BTW with the 18 months I didn't mean to imply each and every machine I have here. Boy, I wish.
All depends on the budget. Some are *ancient* and 2 cycles behind. These go out now, ofcourse.

So I guess another way to phrase the question would be



How long until that new quad-core becomes a door-stop?

ORIGINAL: j boy

So I guess another way to phrase the question would be



How long until that new quad-core becomes a door-stop?

Service pack 2 for Vista should render it useless

ORIGINAL: j boy

So I guess another way to phrase the question would be



How long until that new quad-core becomes a door-stop?

One thing I will say is that every generation gets a little bit closer to not actually becoming unusable for multitrack audio. Eight years ago, a top-line, brand new computer was inadequate the day you took it out of the box. If you were planning on running internal effects or virtual instruments or high track counts then you were going to be doing a lot of bouncing and rendering and you were going to be working at >10ms latency.

Fast-forward five years. Athlon 64 processors were right on the cusp of being able to do an entire conventional 24- or 48-track audio project in the box at <3ms latency, with only a little bit of freezing and selective use of CPU-heavy effects. High sample rates or a free and easy way with softsynths could still force you into computational compromises, though, and a dedicated effort to push the limits could certainly bring such a system to its knees easily.

I haven't upgraded to quad core yet, but I have heard rumors that performance is very close to approaching hardware, i.e. no more need to think about conserving resources or tweaking latency because there's enough reserve to do whatever you need to. If that's not really the case with this generation, I think it will be soon. And once you have a computer that does everything you need at the sample rates and latency you want, upgrading starts to become a luxury.

Cheers.

All true, yep... until the software developers decide they want to exploit the additional processing power, and you're back to square one again! It's a similar situation with storage capacity. Once upon a time, a 60 or 80 GB hard drive was considered adequate, and then the ROMpler folks decided to unleash sample sets like Colossus, DFHS and BFD on us. Nature abhors a vacuum...

Just remember, you can't win, you can't break even, and the odds are always in the house's favor.

ORIGINAL: j boy

All true, yep... until the software developers decide they want to exploit the additional processing power, and you're back to square one again!...

I understand what you're saying, but I think there actually *is* a real point at which additional processing power becomes moot. If you are already using uncompromising plugins and doing everything you need to do sonically, what is left? Why upgrade?

This really is a different kind of turning point for native audio production I think.

Cheers.

I completly upgrade at least twice a year.
My world revolves around my computers since
im disabled, so i keep them humming like a new
sports car.

I understand what you're saying, but I think there actually *is* a real point at which additional processing power becomes moot. If you are already using uncompromising plugins and doing everything you need to do sonically, what is left? Why upgrade?

This really is a different kind of turning point for native audio production I think.

Dunno, I think there's something like a trickle-down of stuff they can only do on clusters of parallel running beasts, and is maybe initially only of theoretical interest, until some joker comes up with the same thing on a smaller scale, so it can run (with a LOT of cramming) on lesser hardware.

Terabyte samples, weird convolution reverbs using AI routines to do things with ambience you can only dream of, etc etc. It'll happen, whatever they come up with. I have a few ideas I'd probably not even not bother to try on anything but a whole cluster of the best quads in tandem.

Think you'll find a few others here too with a quite exotic wishlist.

my desk still has the original top. i use pledge and a soft cloth, and never set my beer down on it.

My Sonar PC is going on four years old now, but it doesn't have to do a lot these days. My Mac is a couple years old and doing well. All it does is audio and the Pro Tools hardware does most of the work so performance doesn't degrade over time like the native systems do.