Single core plugins - which CPU?

[JoaCHIP]

So, I'm testing a new plugin which sounds much better at 96 kHz than 44.1 or 48 (this is not uncommon btw). And of course, it's putting some strain on my old i7 2600 CPU.

If I select a complicated preset and hold down a large complicated chord, I see one core being maxed out to almost 100% and of course, the result is stuttering. All the other cores are at 0% because in this case it's the only plugin loaded.

It's a scenario I've been in before: One core being maxed out, all the other cores doing nothing or almost nothing. The DAW cannot distribute one plugin over multiple cores. A scenario I still haven't seen is all cores being maxed out. So basically, adding more cores to my system would seem pointless.

So I'm thinking that the optimal CPU would be the one that is fastest at single core floating point performance (audio software uses a lot of IEEE floating point operations).

Sadly, most modern CPU reviews mention little or nothing about per-core floating point performance.

So which CPU is the one to get these days? Are they even significantly faster than the one I have? It seems to me like the per-core CPU performance pretty much stopped increasing around 2010 or so.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Comments? Anyone?

[noiseboyuk]

I've been pouring over all this for the past few months. Here's the summary:

Strong single core score:
Better performance on active tracks with demanding plugins
Better performance when using Cubase's AsioGuard 2
Better performance at very low buffer settings

Strong multi core score:
Better performance on big projects with lots of plugins

So what you need to look for depends on how you work. For me, I need the best combination of both.

There is one obvious standout at the moment, and that is the i7 8700K. It has a near untouchable single core score, and the 6 cores means its multi score is considerably improved over its predecessor the 7700K. It's also impressively low powered, and low cost. The main downside for me is that I'm not a fan of the Z370 platform that the 8700K operates on - low number of SATA ports and peripherals in general, so I actually jumped for the 7820X instead. This has a lower single core score but still healthy, the thermals are good as is the multi score.

I don't know so much about AMD processors, but I know that there have been some latency issues for audio work for many AMD processors. I'd strongly recommend Scan for info on setting up audio PCs even if you don't buy from them, they have a wealth of very well informed info. Google Scan and Dawbench. The Geekbench 4 processor benchmarks are also invaluable - https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks

[fluffy_little_something]

Even on my Ryzen 1500X I can play U-he's Repro 5 (which is said to be very demanding) without problems, provided I have its multicore support enabled. There are no latency issues, either, despite my using Asio4All.

Don't modern DAW's spread the load across multiple cores by themselves by now? Afaik, only a few such as energyXT don't.

I don't know how reliable that benchmark is, but I suppose the list is at least an indication...
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

[noiseboyuk]

Repro 5 is pretty unusual with its multicore mode, and its great. The vast majority of plugins are single core, regardless of DAW.

[bill45]

Even on my Ryzen 1500X I can play U-he's Repro 5 (which is said to be very demanding) without problems, provided I have its multicore support enabled. There are no latency issues, either, despite my using Asio4All.

Don't modern DAW's spread the load across multiple cores by themselves by now? Afaik, only a few such as energyXT don't.

I don't know how reliable that benchmark is, but I suppose the list is at least an indication...
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

What adio inteface are you using?

[bill45]

Repro 5 is pretty unusual with its multicore mode, and its great. The vast majority of plugins are single core, regardless of DAW.

Awesome Do you know if Diva has the multi core mode?

[noiseboyuk]

Repro 5 is pretty unusual with its multicore mode, and its great. The vast majority of plugins are single core, regardless of DAW.

Awesome Do you know if Diva has the multi core mode?

It does - I don't know why U-he supports multi core but almost nobody else seems to. I understand that the way Repro and Diva work with multicore support is different from each other, but I don't really understand what that difference is (I don't own Diva).

With Repro, why Urs recommends caution with multicore (and it isn't an option to have it on as a default) is I think for 2 reasons. 1 - it seems to vary wildly from CPU to CPU how useful it is, and 2) things can get complicated with multiple instances. My 4930k LOVES multicore mode, its single core performance is poor but multi is OK, and Repro's usage drops by about 2/3rds for me - fantastic. I've also used several instances in a project and not run into any issues. But the same isn't true for everyone.

[bill45]

Thanks I have demo of Diva installed I will try it.

[bill45]

Downloaded the repro 5 Demo.The Multi core option makes a huge difference.
I could not find a multi core option in Diva.I have an old version of the demo.

[bill45]

I installed the latest version of Diva.
CPU load is much better with Multicore enabled..
There was an awesome organ patch in the earlier version, that I can't find
in the newer version.

[Jax Pok]

Ableton live runs each track on it's own core so it's not about plugins but about which DAW you use and how it uses cores. You don't want any plugin to use too much of the CPU core its on.
The more cores in a CPU the slower it is set to run so I wouldn't go with anymore than 8 cores.

If you use u-He synths it a different story they spread their voices over many cores I don't know if theirs a cap on it.