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Do I Need 15in Macbook Pro for Affinity?


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I recently put forward a bug report about FFT Denoise, but having tried it out on a friend's newer macbook air it seems like it's probably just a bug on Lion or just on my old computer.  It doesn't make that much of a difference, really; my Macbook Pro is woefully out-of-date, and I've been intending to get a new one anyway.

 

Since I'm going to be buying a new Macbook Pro in the next few months, I thought I should ask about this.  I read a recent thread on this forum where you said that the best computer for Affinity is the 15-inch Macbook Pro, and I was wondering how vital the 15-inch is.  I mean, would a 13-inch with all the extra processing power you can get be passible, or does Affinity really need the 15-inch to work well?

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Hi,

 

The 13" is an excellent machine - the only thing holding it back it that it is impossible to configure it with more than 2 processors - where the 15" always has 4 processors.

 

Number of processors is probably the single best way to make all Affinity apps to fast..

 

We have fixed the FFT bug too - it should work in the next beta :)

 

Thanks,

 

Andy,

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Is there a point where this stops making sense? ie 8 core vs 12 or does this continue to scale well beyond what macs can be configured with?

 

My knowledge about this is limited. As I understand the issue, a single processor can handle all the operations, which might include recording user input, performing calculations to accomplish tasks, send and receive  data from GPUs, write to memory, etc. That single core can only perform 1 operation per clock cycle. If the stream of tasks can be separated, and performed on another core, each core will perform a sub task at the same speed as the primary. 

 

An analogy. In a kitchen, the chef receives the order, and hands off the different portions to dedicated cooks. Then inspects the results, and instructs the server to deliver. The chef could do it all, but for some meals, it would be very hard to have everything ready at once.

 

I don't know how many varieties of tasks have to be co-ordinated w. a graphics app. I would suppose more than I mentioned above. So, 4 cores seems a good starting point. 

 

To respond to the original post, I'm using an iMac w. an Intel i5 4 core. Affinity Designer has had almost instantaneous response for most operations, and probably less than a second for those things that had a noticeable lapse.

iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb,  AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb

iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil

Huion WH1409 tablet

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My knowledge about this is limited. As I understand the issue, a single processor can handle all the operations, which might include recording user input, performing calculations to accomplish tasks, send and receive  data from GPUs, write to memory, etc. That single core can only perform 1 operation per clock cycle. If the stream of tasks can be separated, and performed on another core, each core will perform a sub task at the same speed as the primary. 

 

An analogy. In a kitchen, the chef receives the order, and hands off the different portions to dedicated cooks. Then inspects the results, and instructs the server to deliver. The chef could do it all, but for some meals, it would be very hard to have everything ready at once.

Thanks for the explanation, but I already knew that :P (I am a computer engineer). Maybe my question wasnt clear enough. How many threads can affinity run in parallel? are there enough for 8 or 12 core machines? More? at what point does affinity cease to benefit from more cores?

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for the explanation, but I already knew that :P (I am a computer engineer). Maybe my question wasnt clear enough. How many threads can affinity run in parallel? are there enough for 8 or 12 core machines? More? at what point does affinity cease to benefit from more cores?

Bump

 

I am also curious about how Affinity Photo is programmed/engineered - as a systems engineer/photographer I want to know how to get the most bang for my buck. My 2012 MBPr is beginning to show its age when developing RAW photos in AP. As I am considering upgrading to a newer MacBook or MacBook Pro, I want to know what will be most important - a fast CPU, a higher thread count CPU, or a GPU...that being said, does AP utilize hardware acceleration provided by a discrete GPU? I basically want to know whether going for the 15" MBP is a necessity or if the 13" without the discrete GPU will be able to handle the raw files I throw into AP

- Nikon Z7 | Nikon D7000 | Nikon D70s with Ikelite Housing | GoPro Hero5 Black -

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