Quad - should I buy it?

Looking at an Intel quad 9300 2.5 Ghz.

What performance should I expect with Omnisphere together with Sonar 7 or 8?

Thanks

I'm not sure of the performance of various CPU's but my Q6600 does suffer if I have too much going on in Omni. It is important to switch off the patch effects if you are in Live or stack mode and just use the aux sends and the master out.
I've shoved my latency to 1024 samples which is ok and I'm able to play without a hitch. But once again, it really does depend on the patches you are using. If you have the multi oscillators on in layer A and the same in layer B you'll notice that the CPU usage will increase and the more you have switched on in a layer the more intensive it is.
To be honest, Omnisphere was built to last for quite a few years and into the next generation of multi-core processors. So even if you can only access a couple of patches at the same time, in future I'm sure all eight patches will be accessible.
It's always been a game of catch up with regards to hardware and software and probably always will be.

Thanks for answers.

OK, Novata, you have a Q6600.

Compared to your processor, I guess a 9300 2.5 Ghz won´t make much difference ?

Well, you should be ok with the 9300 2.5GHz Klagga, I don't see a problem. Go for it.

novata wrote:Well, you should be ok with the 9300 2.5GHz Klagga, I don't see a problem. Go for it.

Thanks. I´m a bit concerned, though, that it may not matter how many cores the processors will get in the future, if the Omni only makes use of one core at a time anyway.

I'm not sure of how good this representation is of Omnisphere on a Quad core as the screen recorder is operating as well. However, please use this link for a quick demo video I have made to show how my Q6600 2.4GHz performance is with Omnisphere.

Quadcoreomnidemo

Very generous - thanks! I have no avi-filesupport in my computer right now, so right now I can only hear the sound, but I´ll have a look at this at a friends computer soon.

I have a quad... 2.4GHz, Intel core2 quad Q6600.
After I upgraded to this system it has been SO much easier to be intuiative. everything just happens instantly (Well, except from omnisphere, which takes about 15 sec to load , hope they fix that soon).
Also I would suggest getting 3GB ram. Then you will have the 2GB for your daw and 1 for the system...

I was able to open that AVI on my Mac with VLC... even though it reported an error.
I'm amazed that you're hitting all 4 CPUs!
I thought it might be something to do with the multi you used... but no... I'm still hitting one CPU.
Interesting post from Roel de Witt here:
KVR

Hi all,
it hits all four cores in my machine as well. Had heard reports that it wasn't but I spent time today checking it out and it is at least on my system multicore compliant.

Nuendo 4.4
Intel D35
QX6700
4 GB RAM
XP SP3

rsp

zvenx, can you see any consistency to the way that the CPUs are hit?
If you program a sustained note and then add more notes one at a time, do you see the CPUs flip into action serially?
This is obviously not host related as both you and I are on Nuendo - and Omnisphere is the same. We're both on XP. The major difference is that you are on a single quad core and I'm a on a dual/dual core.

Just tried it, all four processors are engaged simultaneously and as I sustain more notes, and therefore use more polyphony, I see in the task manager about equal cpu % increase in all four processor.
One thing I do however is I hate intel speedstep, doesn't work properly on my machine without additional software which disables speedstep.
rsp

There are other forums discussions on multi-CPUs and Omnisphere. One forum said that plugins are not supposed to try to spread themselves across multiple CPUs, because that is the job of the host sequencer. So Omnisphere stays in one CPU. And if you have 2 or more patches (in one Multi) all are in one CPU.

The forum says that if you really have a CPU-heavy Mulit, and you want it to go into 2 or more CPUs, you must have multiple instances of Omnisphere: and then put one patch in each instance. Then the host will spread the instances over multiple CPUs. That is good, but then you cannot use the Live or Stack things in the Omnisphere, but maybe you dont need those.

That isn't how it is behaving in Nuendo. maybe it behaves like that in other hosts, but not Nuendo.
rsp

zvenx wrote:That isn't how it is behaving in Nuendo. maybe it behaves like that in other hosts, but not Nuendo.
rsp

I think we've established that it does behave like that in Nuendo.... the host I am using. I'm still trying to establish how you are seeing an even spread over all four cores... there's voodoo involved.

ok maybe we can agree that is how it behaves in your nuendo
rsp

From Spectrasonics Support:

[An instantiation] will use one core until it's full and then move on to the next core as needed. Multiple plugs will address multiple cores.

"as needed".... that's pretty wide open. If a core is run until it's full then then there's quite a potential for clicks. And, certainly, the VST performance meter will peak if one core gets up there. Still does not explain how Zvenx is addressing 4 cores... unless that threshold for employing more cores has been reached on his system.

maybe I should try and run it without rightmark cpu whatever it is called I use to kill speedstep and see.
rsp