AFAIK the support of 8 cores by the operating system is there - not every application scales across 8 cores smoothly ...
unless you run arithmetic operations which are highly relying on data from the processor cache i doubt 8 cores would show much improvement over the 4 cores, because the bus-width _to_ the processors is of the same width for both models. much, if not all, depends what else besides sample playing you do on this computer.
christian

Not sure about that CM. The Apple site indicates that each pair of processors (i.e. 4 cores) gets its own independent bus. That said, the software has to be optomized to take the most advantage of the extra processing power.

Hmm. fwiw:

8-Core (dual 4x procs)

1.33GHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses

8MB of L2 cache per processor (16MB total; each pair of cores shares 4MB)


4-Core (dual 2x procs)

1.33GHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses

4MB of shared L2 cache per processor (8MB total: each pair of cores shares 2MB)

the second statement is incorrect: 4 MB shared L2 cache per processor is identical to 4 MB shared L2 cache per pair of cores for the dual core processor.

that's what i've said ... each pair of cores has 4 MB shared L2 cache and the bus-width per physical processor is the same.
so advantages can only be seen if a processor performs operations with data already stored in the L2 cache and it is not needed to transport data to and from the processor.

current benchmarks (which we all know are far away from real-world scenarios) actually show that *processor scaling* from 4 to 8 cores is around 27%, whereas pure math would make us assume that 8 is 100% more than 4 ...

new processors and chipsets (which should widen the bus) are announced for september, but the specs are a little bit vague as of today.
christian

@cm said:

the second statement is incorrect: 4 MB shared L2 cache per processor is identical to 4 MB shared L2 cache per pair of cores for the dual core processor.

perhaps each pair shares 4 MB is more accurate, but the "4MB shared L2 cache per processor" is directly from Apple's documentation.

right, but the part *each pair of cores shares 2 MB* for the dual core is definately wrong
http://vsl.co.at/upload/users/449/4MBsharedL2cache.png">

I'm sorry cm-- the error was corrected in the previous post.

the other thing i do is mainly 3d animation and rendering which needs every bit of cpu power it can get

but the improvement for the VIs won't be that signifficant?

The only problem I have is that I haven't been able to get the Symphonic Cube to work (including the Standalone Player). I transferred the files over from a Quad Power PC.

Today I will start re-installing all of the files.

I hope you don't have my experience.

@Sleeping in Seattle said:

The only problem I have is that I haven't been able to get the Symphonic Cube to work (including the Standalone Player). I transferred the files over from a Quad Power PC.

Today I will start re-installing all of the files.

I hope you don't have my experience.

Hi,

actually you don´t have to install everything from scratch BUT you´ll need the Intel-Mac version of Vienna Instruments software for your new Mac:

<Vienna Instruments Software Installer OS X Intel 1.11>
http://www.vsl.co.at/en-us/68/375/239.vsl

I´d also recommend to download and install the latest version of syncrosoft´s LCC from:
http://www.syncrosoft.com/License_Control_Center-78-11.html

Best regards,

Maya