Best Processor for Logos 5 - Dual-core or Quad-core? (MacBook Pro)

Dan de Villiers

I'm looking at getting a MacBook Pro but am unsure which setup is the best, due to not knowing how many cores Logos 5 is maximized on. 

The 15" has 4 cores of processing power, while the 13" has 2 cores. Would this make any difference to its speed? Basically is Logos 5 designed to utilize a quad-core processor or dies it only use 1 or 2?

(I'm looking at getting the i7 either way)

N/A

Indexing might be faster on quad-core, but other than that I really don't think Logos is optimized for more than 2 cores nor will be for years.

BillS

On my Win8 quad-core, I find indexing usually to take only a few minutes... entire library? Under 12 hr...

However, some Mac users on quad cores have reported significant problems. Others, none. I hope some of the Mac users will chime in for you on their experience. (Don't have one... can't comment.)

BillS

And welcome to the forums! Blessings to you!

Dave Hooton

Daniel de Villiers said:

Basically is Logos 5 designed to utilize a quad-core processor or dies it only use 1 or 2?

It will use as many threads as it can, so a quad core with hyperthreading (8 CPU's) gives more overhead for multitasking Logos & other apps.

Logos will try to index four resources at a time i.e it can allocate 4 threads + others as needed.

Daniel de Villiers said:

(I'm looking at getting the i7 either way)

i7 or i5 are good for Logos.

Armin

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552483#Comment_552483

NÖ said:

I really don't think Logos is optimized for more than 2 cores nor will be for years.

That's my experience. I have a new MacBook Pro Retina and Logos never uses all my CPU power. I doubt that you will find any speed difference between dual or quad core when it comes to Logos.

Armin

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552717#Comment_552717

Armin said:

I doubt that you will find any speed difference between dual or quad core when it comes to Logos.

Then we should be using dual core for all our apps if you accept that Logos is the most demanding!?

Dan de Villiers

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552549#Comment_552549

Dave Hooton said:

It will use as many threads as it can, so a quad core with hyperthreading (8 CPU's) gives more overhead for multitasking Logos & other apps. Logos will try to index four resources at a time i.e it can allocate 4 threads + others as needed.

Thanks, makes sense; the additional cores could be quite useful (although they seem somewhat unnecessary running just Logos) as I invariably have other apps open while working on Logos. Appreciate the simple tech break-down.

Dan de Villiers

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552717#Comment_552717

Armin said:

That's my experience. I have a new MacBook Pro Retina and Logos never uses all my CPU power. I doubt that you will find any speed difference between dual or quad core when it comes to Logos.

Goo to hear from someone with a similar setup. Thanks

Fr. Charles R. Matheny

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552885#Comment_552885

Dear Dave Hooton: Are you sure on the information you provided?

I was under the impression that Logos was still a 32bit program, did not make use of more than 2 cores and, did not offload much processing to the newer GPU'S as most 64bit programs are able to do.

I have thought about getting a new macbook pro, but was advised getting the SSD would do as much good, for far less money. The primary reason being: The faster drive makes a huge difference, but Logos cannot make use of more than 2 cores, thus  the only speed difference I would see from a new Macbook pro would be from either a hybrid drive or SSD, not from processing power.
A mac pro with 8 cores and extreme GPU would again, be of no benefit other than more Ram and SSD.
We had these discussions back in logos 4 and at the start of Logos 5.

Has Logos changed to 64 bit ?

Can Logos now truly use 4 cores, 8 cores, make proper use of the newer GPU capabilities etc?

Of so, then I am going shopping soon.

I would really like to hear from Logos Tech personal on this as well.

Will try to look it up also, but if you can point me in the right direction Dave, would appreciate it.

Thanks. 

Fr. Charles R. Matheny

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552888#Comment_552888

Another question: If Logos remains a 32bit program, then how can adding ram beyond 32 bit address lengths help Logos 5?

I understand it will help with running other programs at the same time, but if Logos is still 32 bit, how can it address 12 gigs of ram, or 8 gigs for that matter.

If running in 32 bit mode on a 64 bit OS, How can Logos access more than 4 gigs of ram?

Just asking.

Thanks.

 

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552883#Comment_552883

Daniel de Villiers said:

Dave Hooton said:

It will use as many threads as it can, so a quad core with hyperthreading (8 CPU's) gives more overhead for multitasking Logos & other apps. Logos will try to index four resources at a time i.e it can allocate 4 threads + others as needed.

Thanks, makes sense; the additional cores could be quite useful (although they seem somewhat unnecessary running just Logos) as I invariably have other apps open while working on Logos. Appreciate the simple tech break-down.

There's only one time when I'm positive I need a quad core i7: indexing. All 5800+ resources will index in well under 12hr with a quad core (more like 6-8hr). With a core 2 duo (that I replaced with the i7), it took about 24hr to fully index. EDIT: And my cpu meter says ALL "8" CORES are 100% busy for much of the time that it's indexing.

More routinely, adding a book takes 1-2 minutes of indexing. EDIT: and again, all "8" cores are 100% for muchof the task.

Other than that, the i7 mostly waits for something to do.

Fr. Charles R. Matheny

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/552989#Comment_552989

Thanks Bill: That indexing power is important .

I did some more research and it seems a 32 program, if written for multiple cores, can access and use them. The real issue of 32/64 is accessing memory.

I have 8 gig and thought this would help Logos a great deal, it doesn't.

It does however help when using Logos while using other programs, so glad I have it.

I think the "bottleneck" for us isn't cores or ram "per say" but "mono"? if I am reading the other threads correctly. It seems that this is why our "best bang for the buck" is the SSD.

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/553043#Comment_553043

Fr. Charles R. Matheny said:

I think the "bottleneck" for us isn't cores or ram "per say" but "mono"? if I am reading the other threads correctly. It seems that this is why our "best bang for the buck" is the SSD.

For many years, the biggest bottleneck on PCs has been disk i/o, not processing power...

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/553043#Comment_553043

Fr. Charles R. Matheny said:

I think the "bottleneck" for us isn't cores or ram "per say" but "mono"? if I am reading the other threads correctly.

e.g. http://community.logos.com/forums/p/26614/196656.aspx#196656 where Bradley states that Mono threading is different. But it will still index up to 4 resources at a time, as per Windows.

Fr. Charles R. Matheny said:

It seems that this is why our "best bang for the buck" is the SSD.

 http://community.logos.com/forums/p/76722/537028.aspx#537028 states quad core and SSD. You can't beat physical cores for indexing  e.g. my laptop i5 has 2 cores (4 CPUs) & SSD and indexes almost as quickly as my desktop i7 quad core (8 CPUs) with HDD. Both are limited to indexing 4 resources at a time, so imagine how much faster the quad core would be with an SSD. If you have an i5 with hyperthreading (4 CPU's) then getting an SSD is the best improvement for a laptop. Buying any computer with an SSD will provide an overall lift to performance with a HDD, but get an i5 or i7 processor if you can.