What Mac do I need to run Logos fast?

Recently switched over from Accordance — I'm absolutely loving some of the features of Logos, but I'm not loving the speed.

I'm not here to complain or question the speed of Logos as an app, I'm just here to try to figure out which Mac I need to own that will run Logos at Accordance-like speeds. And I'm not just talking about searches, I mean opening and closing windows, pulling downs menus, etc.

I'm guessing my main problem is that I currently have a very basic 2014 MacBook Air (1.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 Gb of RAM).

What kind Mac do people have that runs Logos fast? Are there videos out there that demonstrate Logos running fast on a higher powered Mac?

Thanks...

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Kevin A. Purcell

If you question is what Mac do I need to run it as fast as Accordance, then my answer is that Mac doesn't exist. Accordance is just faster than Logos. When a Mac gets made that will run today's Logos as fast as Accordance is today, that Mac will likely run Accordance faster.

That said, get a MacBook Pro with dedicated graphics and 16GB of RAM and an SSD. L:ogs runs relatively quickly on such a computer. I'm on one now. I haven't run it on the new iMac Pro, but I'm sure it would as well.

Also make sure you're on a fast internet connection. I have 300Mbs at home and it starts up, syncs and is ready to go in about 15 seconds. At church it's slightly longer, but when I'm out at a public wifi hotspot it can take 30 seconds due to the syncing speed over slower internet.

Ben Parks (Faithlife)

The SSD is really what helps Logos with speed. I use an older Mac Pro from 2009, but with 12 gb of RAM and that SSD, it's lightning quick compared to what it was before. Also, I like to disconnect it from the internet and automatic updates except for about once a week. That also helps with speed.

mike

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961360#Comment_961360

128gb memory is enough

Jonathan Bradley

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro, Retina display, with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD drive, and Logos runs just fine for me. I use a second monitor and often use Logos on both monitors with sermon prep, or Logos on one and Word on another.

I've heard that the newer 12 inch MacBooks run Logos pretty well, but, they don't have the horsepower to do too much at the same time. If you're going for the portable route, the MacBook Pro line with a minimum of 8GB RAM is the way to go. I've never used Logos on the newer MacBook Pros, however, I'm sure it runs great given how it's run on my 2015 model.

I'd look for something with an Intel i5 or higher with 8GB RAM minimum and a minimum of 128GB SSD space (I say that because I wish I had more space for other things) with any Mac you're looking at, whether it be an iMac, iMac Pro, or MacBook Pro. These would be MINIMUM specs. If I were getting a new MacBook Pro, I would opt for 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

As for Logos versus Accordance on speed, I don't have that much experience with Accordance, but enough to feel that what Logos offers outweighs the fact that Accordance does run faster.

Daniel Radke

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961324#Comment_961324

get a MacBook Pro with dedicated graphics and 16GB of RAM and an SSD. L:ogs runs relatively quickly on such a computer.

The SSD is really what helps Logos with speed. I use an older Mac Pro from 2009, but with 12 gb of RAM and that SSD, it's lightning quick compared to what it was before.

Both good pieces of advice. I've owned PCs all my life and had Logos on them since 2008. Until a year ago when I bought a 2012 Macbook Pro and upgraded it to 16GB RAM and a SSD. Logos runs significantly faster and very smooth! I suspect the SSD makes the most difference, and then having plenty of RAM helps too.

Charles

I'm not here to complain or question the speed of Logos as an app, I'm just here to try to figure out which Mac I need to own that will run Logos at Accordance-like speeds. And I'm not just talking about searches, I mean opening and closing windows, pulling downs menus, etc.

I could get "cute" and say a new iMac Pro ($4999.00) but that would be ridiculous. I don't use or own Accordance, therefore, I can't compare the two for speed. However, I have been running Logos on Macs that go all the way back to a 2008 MacBook. Each new Mac our ministry has owned is faster and runs Logos better than the previous machine.

Our current Mac (2017 iMac 5K 27" Retina) has a SSD, 16 GB of system memory, and 4 GB of video memory. It runs Logos very well; opening and closing of windows is fast, menus are fast, and searches are likewise fast. Again, I have no way to compare with Accordance but compared to other Mac apps such as Microsoft Office Word and Powerpoint which we use, it runs about the same as they do.

In Christ,

Charles

Eric Back

I have not used Accordance but I find Logos runs quite well on my 2011 MacBook Pro I7 with a SSD and 16GB ram. I don't notice any lags but the fans speed up noticeably while Logos is indexing.

Phil Tuften

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961437#Comment_961437

I am on a mid 2014 Macbook pro 8 GB of RAM, I run both programes, this is adequate for me, but Accordance is always a bit faster

Donovan R. Palmer

I have a late 2016 2.6 ghz i7 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and an SSD. Logos is pretty good, but it will never be as fast as Accordance on the same machine.

Lee

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961477#Comment_961477

I am also running MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2015, I got the 15" so that i would get quad core i7 and have the larger screen.

One of the main things is how big is your Library, mine is about 45Gb on data.

Ian Shepard

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961571#Comment_961571

The problem with OP's question is that "fast" is subjective. What's fast for one may not be fast for another.

First, you need to consider how large library is. If you have a huge library then you'll need more RAM and more storage.

Regarding a new computer, all you need to know is the following:

1) You want a mulit-core CPU as Logos takes full advantage of that for indexing.
2) You want a large standalone SSD (not Fusion drive which is a small SSD logically paired to a pretty-fast 7,200 RPM HDD) to house your data. I'd recommend 1 TB if you could swing it.
3) Last, you want RAM. That's important as it's what allows you to run Logos and other things at the same time. I'd recommend 16GB at least, but if you don't do a lot of other processing at the same time (running Chrome for Youtube, etc) then 8 GB may work for you.

I have a 15" mid-2012 Macbook Pro with a DIY Fusion drive made from a 512GB SSD and a 750 GB 7,200 RPM drive and 16GB of RAM. I know this goes against the "don't do a fusion drive, but the bulk of my fusion drive is SSD so I'm not too worried about it. It's not as fast as my old desktop that I gave my son (12-cores @ 3.2GHz, 16GB of RAM, and 1 TB of SSD storage over two drives), but it works. I can pull what I'm looking for quickly and it does the job. I have late 2015 iMac showing up today (to replace the system I just gave my son) with 24GB of RAM, a 3.3GHz i5 quad core, and I'm going to mount a 512GB SSD externally to house Logos and Accordance. Between all of these things, it should work out pretty well.

(‾◡◝)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961600#Comment_961600

Obviously, you need a ...

[:$] Sorry. I couldn' hep muhself.

phrogger

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961600#Comment_961600

I appreciate all the responses. Very helpful.

I realize that "fast" is subjective —I don't really care about the difference between the-blink-of-an-eye and half-the-blink-of-an-eye, I just want to have a Mac that is fast enough so I'm not waiting 3 seconds for windows to open and 30 seconds for Passage Guide searches to complete. Again, I realize these searches are compiling ridiculous amount of material — my complaint is not with the app, it's with my computer.

No, I don't have a very large library — couple hundred volumes.
Yes, I currently have an SSD.
Yes, I realized that Logos won't run as fast on the same computer as Accordance — that's ok — I only want Logos to run as fast on my new computer as Accordance did on my old computer.

I see a lot of people talking about 16 GB of RAM — noted.
Logos apparently does a good job taking advantage of more cores — noted.

So does anyone know of a video showing Logos running fast on one of the Macs you've described?

Charles

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961689#Comment_961689

I notice some Mac users of Logos and Accordance always seem to mention how fast or how good Accordance runs or ran on their machines. Let's not forget that Accordance was originally a Mac app and it's only lately that they have a Windows version. Whereas Logos started out and ran only on Windows machines for years before they finally came out with a version for the Mac.

My observation is that each new version of Logos for the Mac runs better than the previous one. I don't believe it's fair to compare Logos' performance on a Mac to that of Accordance. Just my opinion.

In Christ,

Charles

Donovan R. Palmer

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/963496#Comment_963496

My observation is that each new version of Logos for the Mac runs better than the previous one. I don't believe it's fair to compare Logos' performance on a Mac to that of Accordance. Just my opinion

Logos for Mac definitely has improved. Personally version 4 didn't ever feel like a full release version. Version 5 and beyond it has become better and much faster. I can still have it hang if I sleep my MacBook before closing it, but it I think it is faster and generally much less buggy with every release. Sadly, it is still the only product on my machine that likes to send bug reports to Apple.

However, I do slightly differ with you in your analysis of why the difference of speed. Aside from the coding strategy which has been debated numerous times on this forum, the speed issue is in my view part of Logos being more of a full fledged Swiss Army knife. If you stripped Logos down to pure Bible Study, ditched the home page, changed the synchronisation strategy, indexing, etc., I would guess it would be faster. I am sympathetic to this because some of the devotional aspects of Logos I like and have even suggested in these forums of late that building a stronger tool around Lectionaries would be awesome. The more tools we add to this Swiss Army knife, the bigger the program and more complex the code.

But going to your assertion that it is not fair to compare Logos to Accordance on a time to mature front, I think there has been plenty of time. Logos for Mac started almost decade ago (November 2008). Which if we are being generous, isn't a full fair baseline because I believe I recall Logos 1.x was outsourced and internal development at least visibly known to users started with version 4 in October 2009. Nine years or ten years, this is no longer a new venture in programming terms.

That being said, I do agree with you that it has improved. I am not of the belief that it will ever be as fast as Accordance, but I am ok with that and am generally happy with how the product performs. If a user wants to run Logos, similar to other demanding programs, then you need to have an up to date computer with plenty of RAM, multiple processors and an SSD.

John F. Maddocks

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)

Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

250GB SSD Drive

Logos 7 gold runs lighting fast for me with this laptop.

carl jackson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961360#Comment_961360

I put a ssd in my mac pro with 48 gb of ram and my slide bar on the right still pulls down very very slow any tips

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1043438#Comment_1043438

my slide bar on the right still pulls down very very slow

What side bar? Can you explain more? Provide screenshot?

Tony Walker

I have a 2015 iMac that was 'old' but bought it new. (when the 2017 models were the latest). It has a fusion drive that is pretty good. I also have a 2011 mbp with 16gb of ram and a 500gb ssd. it is also good.

13 days ago I got a 2018 mbp with 8gb of ram and a 512 ssd. it is also good.

so, for me anywhay, a modern computer (or an upgraded older one like my 2011 mbp) all run logos great. that is in one way a good thing.

the bad thing is i am thinking of returning my 2018 mbp (the 15 day return from best buy ends in 2 days) because it really doesnt do much more than my 2011 mbp (other than the nicer retina display. And... my 2011mbp has the still common old style usb ports and the ram and ssd are not soldered to the board.

So get a mac with an ssd and youll be fine. Get a mac made in Timmy C's watch as CEO and you're stuck with what they thought was best to permanantly attach to the board so get the most ram and ssd you can.

Ian Shepard

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/961600#Comment_961600

Wow - I forgot about this post. Yeah, that replacement iMac was trash. I had bad overheating issues across the board and ended up going back to PC where I can both open it and replace things like thermal paste or go with water cooling.