Is it worth it to put a 18 core xeon cpu in my 10 core imac pro now? And add some RAM as well?

[dapa0s]

I have a 10 core imac pro with 32gb ram at home, and it's kinda slow at logic pro x, I think the new update kinda killed it.

Now I can't decide wheter to get 128gb RAM and an 18 core xeon cpu and open it up and upgrade it. It would cost me around 1300-1400€ max, if I buy everything new, but I just can't decide whether it's worth it, since the single core speeds are so much slower on these CPUs than on the M1 variants.

I was thinking of getting an m1 Max MPB 16 or an m1 Ultra mac studio, but this would be cheaper and make my imac pro, that I use for orchestral composing (while at home) last longer, so I'm not sure.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

You should be looking at multi core performance over single core if you’re primarily concerned about programs such as logic pro. RAM may help but you don’t have a terrible computer as it is so not sure why there’s a slowdown.

If there’s some kind of return policy for those parts you could try them out first to see of it helps but there could also be other reasons for the slowdown.

 

[pastrychef]

I have a 10 core imac pro with 32gb ram at home, and it's kinda slow at logic pro x, I think the new update kinda killed it.

Now I can't decide wheter to get 128gb RAM and an 18 core xeon cpu and open it up and upgrade it. It would cost me around 1300-1400€ max, if I buy everything new, but I just can't decide whether it's worth it, since the single core speeds are so much slower on these CPUs than on the M1 variants.

I was thinking of getting an m1 Max MPB 16 or an m1 Ultra mac studio, but this would be cheaper and make my imac pro, that I use for orchestral composing (while at home) last longer, so I'm not sure.

IMO, putting such a large investment in to a platform that will soon no longer be supported is foolish. I feel the MacBook Pro or Mac Studio are much wiser choices.

 

[dapa0s]

IMO, putting such a large investment in to a platform that will soon no longer be supported is foolish. I feel the MacBook Pro or Mac Studio are much wiser choices.

yeah, that‘s what I kinda think, but you often have to still run Logic in Rosetta, since there are older plugins that are still not native, and probably never will be, so music people that need a lot of power still hesitate to switch to Apple silicone.

 

[theluggage]

I have a 10 core imac pro with 32gb ram at home, and it's kinda slow at logic pro x, I think the new update kinda killed it.

Logic system requirements are a piece of string... I think you need to do some investigation first - use Activity Monitor to look at CPU usage and Memory Pressure (Memory used doesn't help much) while you're doing whatever you do. If it's not lighting up all 10 cores then adding 8 more of the same cores won't help much, and more RAM might be the solution. If your memory pressure is in the green, adding more of that won't help.

There's a number of threads option in Logic -> Preferences -> Audio to play with, too.

You also need to be sure of where the bottleneck is before you pay the premium for a M1 Ultra over a Max. Extra cores and more RAM aren't a universal cure-all - and the extra GPU cores probably won't help Logic at all.

Also, check up on the M1 compatibility status of your various plug-ins!

However, I'd be reluctant to invest in Intel Macs now unless there's something holding you on Intel.

 

[dapa0s]

Logic system requirements are a piece of string... I think you need to do some investigation first - use Activity Monitor to look at CPU usage and Memory Pressure (Memory used doesn't help much) while you're doing whatever you do. If it's not lighting up all 10 cores then adding 8 more of the same cores won't help much, and more RAM might be the solution. If your memory pressure is in the green, adding more of that won't help.

There's a number of threads option in Logic -> Preferences -> Audio to play with, too.

You also need to be sure of where the bottleneck is before you pay the premium for a M1 Ultra over a Max. Extra cores and more RAM aren't a universal cure-all - and the extra GPU cores probably won't help Logic at all.

Also, check up on the M1 compatibility status of your various plug-ins!

However, I'd be reluctant to invest in Intel Macs now unless there's something holding you on Intel.

My threads option are at max I think, so not at automatic in logic preferences.

I'm well aware that extra GPU cores won't solve the problem.

All of my cores get used, all 10, and that's why I would need more, and 18 would probably fix a lot of the problems.

Yet the m1 max is significantly weaker than the 18 core imac pro, but the m1 ultra is a lot stronger than the 18 core imac pro.

Honestly, I would just take the m1 ultra now, but the waiting time for that is 10-12 weeks, and I would need an upgrade in the next week or so, unfortunately.

I also kinda hate the idea of staying on intel, but at least I know for sure that it will work, however slow the single core speeds are, at least ALL of the plugins I use work on it without any problems. So buying and upgrading to an 18 core and 128 gb ram which wouldn't cost that much is not a bad solution, at least for another year, I think.

 

[WarthogARJ]

Think you should try benchmarking and experimenting to see where your bottleneck is.
Are you sure it's cores?
All the Intel iMac's are pretty constrained by the GPU's.
Maybe is worth trying an eGPU.
See this discussion:
LOgic Pro and eGPU