Which CPU benchmarks are the most useful for running Pianoteq? I want to get an inexpensive box dedicated to Pianoteq 6.
Notes:
I'm happy with my Macbook Air's CPU performance (Intel Core i5-4250U @ 1.30GHz). Pianoteq has handled everything I could throw at it, but it's my personal laptop, so I can't have it tethered to the piano all the time!
Since PTQ now also runs on a Raspberry Pi 3
with these specs: CPU: 4× ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2GHz, RAM: 1GB LPDDR2 (900 MHz)
CPU requirements should be really low (provided you make some appropriate settings,
see here e.g.:
http://www.forum-pianoteq.com/viewtopic.php?id=5196
I considered the Raspberry Pi3, but from what I can find online (including that thread) - it looks like the Cortex A53 CPU is at the low-end of the performance spectrum.
So I'm looking for a CPU with a good price/performance ratio. Something that can run Pianoteq without breaking a sweat and at the same time not empty my bank account. But I don't know which benchmarks are important to look at.
For example, my MacBook Air's CPU seems to have a good price/performance ratio - it's inexpensive and runs Pianoteq pretty well. But when I look at the PassMark benchmarks for my CPU (Intel Core i5 4250U @ 1.3 Ghz) - I don't know which benchmarks would indicate that it probably runs Pianoteq pretty well.
The benchmarks might not give you the information you need.
Besides drivers (e.g. ASIO) you need to consider the whole system. If the CPU gets to hot the system will throttle the CPU and you will get bad results. We Surface pro users have to take that into considerations - the CPU provides enough performance, but if you allow the OS to use 100% of the CPU power the CPU might get too hot and then throttle - and then you are in klicks and pops realm. Therefore it might be better to force the OS to only bring the CPU up to 80% of the clock-speed and get a relatively constant performance.
I guess most of the i-processors from the last 2-3 years should have enough power to run Pianoteq with some plugins. However, if the system around those processors allow them to perform is another question.
Mobile Macs have a quite good cooling architecture.
Thus I do not think that the answer is straight forward.
best
You can disable CPU throttling and/or provide additional cooling pads to your Surface... Actually I think if you use the High Performance power scheme, there's no CPU throttling happening at all (not 100% sure, but that IS the case on my desktop).
You can disable CPU throttling and/or provide additional cooling pads to your Surface... Actually I think if you use the High Performance power scheme, there's no CPU throttling happening at all (not 100% sure, but that IS the case on my desktop).
Surface standard OS config does not seem to offer performance modes - seems one needs to edit regedit .... Technically I would expect the system to throttle despite of the settings if it cannot cool. Which is likely for older models with internal fan only. Having cooling pads or additional fans is quite inconvenient on the piano IMHO
one surfaceproaudio they made tests and it seems that e.g. with Surface pro 2017 (i5) it is best to set the high performance mode (after regedit) to a value slightly less than 100% (so that it does not kick in turbo mode which will lead to overheating and thus throttling) - ok, with a passively cooled system. I tried setting the older Pro 3 to 80% which gave me enough power to run Pianoteq with additional plugins (cpu meter of DAW around 30%). of course this is for playing only - no composition with multiple VIs.
best
Here's my 'best guess' of CPUs with a good price/performance ratio. All these CPUs are faster than my laptop (which runs Pianoteq acceptably). So even the slowest CPU should run Pianoteq nicely. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY - they are all US$150 or less :-)
For Reference:
1. My Intel Core i5-4250U @ 1.30GHz is at the bottom of this list, it has an Avg. PassMark rating of 3439 and a Single Thread Rating of 1459.
2. CPUs that compete with the Raspberry Pi 3's Coretex A53 CPU (like the Intel Atom CPUs) had Single Thread ratings in the 300-700 range, so none of them made this list.
Data in the list is the 'Single Thread Rating' from the PassMark website. Higher numbers are better. Assume the CPUs are at least dual-core. The top pick would be the Intel Core i3-7100 (different from the i3-7100U). Also, the Intel Core CPUs tended to have better all-around Avg. PassMark benchmarks (aside from the listed Single Thread Rating).
Single
Thread
Rating Price CPU
2,265 $134 — Intel Core i3-6098P @ 3.60GHz
2,232 $115 — Intel Core i3-7100 @ 3.90GHz (TOP PICK)
2,166 $148 — Intel Core i3-6300 @ 3.80GHz
2,148 $82 — Intel Pentium G3258 @ 3.20GHz
2,143 $100 — Intel Pentium G4620 @ 3.70GHz
2,132 $137 — Intel Core i3-4170 @ 3.70GHz
2,130 $104 — Intel Pentium G3470 @ 3.60GHz
2,106 $109 — Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.70GHz
2,088 $126 — Intel Core i3-4350 @ 3.60GHz
2,078 $97 — Intel Pentium G4520 @ 3.60GHz
2,070 $87 — Intel Pentium G4600 @ 3.60GHz
2,017 $125 — Intel Core i3-4150 @ 3.50GHz
2,015 $116 — Intel Pentium G3460 @ 3.50GHz
1,992 $71 — Intel Pentium G4500 @ 3.50GHz
1,987 $150 — Intel Pentium G4560 @ 3.50GHz
1,964 $136 — Intel Core i3-4130 @ 3.40GHz
1,959 $130 — AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
1,919 $76 — Intel Pentium G3260 @ 3.30GHz
1,912 $146 — Intel Core i5-3470 @ 3.20GHz
1,891 $115 — Intel Pentium G3440 @ 3.30GHz
1,880 $50 — Intel Pentium G4400 @ 3.30GHz
1,876 $140 — Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30GHz
1,874 $116 — Intel Pentium G3430 @ 3.30GHz
1,859 $96 — Intel Pentium G3250 @ 3.20GHz
1,857 $94 — AMD A12-9800
1,854 $135 — Intel Core i5-3450 @ 3.10GHz
1,825 $124 — Intel Core i3-3245 @ 3.40GHz
1,824 $110 — Intel Core i3-6100T @ 3.20GHz
1,814 $82 — Intel Pentium G2140 @ 3.30GHz
1,811 $68 — Intel Core i3-3240 @ 3.40GHz
1,807 $74 — AMD PRO A6-9500
1,803 $143 — Intel Core i5-3450S @ 2.80GHz
1,796 $142 — Intel Core i3-4160T @ 3.10GHz
1,785 $71 — Intel Pentium G3240 @ 3.10GHz
1,776 $49 — AMD Athlon X4 950
1,768 $75 — AMD A10-9700
1,768 $135 — Intel Core i5-4430S @ 2.70GHz
1,760 $54 — Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.30GHz
1,757 $51 — Intel Celeron G3920 @ 2.90GHz
1,755 $42 — Intel Celeron G3900 @ 2.80GHz
1,755 $123 — Intel Core i3-2130 @ 3.40GHz
1,754 $98 — AMD Athlon X4 845
1,745 $103 — Intel Pentium G3220 @ 3.00GHz
1,744 $120 — AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core
1,743 $88 — Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.10GHz
1,742 $100 — Intel Core i5-2390T @ 2.70GHz
1,739 $142 — Intel Xeon E3-1265L V2 @ 2.50GHz
1,733 $105 — AMD Ryzen 3 1200
1,718 $150 — AMD A10-7890K
1,713 $107 — Intel Core i3-3210 @ 3.20GHz
1,713 $98 — Intel Pentium G3260T @ 2.90GHz
1,712 $90 — Intel Pentium G2130 @ 3.20GHz
1,700 $35 — Intel Core i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz
1,697 $149 — Intel Core i5-7400T @ 2.40GHz
1,694 $94 — AMD A12-9800E
1,694 $126 — Intel Core i5-2320 @ 3.00GHz
1,690 $57 — Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.30GHz
1,673 $89 — Intel Core i3-4130T @ 2.90GHz
1,665 $106 — Intel Celeron G1850 @ 2.90GHz
1,651 $69 — Intel Celeron G1840 @ 2.80GHz
1,651 $135 — Intel Core i5-3330S @ 2.70GHz
1,646 $46 — Intel Pentium G3250T @ 2.80GHz
1,645 $92 — AMD Athlon X4 880K
1,641 $139 — AMD PRO A10-9700E
1,641 $88 — Intel Pentium G2120 @ 3.10GHz
1,637 $123 — Intel Core i5-3320M @ 2.60GHz
1,632 $59 — AMD A6-7470K
1,620 $119 — AMD PRO A8-9600
1,608 $41 — Intel Pentium G2030 @ 3.00GHz
1,607 $97 — Intel Pentium G870 @ 3.10GHz
1,606 $75 — Intel Pentium G3420T @ 2.70GHz
1,604 $146 — Intel Core i5-2400S @ 2.50GHz
1,600 $74 — AMD PRO A6-9500E
1,597 $74 — AMD Athlon X4 860K
1,596 $140 — Intel Core i7-2760QM @ 2.40GHz
1,588 $145 — Intel Xeon E5-2670 @ 2.60GHz
1,583 $88 — AMD A10-7860K
1,583 $57 — Intel Core i3-2100 @ 3.10GHz
1,582 $145 — Intel Core i3-2105 @ 3.10GHz
1,581 $84 — Intel Celeron G1820 @ 2.70GHz
1,576 $100 — Intel Core i5-2300 @ 2.80GHz
1,575 $71 — Intel Celeron G1830 @ 2.80GHz
1,574 $57 — AMD A6-7400K APU
1,572 $28 — Intel Xeon E5-1607 @ 3.00GHz
1,571 $129 — AMD A10-7850K APU
1,561 $82 — AMD Athlon X4 870K
1,561 $70 — Intel Core i5-2540M @ 2.60GHz
1,555 $56 — AMD A8-9600
1,552 $30 — Intel Pentium G860 @ 3.00GHz
1,550 $120 — AMD A10-7870K
1,543 $77 — AMD A8-7600 APU
1,543 $35 — Intel Pentium G2020 @ 2.90GHz
1,540 $112 — AMD Athlon X4 840
1,537 $105 — AMD A10-7800 APU
1,537 $86 — Intel Core i5-680 @ 3.60GHz
1,532 $135 — AMD FX-8370 Eight-Core
1,528 $65 — AMD FX-4350 Quad-Core
1,521 $150 — AMD A10-6700 APU
1,512 $103 — AMD A8-7670K
1,510 $142 — Intel Xeon E5-2665 @ 2.40GHz
1,507 $111 — AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core
1,499 $28 — Intel Pentium G850 @ 2.90GHz
1,497 $90 — Intel Xeon E5-4617 @ 2.90GHz
1,496 $119 — AMD A10-7700K APU
1,495 $36 — Intel Pentium G2010 @ 2.80GHz
1,485 $95 — Intel Pentium G645 @ 2.90GHz
1,481 $65 — Intel Celeron G1630 @ 2.80GHz
1,480 $100 — AMD FX-6350 Six-Core
1,464 $58 — Intel Xeon E5-2640 @ 2.50GHz
1,460 $126 — AMD A10-5800K APU
1,459 $60 — Intel Pentium G840 @ 2.80GHz
1,459 $510 — Intel Core i5-4250U @ 1.30GHz - this is my Macbook Air's CPU which runs Pianoteq acceptably; with all the settings on ON / High, it only glitches/ticks/drops out when I press A LOT OF KEYS with the sustain pedal down.. * For reference, the Intel Core i5-4250U @ 1.30GHz has an Avg. PassMark rating of 3439 and a Single Thread Rating of 1459.