a Core 2 Duo would. And the more powerful the processor, the more you could push with Turbo Boost, so buying Core i7 is a good idea. I don't have any links handy but I believe that I saw very compelling tests on AnandTech or similar sites.
Also, have a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Turbo_Boost