kurtminus Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Hello, I'm running a Macbook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) with 1.6ghz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, and 16gb 2133 mhz LPDDR3 memory. I'm using the latest version of Logic. My system runs Logic pretty well for the most part, however, on projects with lots of tracks, plugins, and software instruments, playback regularly bogs down and I get the "system overload" errors. In a project full of tracks and software instruments, it can be near impossible to record new tracks unless I freeze all existing tracks. All of this has me considering a system upgrade. My question is, what kind of processing power do I need to really avoid the "system overload" issues? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 10 minutes ago, kurtminus said: All of this has me considering a system upgrade. My question is, what kind of processing power do I need to really avoid the "system overload" issues? What is your budget? The best thing you can do now is get the machines with the M1/M2 chip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtminus Posted February 7, 2023 Author Share Posted February 7, 2023 27 minutes ago, triplets said: What is your budget? The best thing you can do now is get the machines with the M1/M2 chip. Mostly I'm curious how much I would have to spend for a noticeable upgrade, based on my current system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
des99 Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) The thing to do would be to check out the Geekbench score for your machine, and the Geekbench scores of current machines you're interested. That will give you some rough idea of the performance improvement you can expect (along with less heat, noise and more battery life). Edited February 7, 2023 by des99 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtminus Posted February 7, 2023 Author Share Posted February 7, 2023 2 minutes ago, des99 said: The thing to do would be to check out the Geekbench score for your machine, and the Geekbench scores of current machines you're interested. That will give you some rough idea of the performance improvement you can expect (along with less heat, noise and more battery life). Thanks for the tip, interesting stuff. How do the scores compare to what I'll be able to do in logic with the machine? Does a geekbench increase from 700s to 1800s mean I'll be able to run twice as many tracks and plugins before running into system overload? I imagine it's not quite comparable like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtminus Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 Hey all, Revisiting this again. I'm working on a project with about 20 tracks, a few software instruments, lots of plugins, and I can hardly even play the audio anymore, it just overloads. Will buying a new-ish computer do anything about this or would it be a waste of money? Is this worth it? https://www.apple.com/shop/product/G15T6LL/A/refurbished-13-inch-macbook-air-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu-space-gray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 On 2/7/2023 at 1:36 PM, kurtminus said: Mostly I'm curious how much I would have to spend for a noticeable upgrade, based on my current system. Any M1 or M2 current machine will obliterate your Macbook Air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtminus Posted February 19, 2023 Author Share Posted February 19, 2023 Just now, triplets said: Any M1 or M2 current machine will obliterate your Macbook Air. Now we're talking 😉 Is it "worth it" to splurge for the highest end processor and most RAM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redgreenblue Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 If you can afford it, yes. You are buying a computer to last you for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 (edited) On 2/18/2023 at 4:10 PM, kurtminus said: Is it "worth it" to splurge for the highest end processor and most RAM? If you're not doing 8k video editing, there's no need to buy a Mac Studio. An M1 or M2 mini will do fine. Just fill up on ram and SSD space because they're not upgradable. https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/ Edited February 20, 2023 by triplets 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManFromNapa Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 Geekbench is a killer resource. It’s really helped me quantify the value of an upgrade. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted February 20, 2023 Share Posted February 20, 2023 On 2/19/2023 at 1:04 AM, kurtminus said: Hey all, Revisiting this again. I'm working on a project with about 20 tracks, a few software instruments, lots of plugins, and I can hardly even play the audio anymore, it just overloads. Will buying a new-ish computer do anything about this or would it be a waste of money? Is this worth it? https://www.apple.com/shop/product/G15T6LL/A/refurbished-13-inch-macbook-air-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu-space-gray That MacBook Air looks like a killer machine. 1TB drive, 24 GB RAM, you can't go wrong. You'll be miles ahead of your current i5 machine. Go for it. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.