older G5 and reaper

[stigg]

I have an older G5 dual 1.8 cpu 3G/ram O/S Tiger 10.4.11 with I life 08.
I'm using G/band 08 and like it alot.
How well would Reaper operate with this system?
stigg.

[Justin]

I have an older G5 dual 1.8 cpu 3G/ram O/S Tiger 10.4.11 with I life 08.
I'm using G/band 08 and like it alot.
How well would Reaper operate with this system?
stigg.

Try it and see! We'd be interested to hear :)

[semiquaver]

I'm using the latest preview on a g5 dual 2 gig and it is running well performance-wise. Subjective impression is that there is comparable or a little better CPU use than other daws. Plenty responsive etc...

[Tom Drinkwater]

I also have a G5 dual 1.8 with 3g ram and 10.4.11

Reaper is great, but it currently does have performance issues on mac. It appears that this applies to both intel and PPC macs.

I get significantly better performance (ie lower latency for same setup) on DP, PTLE, and Logic.

see the reaper seems to be a hog thread for more info on this.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=19797

that said the performance issues would not currently stop me using it for my relatively modest needs.

My G5 dual 1.8ghz outperformed a macbook core2 duo 2ghz on a test session mentioned in the other thread. so your g5 should be fine.

i'm not clear about exactly what functions reaper has performance issues with. its perfectly possible that it is excellent in some areas and awful in others leading to conflicting reports of its efficiency. Apparently its only a mac problem too, so NOT inherent in the way reaper is made.

i have not been able to get reaper working glitch free at 64 samples buffer, which precludes it for anything requiring monitoring live back through the DAW, since basic recording can be done with audio interface or hardware monitoring its not a problem for basic recording.

bottom line is there is a performance issue on mac and its the only thing causing me to delay registering...

I would assume that this is one of the reasons why reaper is still preview not beta for osx

when i have more time i will run more tests to determine the exact nature of the performance issues. I'd love to hear from Justin what tests he would find useful....??

[Justin]

Try setting prefs/buffering/thread behavior to "automatic (experimental)".. we'll probably make this the default in future versions..

[Tom Drinkwater]

setting thread to automatic, or to relaxed, reduces reported cpu use with the test session mentioned in the other thread from 75% to 40% on my machine with buffer at 64 samples.

apparently tho on windows the cpu use for that session is more like 5% so there's still an unexplained issue..

however that test session, though it doubtless demonstrates something or other, is not remotely like any session i would personally use.

I haven't properly tested changing thread behaviour in a more realistic situation for my needs, I'll report here when I have.

Try setting prefs/buffering/thread behavior to "automatic (experimental)".. we'll probably make this the default in future versions..

[Tom Drinkwater]

i tested again for low latency, basically setup as a live mixer with 4 tracks in, a comp on each track, a bussed reverb & master limiter etc.

at 64 samples i get pops and crackles every 30 sec or so, with cpu use at 25-35% depending on plugins etc

plugin cpu use under 10%

so why would i get (what seem to be) buffer underrun pops when cpu use is only 25%?

thread priority settings make little or no difference.

changing plugins and track numbers etc make little difference either...

BTW what happens if i set non standard buffer block sizes? ie 96 samples? 102 samples? will this actually work? i've never come across a daw that allows it...

[semiquaver]

Tracktion allows nonstandard buffer sizes as well - doesn't seem to be a problem there...

[Tom Drinkwater]

ok this is basically a bump, but the key question for reaper prformance for me is as above:

so why would i get (what seem to be) buffer underrun pops when cpu use is only 25%?

makes no sense to me! what else should I change or try?

can anyone else get reaper for osx operating cleanly at 64 samples buffer? and if so how and on what system?