rbedgar@stanford.edu

XP has been both more stable and faster than Vista.

However, the standard version of XP has a 2.5 GB memory limit.

Vista is bloated and slower than XP, but can address additional GB of RAM. Also, there is now a new Intel CPU (the i7) that has various bus design improvements to speed up throughput.

Does anyone know: with MAX/MSP/Jitter, does moving to the Intel i7 + Vista provide a noticeable speed improvement over the Intel dual/quad core CPUs and XP? Or would it make sense to go with 64-bit XP (has anyone tried it with MAX/MSP/Jitter and the i7)?

Thanks. I searched the forums for i7 and didn't have any hits, so I believe this is a new topic.

For Windows users:
XP has been both more stable and faster than Vista.
However, the standard version of XP has a 2.5 GB memory limit.

intel-i7-with-vista-vs-intel-duo-core-with-xp

I, myself, am interested in buying a pc with core i7 or core i5, but didnt find any good information to convince me.

I recently realized that when dealing with video (many jit.qt.movies playing at the same time), the Cpu of both my mac and my pc have to stay below the 50% limit this being done by reducing the amount of video being played (I guess that means they, and jitter respectively, use only one core), otherwise fps starts to drop. Can somebody confirm this? And are more than 2GB of Ram helpful in this perspective?

PS:
I recently realized that when dealing with video (many jit.qt.movies playing at the same time), the Cpu of both my mac and my pc have to stay below the 50% limit this being done by reducing the amount of video being played (I guess that means they, and jitter respectively, use only one core), otherwise fps starts to drop. Can somebody confirm this? And are more than 2GB of Ram helpful in this perspective?


Well, a new contract has given me the chance to switch over to a Mac...so over the next few months I'll be replacing all my software with Mac applications. I note that the new Imac 27" can be ordered with the i7 chip, and that starts shipping in less than a month. The Mac Pros are conspicuously absent in the latest set of new Macs, perhaps they will show early next year, along with USB 3.0 ports.

My understanding about Jitter is that it is single-threaded. To use more than one core, you need to run two instances of Max simultaneously. If anyone knows better than this, I welcome corrections.

Well, a new contract has given me the chance to switch over to a Mac...so over the next few months I'll be replacing all my software with Mac applications. I note that the new Imac 27" can be ordered with the i7 chip, and that starts shipping in less than a month. The Mac Pros are conspicuously absent in the latest set of new Macs, perhaps they will show early next year, along with USB 3.0 ports. 

Intel i7 with Vista vs Intel Duo Core with XP