Mac Pro 6 or 8 Core ?

[lito]

Hi,
now it's time for a new Mac Pro.
What I want: recording 16 tracks at once with the possibility for lowest latency.
Firewire connections for my two RME FF800
Good performance from background processing for 80-100 tracks with many Dynamic
Plugins and maybe 3-4 Virtual Instruments.

Is a 6 Core enough or better 8 Core ? What's your experiences ?

Greets Lito

[mikehalloran]

It's hard to give a definitive answer. 6 core is faster with a light load; 8 core does the heavy lifting better and faster.

I don't see much in the way of heavy lifting in your setup so my gut says 6 core. I don't think you would notice a difference except in a direct A/B comparison between the two. There are a few threads on how to balance a VI load among multiple cores.

The word is that you do want the high end graphics cards. Apple has had issues with some of the others but I don't know if it's the 300, 500 or both. MLC can weigh in on that one much better than I.

AppleCare with 3 year phone support is a must. I am one of those who likes the maximum sized SSD but I am not you.

Firewire connections for my two RME FF800

Any latency bottleneck is right there. But a new setup certainly won't be any worse till you can get a TB interface to replace those.

You will need the Apple TB-FW adapters for your interfaces – whether or not it makes more sense to daisy-chain them or run parallel is something I cannot answer. You want to cruise any RME user boards to make certain that there are no issues in that regard.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The word is that you do want the high end graphics cards. Apple has had issues with some of the others but I don't know if it's the 300, 500 or both. MLC can weigh in on that one much better than I.

My card is a AMD FirePro D300 2048 MB. Replaced within a month of purchase. I was in a bind on a major deadline (with a dead 2008 8-core) and the only machine available with a 1TB was a 4 for 2013 Mac Pro, so instead of a 6 core I went with that. It's plenty fast for everything I've thrown at it. I thought I'd need the 8-core for VIs, and maybe I will someday, but so far the new MP shows no sign of CPU stress. Audio and video editing are lightening fast. Almost a no wait state for most things unless I use my FW drives.