Since i saw Mac users discussed M1 Performance, why not measure it on our both WIndows and MacOS systems?

We can use the Live 11 Demo (See Preparation!)

(Inspired by Ableton forum thread.)

Preparation
1. Set your audio buffer to 512 samples in the Audio Preferences window in Live. The easiest way to do this is to select this field with your mouse and press the Delete Key. (The default is 512 samples).
2. Set Audio Input Device to "No Device"
3. Sample Rate to "44100",
4. Driver Error Compensation to "0.00ms" in Live's Audio Preferences window.
5. Make sure that only one pair of Outputs is active if your soundcard has multiple outs.

Preparation
1. Set your audio buffer to 512 samples in the Audio Preferences window in Live. The easiest way to do this is to select this field with your mouse and press the Delete Key. (The default is 512 samples).
2. Set Audio Input Device to "No Device"
3. Sample Rate to "44100",
4. Driver Error Compensation to "0.00ms" in Live's Audio Preferences window.
5. Make sure that only one pair of Outputs is active if your soundcard has multiple outs.

Instructions for the test
1. Open Live's Help View (Help Menu - Help View)
2. Select What's New In Live 11.
3. Open the Live Set for the Lesson.
4. Play the Lesson's track demo Live Set and note the highest CPU load reported by the CPU meter.
5. Extra Credit - duplicate all 29 tracks to make double tracks and repeat until Live's audio is disrupted. Note the maximum number of tracks played.



Please use the following format
Fill in as much information as you can to make the test as worthwhile as possible for others:
1. Ableton Live CPU Meter % with the the Live Set for the Lesson. (#4 above)
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? (#5 above)
3. Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model?
4. Operating System and Version/Build?
5. Ableton Live version?
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed?
7. Amount of Ram?
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)?
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)?

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I will postpone my test till i have a good system, right now i cant even play the Live 11 Demo with very high latency. It is a very busy Live Set.

 

1. Highest CPU peak: 32 %
2. 5 times is good (77%), at 6 times I've just a tiny crackle during the breakdwon (87 %), 7 times the breakdown is full of crackle (98%), 8 times all the song is crackling
3. Desktop custom PC
4. Win 10 family 21h1
5. Live 11.1 (legit)
6. Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core 3.59 GHz
7. 64 GB (corsair DDR4 3200)
8. RME Babyface Pro (drivers 1.219)
9. SSD

 

Thought I'd try this on my Poor aging PC. Might be good for comparison purposes.
I would rarely use so many tracks so don't usually come across many issues unless I use a lot of heavy plugins.
I use Ableton on an even older intel core duo laptop. Still useful for my portable needs but dont think it would manage to play this demo.

1. Highest CPU peak: 54 % (Average 36%-40%)
2. Duplicated once: Peaks at 96% during the breakdown (minimal crackle). Duplicated Twice: Forget it! (broken)
3. Vintage custom PC
4. Win7Pro x64 sp1
5. Live 11.1 (Not so Legit)
6. Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz
7. 16 GB
8. Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 (1st Gen) Driver v4.65.5
9. SSD

 

1. 105% in breakdown, average of maybe around 70-80%
2. 29
3. Lenovo ideapad 710s plus (2016)
4. Windows 10 Pro version 2004 (Build 19041.1)
5. 11.1 (blessed)
6. i5 7200U @ 2,7GHz (throotled via windows power settings, bcs the fan can be very loud)
7. 8GB
8. Realtek via FLASiO @512 samples (on board sound, can do it again with SSL2+, when im back home)
9. NVMe Intel SSDPEKKW25 - no idea about speed.

EDIT: I had also a torrent running.

I will do it again with SSL2+, when i have the chance. I think Live 11.1 was significant improved with performance compared to Live 11.0.12?

 

1. max peaking 25%
2. 493 tracks (x17). After x12 started to appear just occasional ~3secs skipbacks, like a needle jumping on the vinyl and keeps playing like it never happened. No slowdowns, choking, crackles or anything. I stopped at this point because Taskbar shows Ableton using 24GB/32 of RAM.
3. Custom made desktop PC, Gigabyte b450 mobo
4. Win 10 Enterprise 21H2
5. Live 11.1.5
6. Ryzen 5600x, undervolted and oc-ed single threaded boost up to 4800HZ
7. 32GB 3200HZ RAM
8. Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (1.gen), Asio4All v2.15 which is surprisingly much better than the Focusrite's.
9. NVMe

 

Last edited: May 28, 2022

1. Max Peak: 61%
2. Maximum number of playback tracks? 29 tracks, with duplicating all tracks it glitches
3. Laptop/Desktop? Macbook Pro Mid 2012
4. Operating System and Version/Build? Mojave
5. Ableton Live version? 11.0.2
6. CPU Make, Model, and Speed? i7 quad core 2.3 ghz (3rd or 4th gen idk)
7. Amount of Ram? 16 gb of ram
8. Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? CoreAudio
9. Hard Disk type (SSD or HDD) and Speed (if you know)? SSD, dont know speed

 

1. Average 35% with some peaks in the 50s. Highest is the breakdown.
2. 145 tracks averaged 70% with 110% spike at breakdown and end. Did not hear any crackle which does not make sense.
3. Desktop homemade with MSI X99A GAMING PRO
4. Windows 10 Pro 21H2
5. Live 11.1 sistersite version
6. Intel i7 6800K 6 core 3.4 GHz
7. 32 GB quad channel running at 2133 MHz
8. IK Multimedia Axe Solo
9. OS on Samsung 970m2 and Ableton Sounds on 850evo SSD

I had Firefox open and a video file in MPC. Strange there was hardly any CPU change when I doubled the tracks.
My ram is running slow because after I had my system for a while it would not boot if I had XMP on. I just left it because I have not noticed any speed difference.
Going to try again tomorrow with everything closed and a reboot. System has been on 16 days and I know I can squeeze some more tracks.

 

1. Max Peak: 75%
2. Duplicated the whole thing 20 times so its 580 tracks? Still not glitching or crackling
3. Costum Build (Asus Maximus Hero Z690)
4. Win 11
5. Ableton Live 11.1
6. I9 12900k @ (P Cores 5,1 Ghz/ E Cores 4,1 Ghz)
7. 32 Gb DDR5 6000
8. UAD Apollo Twin MK2
9. NVME Samsung SSD 980 Pro