Sweetspot CPU for Cubase 9?

[Steve Deckett]

Hi
I am a long time Cubase user, I don't play any games. I am looking for a decent CPU for a new build. Frankly I am overwhelmed by choices. I am not even sure what to look for = cores? Speed? Intel, AMD?

I will probably get an Asus mobo and about 64 gig of RAM

Can anyone help?

Thank you

Z

 

[ChocoViennese]

A friend of mine (drummer in our band) uses Cubase on his Ryzen 1700x and has no probs. I think the amount of RAM (which you have plenty of!) is more important. As a complete guess, I would imagine more cores would give you more headroom for things like multiple plug-ins, and, if not now, then in the future. Ryzen would be an obvious choice, as you can get more cores for your money.

Also see this: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=122853 suggests VSTs use SSE2 for multithreading.

 

[easyrider]

Hi
I am a long time Cubase user, I don't play any games. I am looking for a decent CPU for a new build. Frankly I am overwhelmed by choices. I am not even sure what to look for = cores? Speed? Intel, AMD?

I will probably get an Asus mobo and about 64 gig of RAM

Can anyone help?

Thank you

Z

Budget?

Intel for audio creation if possible due to Ryzen being poor with latency

 

[Jono8]

I use a 8700 and it runs big orchestral templates of vst plug ins really well.It really depends on your budget, but the more speed and cores the better really. The amount of ram you need is really dependent on what you are doing as well (ie are you going to be using loads of modern advanced samples/vst instruments etc in big templates).

As noted in the post above , I have read some articles highlighting AMD's problems with latency meaning Intel is better for DAW work currently.

 

[easyrider]

I’ve just bought a new laptop for audio work

6/12 8750H

 

[Steve Deckett]

Thank you all

Done a lot of reseach since my last post. Concur with the Advice above, I shall get an 8700K.
I have settled on an Asus ROG board with 390 chipset, even so there are so many of them, and so far i have found no way of comparing features in a list. Asus site sucks here, comparisons ticks dont work.
I do want - automatic overclocking, Optane, maximum ports of highest quality. Preferably 4 PCI express 16 slots (but many settle for three. I run two large 49" TVs as monitors (works great). I am not sure if on board graphics will support this. I have no interest in the on bard sound system as I have a high end external (FOcusrite) pro system (Surround). I do want WIFI but usually I use LAN. Blue tooth would be good too..... but which Rog board?

Budget is less important than performance but that said I don't want silly expenses that I dont need. Musically if I could max at 60 VSTs running that would be good. I have lots of high end VSTs from NI, EWest, Steinberg, Spectrasonics, VSL etc

Opinions please?

 

[easyrider]

Thank you all

Done a lot of reseach since my last post. Concur with the Advice above, I shall get an 8700K.
I have settled on an Asus ROG board with 390 chipset, even so there are so many of them, and so far i have found no way of comparing features in a list. Asus site sucks here, comparisons ticks dont work.
I do want - automatic overclocking, Optane, maximum ports of highest quality. Preferably 4 PCI express 16 slots (but many settle for three. I run two large 49" TVs as monitors (works great). I am not sure if on board graphics will support this. I have no interest in the on bard sound system as I have a high end external (FOcusrite) pro system (Surround). I do want WIFI but usually I use LAN. Blue tooth would be good too..... but which Rog board?

Budget is less important than performance but that said I don't want silly expenses that I dont need. Musically if I could max at 60 VSTs running that would be good. I have lots of high end VSTs from NI, EWest, Steinberg, Spectrasonics, VSL etc

Opinions please?

Yes, 8700k for audio hits the spot

 

[kedge]

if I could max at 60 VSTs running that would be good.

Wow that's a tall order, two instances of omnisphere 2.5 with 8 presets loaded in each along with a couple of heavyocity's forzo and novo vst's destroys my i7-8700, I use the rme babyface pro, it sounds good but that's really all a medium to high end desktop audio interface can do, in fact I disable the adats to conserve power in windows 10. I'm aware that real time audio processing is very demanding, would really like to spend a day testing all the intel top end processors to see which is the best, prices are way too high for basic home recording but if you make a living from audio production then I can see why some will opt for 32 cores + 128 gb ram etc.

 

[Jono8]

Thank you all

Done a lot of reseach since my last post. Concur with the Advice above, I shall get an 8700K.
I have settled on an Asus ROG board with 390 chipset, even so there are so many of them, and so far i have found no way of comparing features in a list. Asus site sucks here, comparisons ticks dont work.
I do want - automatic overclocking, Optane, maximum ports of highest quality. Preferably 4 PCI express 16 slots (but many settle for three. I run two large 49" TVs as monitors (works great). I am not sure if on board graphics will support this. I have no interest in the on bard sound system as I have a high end external (FOcusrite) pro system (Surround). I do want WIFI but usually I use LAN. Blue tooth would be good too..... but which Rog board?

Budget is less important than performance but that said I don't want silly expenses that I dont need. Musically if I could max at 60 VSTs running that would be good. I have lots of high end VSTs from NI, EWest, Steinberg, Spectrasonics, VSL etc

Opinions please?

For a start i probably wouldn't overclock things (even auto overclock), especially if you intend to run 64gb or more of high speed ram. It will likely be a pain in the ****. For DAW work i have learned that 100% stability is key. You don't want some random memory related crash in the middle of a big project..

60 vsts shouldnt be a problem. Although, it depends on the vsts though i guess as some are much more demanding that others . I can run quite large orchestral templates of Play/Kontakt and stuff on my 8700 and it hasnt been close to maxing it out.

One of the most important things is SSD's. I have done away with mechanical drives in my DAW completely now. Many of the modern sample libraries really do ideally need SSD speeds for sample streaming.

 

[kedge]

Sample rate and bit depth for the audio interface and drivers need to be taken into consideration, I have still yet to find out why RME's babyface pro keeps defaulting to 24 bit 44.1?.