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[jtwrace]

Does MC 19 for Mac take advantage of multiple threads (Cores) by any chance?  It's time to upgrade my Mini and I'm wondering if it's worth the extra money for MC which I only use it for audio only but I do use on the fly 2xDSD.  Nothing else.

[JohnT]

Yes, MC is hugely multi-threaded on all platforms.

[jtwrace]

Yes, MC is hugely multi-threaded on all platforms.

Oh really?  WOW!  So what do you recommend?  6, 12???

[InflatableMouse]

For what? Conversion, analysis?  ?

[jtwrace]

For what? Conversion, analysis?  ?

Up-sample on the fly to 2xDSD and playing.

[InflatableMouse]

Isn't the number of threads determined by the application internally for things like that?

I'm not aware of a setting to override that.

[jtwrace]

Isn't the number of threads determined by the application internally for things like that?

I'm not aware of a setting to override that.

I have no clue but John's response above makes me wonder what the ideal amount of cores of a computer would be.  Not that I really need an excuse for the Mac Pro but this could certainly be one.   

[InflatableMouse]

Right.

Multithreading is not limited to a number of cores, I don't think it works that way. It's used on single cores too for example for reasons other than improving speed (preventing lockups for instance).

But I maintain the same view as with memory. The more you have of them, the better it is .

[jtwrace]

The more you have of them, the better it is .

As long as the software can utilize them.  Right?  I guess that's my point...how many is "best" for MC?

[JohnT]

Well, really it's like InflatableMouse said, the more the better.  However, in practical terms, we usually optimize the defaults for various threaded operations to make good use of a 4-core cpu (8 including hyper-threading) since that is pretty common these days (e.g. 4 core i5 and i7). Audio playback does use several threads, but the most intensive threaded operations are things like media import, conversions, audio analysis, library operations, etc.

MC will use multiple threads whether the system has a single core or eight cores.  Of course it will run faster if the OS can divvy up the threads to separate cores rather than running all on one.

You can use Activity Monitor to see how the cores are being used during playback of your DSD files.

[jtwrace]

Well, really it's like InflatableMouse said, the more the better.  However, in practical terms, we usually optimize the defaults for various threaded operations to make good use of a 4-core cpu (8 including hyper-threading) since that is pretty common these days (e.g. 4 core i5 and i7). Audio playback does use several threads, but the most intensive threaded operations are things like media import, conversions, audio analysis, library operations, etc.

MC will use multiple threads whether the system has a single core or eight cores.  Of course it will run faster if the OS can divvy up the threads to separate cores rather than running all on one.

Thanks.