I’ve just discovered the Asus Zenbook Duo which has an i9 core ultra and 32 gig ram plus a 1 TB SSD. It comes with two screens that work in a number of orientations. It is one of the very few 2 in 1s that I’ve found with 32gig ram. Are there any opinions on how this machine would work as a music device running Gig Performer?
According to some reviews of the processor, it doesn’t seem to live up to the performance Asus claims.
Quote: "The Notebookcheck database reports that these are not sensational results. This Core Ultra 9 does barely better than the Core i7-13700HX in ST (1845 points) and is positioned between the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 7940HS (8 cores / 16 threads - 9897 points) and Intel Core i9-11980HK (8 cores / 16 threads - 9813 points) in MT. "
What’s more, I get the impression that these ultra-thin computers can’t have a cooling system that’s efficient enough to allow a processor to operate at peak performance over a long continuous period. But I may be wrong.
My $.02 is heat dispersion is extremely important in laptops for our purposes. So, definitely research before you select a very thin laptop.
I went with a big fat Lenovo Thinkpad P16 (along with a cooling pad). (Disclaimer: I am no computer expert)
Thanks folks. I had my suspicions and you confirmed all that I needed to know. I really have my heart set on a Surface Pro 10, but the business versions are so expensive.
Not only are they expensive, but they are not designed to perform in real time.
Have you checked out the specs on the Surface Pro?
“IntelFootnote® Core™ Ultra 5 135U processor”
“IntelFootnote® Core™ Ultra 7 165U processor”
There have been several threads on the GP forum explaining the Intel processor names and where they are going.
“U” suffix letter.: All of the processors proposed for the Surface Pro are dedicated primarily to power optimization rather than for performance.
These processors are indeed powerful enough to handle GP but their priority for power optimisation could perhaps induce problems in real time.
Think about this when choosing any computer.
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I just got some information from a computer club near me: a user of the Surface Pro 9 is using it in real time on a live game streaming platform and seems very happy with the real-time performance.
But this may have nothing to do with GP’s use, I don’t know anything about live games.
Information concerning France: if a product corresponds to what you are looking for, you can buy it for a trial and return it within 15 days for a refund.
Although I’m not in favour of using the right of withdrawal lightly, it can sometimes be useful when you don’t have the chance to test the device you are interested in and check that its features match your needs.
Be careful.
Real-time ≠ Fast
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No I haven’t yet, but will do so. I’d like to tell about the good experiences that I’ve had using several Surface Pros over the years.
When I started with Gig Performer 1 in 2014 (gosh, that’s 10 years ago), I had just bought the Surface Pro 2. I think that was the small one. Then came SP 3, SP 4, SP 6 and currently, SP 8. The last two iterations had 16 gig of ram. Over all the SPs that I have owned, I have usually had good performance with each one of them. Loading with the current SP 8, can be a little slow (up to 8 or 9 seconds for a complex song) using predictive set to 1. But I get by ok.
At 79 years of age and still actively performing in public, I want to upgrade to a machine with 32 or 64gig of ram for my final fling. Sounds ominous, but we all have to call it a day sometime. The only way that I can get hold of a Surface Pro with 32 or 64 gig of ram is to buy a business machine. These are not generally available to the public here in New Zealand. However, a friendly tech shop manager has said that he can get me one. So I am trying to save on my pension the required amount as the business machines must be paid for in cash. And the prices are horrendous!
So there you have it. I would like the experience of a machine with a lot of ram as I head into the sunset!! Cheers, and thanks for all the great and helpful comments.
Can you let me know the specs of that particular machine please. Inc its code number.
Sorry, but how does this (i.e. “Not equal to sign”) apply?
I understand it as “real-time” operation doesn’t mean “fast” operation.
From what I remember from my school, a real-time system is one that responds deterministically within a guaranteed known time window. Depending on the application this time window can even be large. So a real-time system doesn’t necessarily respond fast, it responds… in time. 
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Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 Intel (16")
13th Gen i7-13850HX
64 GB Ram (2-32 GB pieces) (upgradeable to 128 GB, I think)
1 TB SSD (I use an external SSD for samples).
Let me know if you need anything else. So far, so good.
Jeff
Exactly that – I used to work in the “hard” real-time world – in that domain, it is not a question of being fast, but rather it is a question of meeting externally imposed deadlines. For example, if you’re trying to build a robot to catch a ball that someone throws and you miss the ball, then the program is broken, even if the ball was thrown really slowly.
Many people equate “real-time” to just mean really fast, but that’s not correct.
In the music world, specifically the plugin host world, if you are running with a sample rate of 44.1k and a buffer size of 128, a single iteration of the graph must complete within 2.9 milliseconds, otherwise it will glitch, i.e, it is broken
2.9ms is not particularly fast (relative to other things that can be fast) but it is a “hard” deadline. That is why “real-time” does not mean the same thing as “fast”
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