Hello all, I was wondering if anyone has done any sort of "Platform" comparisons? I am in the market for a new machine, and was just wondering if there were any performance comparions for the various platforms for which PD is available.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Mike McGonagle
Hi Mike,
Mike McGonagle wrote:
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has done any sort of "Platform" comparisons? I am in the market for a new machine, and was just wondering if there were any performance comparions for the various platforms for which PD is available.
More than enough stuff in the archives about this. My take:
I don't know anything about Windows, haven't touched it since 2002. I do find that quite a bit of PD is either optimized for or developed with Linux on Intel architecture in mind. You have the widest choice of objects available and often running better than on any other platform.
Additionally, I run Gentoo and OSX both on a PPC Powerbook and discovered long ago that patches running on the same machine and same PD version are more than twice as fast on Linux as on OSX. There are probably many reasons for this, the most recently-discussed one was the interface with Core Audio.
If you're up to it, a Linux partition on an Intel machine (Mac or PC) would be the highest performance way to go. That leaves a lot up to you still.
best, d.
I second that. If your main motivating factor is performance, Linux
is the way to go. I too run a dual boot Linux/OSX system on my 2nd
notebook, and have found Pd patches running in linux to run with much
less cpu load than OSX. If you choose to use JACK instead of
Portaudio on OSX, you can reduce their cpu load significantly (fyi,
JACK isn't yet compatible with 10.5). The Mac/Linux system is
probably the best of both worlds + you can satisfy your OS X package
needs with Darwinports (which rocks).
As for windows, haven't used it for audio since 1999 and don't intend
on going back.
Do you have any other main considerations besides price and
performance when looking for a new machine?
~Brandon
On Dec 27, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Derek Holzer wrote:
Hi Mike,
Mike McGonagle wrote:
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has done any sort of "Platform"
comparisons? I am in the market for a new machine, and was just wondering if there
were any performance comparions for the various platforms for which PD is available.More than enough stuff in the archives about this. My take:
I don't know anything about Windows, haven't touched it since 2002.
I do find that quite a bit of PD is either optimized for or developed with Linux on Intel architecture in mind. You have the widest choice of objects available and often running better than on any other platform.Additionally, I run Gentoo and OSX both on a PPC Powerbook and discovered long ago that patches running on the same machine and
same PD version are more than twice as fast on Linux as on OSX. There are probably many reasons for this, the most recently-discussed one was
the interface with Core Audio.If you're up to it, a Linux partition on an Intel machine (Mac or PC) would be the highest performance way to go. That leaves a lot up to
you still.best, d.
-- derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista ---Oblique Strategy # 199: "What would make this really successful?"
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
Thanks for all the suggestions. It sounds like Linux might be the best. I have thought about getting an Intel Mac, but with the pricing compared to other Intel hardware, the bang for the buck may not really be worth Apple's prices. I still have some older hardware that is still very usable, and I was thinking about creating a little PD farm, and try networking them all together. Thanks again.
Mike
On Dec 28, 2007 9:34 AM, bsoisoi bsoisoi@mac.com wrote:
I second that. If your main motivating factor is performance, Linux is the way to go. I too run a dual boot Linux/OSX system on my 2nd notebook, and have found Pd patches running in linux to run with *much* less cpu load than OSX. If you choose to use JACK instead of Portaudio on OSX, you can reduce their cpu load significantly (fyi, JACK isn't yet compatible with 10.5). The Mac/Linux system is probably the best of both worlds + you can satisfy your OS X package needs with Darwinports (which rocks). As for windows, haven't used it for audio since 1999 and don't intend on going back.
Do you have any other main considerations besides price and performance when looking for a new machine?
~Brandon
On Dec 27, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Derek Holzer wrote:
Hi Mike,
Mike McGonagle wrote:
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has done any sort of "Platform" comparisons? I
am in the market for a new machine, and was just wondering if there were
any performance comparions for the various platforms for which PD is
available.
More than enough stuff in the archives about this. My take:
I don't know anything about Windows, haven't touched it since 2002. I do find that quite a bit of PD is either optimized for or developed with Linux on Intel architecture in mind. You have the widest choice of objects available and often running better than on any other platform.
Additionally, I run Gentoo and OSX both on a PPC Powerbook and discovered long ago that patches running on the same machine and same PD version are more than twice as fast on Linux as on OSX. There are probably many reasons for this, the most recently-discussed one was the interface with Core Audio.
If you're up to it, a Linux partition on an Intel machine (Mac or PC) would be the highest performance way to go. That leaves a lot up to you still.
best, d.
-- derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista ---Oblique Strategy # 199: "What would make this really successful?"
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
One thing that stands out on the Mac OS X front is the fact that Pd
is using the double precision math functions even though Pd uses
single precision floats. You can see it here:
http://pure-data.cvs.sourceforge.net/pure-data/pd/src/x_arithmetic.c? view=markup
Here's a previous discussion on this:
http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-dev/2006-01/006042.html
I don't think this would make a massive difference overall, but I'll
bet it would make a significant difference for any patch using sin,
cos, atan, atan2, sqrt, log, exp, fabs, or pow. Anyone feel like
writing a patch to make ./configure set things up properly?
.hc
On Dec 28, 2007, at 7:34 AM, bsoisoi wrote:
I second that. If your main motivating factor is performance,
Linux is the way to go. I too run a dual boot Linux/OSX system on
my 2nd notebook, and have found Pd patches running in linux to run
with much less cpu load than OSX. If you choose to use JACK
instead of Portaudio on OSX, you can reduce their cpu load
significantly (fyi, JACK isn't yet compatible with 10.5). The Mac/ Linux system is probably the best of both worlds + you can satisfy
your OS X package needs with Darwinports (which rocks).As for windows, haven't used it for audio since 1999 and don't
intend on going back.Do you have any other main considerations besides price and
performance when looking for a new machine?~Brandon
On Dec 27, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Derek Holzer wrote:
Hi Mike,
Mike McGonagle wrote:
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone has done any sort of "Platform"
comparisons? I am in the market for a new machine, and was just wondering if
there were any performance comparions for the various platforms for which PD is available.More than enough stuff in the archives about this. My take:
I don't know anything about Windows, haven't touched it since
2002. I do find that quite a bit of PD is either optimized for or developed with Linux on Intel architecture in mind. You have the widest choice of objects available and often running better than on any other
platform.Additionally, I run Gentoo and OSX both on a PPC Powerbook and discovered long ago that patches running on the same machine and
same PD version are more than twice as fast on Linux as on OSX. There are probably many reasons for this, the most recently-discussed one
was the interface with Core Audio.If you're up to it, a Linux partition on an Intel machine (Mac or PC) would be the highest performance way to go. That leaves a lot up
to you still.best, d.
-- derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ::: http://blog.myspace.com/ macumbista ---Oblique Strategy # 199: "What would make this really successful?"
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/ listinfo/pd-list
PD-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/ listinfo/pd-list
As we enjoy great advantages from inventions of others, we should be
glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and
this we should do freely and generously. - Benjamin Franklin
-
bsoisoi -
Derek Holzer -
Hans-Christoph Steiner -
Mike McGonagle