Is there any host sequencer on Windows that can effectively use 32 cores/64 logical cores?

[Amelia70]

"Are you sure that single core is on par with 9900k, I can't believe it actually." The general consensus from all the reviews I've seen seems to be "not quite on par, but close enough that it's no longer a real issue".

Regarding pro tools support..allow me to give you a real world example. Avid released an update the other day to allow pro tools to work on the latest mac os Catalina. However, both of apple's newest computers, the latest mac pro and MacBook pro, are not in the hardware compatibility list. So even though in reality, the only reason for anyone to hurredly install this version of pro tools would be if they had either one of those new macs that required Catalina to function, Avid will say your mac is not supported if you asked for support on that particular config right now. It's just the way it is and has been since I can remember.

[Jim Roseberry]

That said, the review at andatech went well above 4 ghz on overclocking the 3970X. IF I was able to get the 3970X at a stable, non fluctuating 4.0 gigahertz on all 32 cores, wouldn't that give me a great overall "balanced" performance?

You'll find the 3970x actually benchmarks *slower* when running all 32 cores at 4GHz.
You have to get the 3970x running all cores at 4.2GHz to (just barely) best the stock speed benchmarks.
Good luck with 4.2GHz. There's virtually no OC headroom on the 3970x.
(I mentioned this several posts above)
Even with vCore cranked up high, the 3970x won't run 4 cores stable at 4.2GHz (not even with all other cores at 3.7GHz).

To get the 9940x to run all 14 cores rock-solid stable at 4.5GHz, you're going to have to crank the vCore. The more cores, the harder it is to achieve max turbo frequency across all cores.
If you're putting the machine under heavy load, that means CPU temps are going to be high.
There's no way I'd use air cooling for a 14-core machine... and especially not if planning to over-clock. I'm well familiar with 140mm Noctua air coolers. They won't keep the 14-18 core i9's cool enough under load.

Another thing to keep in mind:
It's one thing to set vCore extremely high... to run a single benchmark and report the result.
It a whole different ballgame to do something like render video (where all cores are running at 100% load for several hours).

[EvilDragon]

Because I really appreciate what the developers of Reaper are doing and the price structure, I will buy a non commercial license of that to learn the program in my spare time and have a backup in case Avid are no more some day, and if I ever decide to use it for commercial work I will just upgrade to the commercial license. I am sure with time I can learn to love it.

Bravo and kudos for this very well thought out choice!


You are welcome to join Reaper forums in your learning phase. There are lots of PT refugees (and PT+Reaper side by side users) there. I am a regular there (go figure - it's my DAW of choice). Your questions will be sorted out. Do watch all of Kenny's videos when you get the time, though!

[Amelia70]

Because I really appreciate what the developers of Reaper are doing and the price structure, I will buy a non commercial license of that to learn the program in my spare time and have a backup in case Avid are no more some day, and if I ever decide to use it for commercial work I will just upgrade to the commercial license. I am sure with time I can learn to love it.

Bravo and kudos for this very well thought out choice!


You are welcome to join Reaper forums in your learning phase. There are lots of PT refugees (and PT+Reaper side by side users) there. I am a regular there (go figure - it's my DAW of choice). Your questions will be sorted out. Do watch all of Kenny's videos when you get the time, though!

Thank you and i will do that around end of next month. Right now I need to worry about getting a computer built that can use PT native thunderbolt and buy my HD compatible interfaces and get all that up and running. I hope I was articulate in that Reaper is my backup here so the first priority is to get PT up and running on Windows 10. I presume the pro version of windows 10 is the one to get for DAW use?
HD native has an asio driver so will be fine for Reaper also. Even if there's an issue, by buying a third party HD interface rather than the noisy Avid first party ones, I can even work around that by using the device's native asio driver if it comes to that. So it's like I am locking myself into Avid eco system once more but actually not locking myself into it at all, by buying interfaces that will give me the option of both.
I think i am going to stick with no more than 16 cores after all this and overclock as much as I can for single core workload, and I know both Pro tools and Reaper can perfectly scale across 32 total logical cores so that's the way i am going to go, either the 9960X 16 core or the 10940X 14 core which are basically the same price here now. The base clock on the 14 core is higher and might be easier to get to a higher stable clock speed. Now I have to investigate quiet water coolers of which I know zero.

[Amelia70]

That said, the review at andatech went well above 4 ghz on overclocking the 3970X. IF I was able to get the 3970X at a stable, non fluctuating 4.0 gigahertz on all 32 cores, wouldn't that give me a great overall "balanced" performance?

You'll find the 3970x actually benchmarks *slower* when running all 32 cores at 4GHz.
You have to get the 3970x running all cores at 4.2GHz to (just barely) best the stock speed benchmarks.
Good luck with 4.2GHz. There's virtually no OC headroom on the 3970x.
(I mentioned this several posts above)
Even with vCore cranked up high, the 3970x won't run 4 cores stable at 4.2GHz (not even with all other cores at 3.7GHz).

To get the 9940x to run all 14 cores rock-solid stable at 4.5GHz, you're going to have to crank the vCore. The more cores, the harder it is to achieve max turbo frequency across all cores.
If you're putting the machine under heavy load, that means CPU temps are going to be high.
There's no way I'd use air cooling for a 14-core machine... and especially not if planning to over-clock. I'm well familiar with 140mm Noctua air coolers. They won't keep the 14-18 core i9's cool enough under load.

Another thing to keep in mind:
It's one thing to set vCore extremely high... to run a single benchmark and report the result.
It a whole different ballgame to do something like render video (where all cores are running at 100% load for several hours).

Thank you very much. The AMD is a moot point now since I have decided to stick with Avid HD, and AMD is not officially supported. So, Intel it is.
I'll investigate water coolers on Thursday after Christmas when I have some time. My plan will be a minimum of 4ghz on either the 14 or 16 core and if I need to hire a professional overclocker to get the perfect settings for me, I will do so. Indeed I will be dabbling into the world of video with Vegas by Magix which I really like, so I am sure I will eventually be doing some tasks that completely utilise all the cores at 100%. My priority is performance AND stability so I would rather not skimp there, and get the best possible motherboard, power supply and cooler for the job. I will be saving 2 thousand dollars between the Intel processor vs the 3970X I originally set my sights on, therefore I have no problem spending on a top overlocking motherboard and cooler. Regards.
PS I still wish I had bought that 9990XE when it was available for sale but life goes on. 4GHZ base clock on all 14 cores and official 5ghz turbo on all cores, with 5.1 turbo for a lower amount of cores. It's the pinnacle of the 14 core CPU bins!

[stamp]

I presume the pro version of windows 10 is the one to get for DAW use?

Best Windows for daw use is Windows 10 LTSC. No bloat, no telemetry, doesn't force you to update, very low on resources, very fast.

[Jim Roseberry]

PS I still wish I had bought that 9990XE when it was available for sale but life goes on. 4GHZ base clock on all 14 cores and official 5ghz turbo on all cores, with 5.1 turbo for a lower amount of cores. It's the pinnacle of the 14 core CPU bins!

That's as good as it currently gets.
You're going to want a large (quiet) water-cooler.
The cooler you keep the CPU, the quieter the machine.

[THE INTRANCER]

^ For music production, I think that all this is pretty much overkill, and in terms of video production, much of the CPU processing will be off loaded to the graphics card should the software take advantage of it. If you were doing anything like compositing in Davinci Resolve / Fusion or doing 3D rendering work including animations then sure, the skys the limit in such cases. Also if all your cores are working at 100%, you probabaly won't be able to do anything but sit and watch, that isn't unusual in area of 3D rendering / motion graphic design work but thats why there are other solutions like rendering farms if one can afford it.

Reaper isn't the only DAW that will take advantage of all the available cores the system has, there are other DAW's that will happily do that too and with the same sort of tricks regarding the buffering and low latency monitoring. Presonus have Thunderbolt interfaces and you don't have to pay an ongoing fee to use their DAW which provides seamless integration into it.

Reaper really isn't developed in a focused targeted way with a powerhouse of new features every 6 months or so as some other DAWs are, more of a slow incremental progression of them. It's a bespoke adhoc developed product for certain purposes, but will forever leave you frustrated. It doesn't matter how many videos you watch of people doing things with Reaper. You will always feel like you are out sitting on boat out at sea, shivering and making do with what you have on it. It's cheap and customisable to one's needs, but it's really not in the same class as other bigger boats out on the ocean which are manned and driven in a much bigger way and provide a real four course meal with waiting staff to take your order. Personally even from way back to 2008 I've tried to really get into Reaper, but even back then...it was far too dated, and frustrating to use.

Choosing a DAW is like going on a date, you'll know if you like the look of him or her, and in the first hour you'll know if your first love at first sight was true or not and if he or she is really what you're interested in. It doesn't take weeks, months or years to make work for you.. or at least shouldn't.

Also choosing a watercool system isn't something you can set up and forget about as you can pretty much do with a fan based system. It will require regular monitoring for any leaks, and these smaller water cooling solutions are really a gamble as well in how long they last, but this is the price you pay for for taking todays CPU's to the edge of their limits.

[EvilDragon]

I presume the pro version of windows 10 is the one to get for DAW use?

Best Windows for daw use is Windows 10 LTSC. No bloat, no telemetry, doesn't force you to update, very low on resources, very fast.

Yes, but getting it is not easy at all.

[EvilDragon]

but will forever leave you frustrated. It doesn't matter how many videos you watch of people doing things with Reaper. You will always feel like you are out sitting on boat out at sea, shivering and making do with what you have on it.

This is all of course entirely subjective. Also, you're heavily projecting there.

[Amelia70]

I presume the pro version of windows 10 is the one to get for DAW use?

Best Windows for daw use is Windows 10 LTSC. No bloat, no telemetry, doesn't force you to update, very low on resources, very fast.

Yes, but getting it is not easy at all.

Exactly. Also Avid only support specific builds and LTSC is always behind isn't it?

[Amelia70]

^ For music production, I think that all this is pretty much overkill,

I'll stop your right there.. it might be overkill for YOU, but maybe you have absolutely no idea how much processing power the sort of music I produce requires. I am using pro tools HDX cards, AND external synths, and a 10 core mac pro and that's what gets me by. I need now to replace all the effects processing power of the HDX cards as well as having the option of using more VIs than I currently do (cause the 2013 mac pro doesn't cut it for heavy VI use), since I'll be sacrificing some of the external setup to fit into a 64 input setup rather than 96. I don't think you know what you are talking about and have missed the entire point of my topic and what my needs are.

Vegas is secondary.. waaaaaaaaaaaaay down the line in priorities. It is something I want to dabble in some day to learn how to create artistic videos to synchronise with the orchestral music of my own which I am enjoying composing. I like the way Vegas works and won't even consider another video editor when the time comes, as I have seen it in action and the workflow gels with my brain. But that could be years away.

When i was talking about utilising all cores at 100%, I was talking about the importance of having the stability TO be able to do that if the need ever arises. This is all related to my definite plans of over clocking. I never meant I will be often using 16 cores at 100% cpu usage.

With regards to Water, i am going to get the best and most reliable system money can buy, and I will absolutely make sure there are no leaks as often as i need to. You are coming across as thinking I am an idiot, whereas I can assure you I am not. I do kind of agree with a lot of your sentiment about Reaper though, however I still feel that I want to support it, even if it's only in the basic entry level license.

[buzz1]

Quick question. What is Windows LTSC?

[BrokenTrance]

Quick question. What is Windows LTSC?

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows ... e&ie=UTF-8

Enterprise license doesn't authorise this though if anyone thought.

[AKJ]

Sonar (now Cakewalk by Bandlab) uses cores quite efficiently - and it is now free! Give it a try.