Can I upgrade my CPU?

[Gone To Lunch]

My current machine is a 2010 5,1 MacPro tower with a 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon cpu, 32gb ram and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2047 MB graphics card.

Can I upgrade the cpu, and if I could/did, would it enhance overall performance?

Specifically, I am using Digital Performer 9.52 with Vienna Ensemble Pro 7, and when the cpu meter in DP reaches the limit, the activity monitor shows only about 20% used?

[James Perrett]

Could it be that Digital Performer only uses one core? 20% is suspiciously close to the number you would get if one core was maxed out with the others just idling. If so, that's a problem with your version of Digital Performer rather than the CPU.

[Gone To Lunch]

Could it be that Digital Performer only uses one core? 20% is suspiciously close to the number you would get if one core was maxed out with the others just idling. If so, that's a problem with your version of Digital Performer rather than the CPU.

Thanks, that is very helpful.

I note the recently released DP 11 marketing says

"Accelerate your DP11 experience: DP11 is fully qualified for macOS Big Sur (11.x) and the latest generation Apple silicon Macs. No Rosetta required.
Optimized for native multi-core performance, DP’s audio engine prioritizes audio threads on high-speed cores and reserves CPU bandwidth for critical, time-sensitive processing."

As it happens, I want to get DP 11 for other new features, so I wonder now if this will also address my issue?

I am on OS 10.13.6 but can only go up to 10.14.6.

[Gone To Lunch]

Could it be that Digital Performer only uses one core? 20% is suspiciously close to the number you would get if one core was maxed out with the others just idling. If so, that's a problem with your version of Digital Performer rather than the CPU.

I have now checked, and according to the Activity Monitor meters, there are 12 threads, seemingly in pairs, all showing more or less equal activity, with one of each pair around 30-40%, and the other around 5%

So I think next I will try a demo version of DP 11.

[Chromeman]

In answer to your question about the CPU upgrade, yes, you could buy a dual tray CPU and swap it for your single CPU but TBH it wouldn't be worth the cost. Some users on the MOTU forum have reported better performance running DP11 on older machines but IMO it be difficult to quantify and very often the perceived differences are minimal.

[Stephen Bennett]

I just did this very thing. The 3.46GHz 12 core tray wasn’t that expensive and the power gain over the hexacore is very useful, especially with 96GB RAM.

I’ve just loaded Catalina onto the Mac (using the dosdude patch) and, while it’s no M1, it means I won’t have to change my hardware for quite a few years and can use the latest versions of Logic.

I’m not a heavy VI user though and use UAD plug-ins.

Stephen

[Gone To Lunch]

I just did this very thing. The 3.46GHz 12 core tray wasn’t that expensive and the power gain over the hexacore is very useful, especially with 96GB RAM.

How did you get to 96GB RAM - 2012 Mac Pro?

My 2010 MacPro only goes up to 32GB RAM

[Stephen Bennett]

I just did this very thing. The 3.46GHz 12 core tray wasn’t that expensive and the power gain over the hexacore is very useful, especially with 96GB RAM.

How did you get to 96GB RAM - 2012 Mac Pro?

My 2010 MacPro only goes up to 32GB RAM

It's a 2010 Mac Pro—now with a 12 core, dual CPU, 8 memory slots with 6 filled with 16GB DIMMS.

Info is https://www.lifewire.com/2009-2012-mac- ... es-2260368

What spec is your Mac?

Stephen

[Gone To Lunch]

I just did this very thing. The 3.46GHz 12 core tray wasn’t that expensive and the power gain over the hexacore is very useful, especially with 96GB RAM.

How did you get to 96GB RAM - 2012 Mac Pro?

My 2010 MacPro only goes up to 32GB RAM

It's a 2010 Mac Pro—now with a 12 core, dual CPU, 8 memory slots with 6 filled with 16GB DIMMS.

Info is https://www.lifewire.com/2009-2012-mac- ... es-2260368

What spec is your Mac?

Stephen

Thanks, that was very helpful. Mine is 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon2010 Mac Pro with SSDs, 24GB Ram, since I took out the fourth 8GB card which certainly sped it up!

[Stephen Bennett]

I just did this very thing. The 3.46GHz 12 core tray wasn’t that expensive and the power gain over the hexacore is very useful, especially with 96GB RAM.

How did you get to 96GB RAM - 2012 Mac Pro?

My 2010 MacPro only goes up to 32GB RAM

It's a 2010 Mac Pro—now with a 12 core, dual CPU, 8 memory slots with 6 filled with 16GB DIMMS.

Info is https://www.lifewire.com/2009-2012-mac- ... es-2260368

What spec is your Mac?

Stephen

Thanks, that was very helpful. Mine is 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon2010 Mac Pro with SSDs, 24GB Ram, since I took out the fourth 8GB card which certainly sped it up!

Yes, leaving those slots free really helps out. Mine was a 2.66 Hex (Quad before that).

The Cheesegrater is Apple's best ever Mac IMHO. It's beautifully made and easily upgradable.

When I moved to Catalina, it didn't work making the special dosdude boot USB on the Mac Pro. I had to create it on my Mojave-based Macbook Pro. All works fine now (touch wood). I only moved to Catalina so I could run later versions of Logic—a pain really. But upgrading so late meant that all my plug-ins worked first time

Stepehn.