Hardware: - Mac or Windows newer laptop.

Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight Equipment Processing
Victordkamenandrea tasselli
•32 replies•1.4k views
Victor avatar
Victor avatar
So my trusty older Imac is hitting a roadblock with the new release of pixinsight and will not allow use of BlurX ver 4.
In addition, on the pixinsight benchmark it is giving me a score in the range of 5000 well below the stellar scores I am seeing with the windows versions.

So my question relates to my search for a newer computer.
As I will be retiring and traveling on the road, I am looking for a good laptop that I can also use to plug into a dual monitor system on my home return.

The new Macbook pro M3 max looks appealing but is costly and I do not like the lack of upgrade capability with respect to ram and storage.
I have been using the mac platform for many years and am still somewhat inclined in that direction but am wondering about those of you using a newer windows laptop computer with the latest AMD Ryzen or Intel processors and what kind of scores you are achieving on the Pixinsight benchmark.
Not interested in going down the linux rabbit hole. Also, interested in those of you with the newer M2 or M3 silicone macs.

I know that some of the standalone windows systems are cabable of getting over 50,000 on the total cpu, and swap.
I think a realistic laptop would achieve around 25-35,00 on these numbers.

So, I am looking for those of you that have recently acquired a new laptop either Mac or Windows and what kind of benchmark scores you are getting with the basic configuration: Make, processor, ram etc.
I would love to hear from you and would enjoy chatting about your experiences.

I may later get a stand alone dedicated Windows machine for home processing that will give me the ability to use additional software such as NINA.
Presently,  I am tied into the ZWO and ASIAir configuration.
Thanks and Happy New Year

Regards,
Victor Beer
www.vicbeer.com
[email]vicbeer@comcast.net[/email]
520-878-6860
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.******************************************************************************* 
Benchmark version …… 1.00.08
CPU Identification
CPU vendor …………. GenuineIntel
CPU model ………….. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H CPU @ 2.60GHz 
System Information
Platform …………… Windows
Operating system …….Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Core version ………..PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ….. 12
Total memory size …… 63.759 GiB 
Execution Times
Total time …………. 00:54.89
CPU time …………… 00:37.57
Swap time ………….. 00:17.27
Swap transfer rate ….. 959.545 MiB/s 
Performance Indices
Total performance …… 8570
CPU performance …….. 10074
Swap performance ……. 5314 
*******************************************************************************
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
******************************************************************************* 
Benchmark version …… 1.00.08I
CPU Identification
CPU vendor …………. GenuineIntel
CPU model ………….. VirtualApple @ 2.50GHz 
System InformationPlatform …………… MacOSX
Operating system ……. macOS 13.6 22G120
Core version ……….. PixInsight Core 1.8.9-1 (x64)Logical processors ….. 8
Total memory size …… 8.000 GiB 
Execution Times
Total time …………. 00:41.86
CPU time …………… 00:32.24
Swap time ………….. 00:09.50
Swap transfer rate ….. 1744.982 MiB/s 
Performance Indices
Total performance …… 11238
CPU performance …….. 11741
Swap performance ……. 9665 
*******************************************************************************

This is a M2 MacBook
Sean Mc avatar
Sean Mc avatar
Everyone’s entitled to an opinion right?

Unless you have cash to burn on a pc specifically for pixinsight, I would go for a new mac.

I prefer osx to windows as well. Pixinsight is a dog for performance, and apparently the ability to use the gpu to speed up certain add-ons is going away. 

I would rather have a mac that takes 5 minutes over a pc that takes 4 minutes.
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
I very much prefer Windows over OSX about 10 times over but as can be seen I have both. Still my core PI machine is the Dell system not the newer M2.
Eric Gagne avatar
Eric Gagne avatar
Not getting in the (surely to come) Windows vs Mac debate but here's the benchmarc on Mac Mini M2 with 8 GB of RAM.  



*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*******************************************************************************

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.08
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number .......... FT8H5G7Y0IG448I8CPIOB412O2V69NPE

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. VirtualApple @ 2.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... MacOSX
Operating system ....... macOS 14.2.1 23C71
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 8
Total memory size ...... 8.000 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 00:40.94
CPU time ............... 00:35.96
Swap time .............. 00:04.94
Swap transfer rate ..... 3352.959 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 11489
CPU performance ........ 10526
Swap performance ....... 18570

Additional Information
Machine description .... Mac Mini M2

*******************************************************************************

Benchmark with S/N FT8H5G7Y0IG448I8CPIOB412O2V69NPE has been recorded on 2023/12/31 20:48:47 UTC



vikas chander avatar
vikas chander avatar
Macbook M3 Max - 128gb ram - 8tb internal ssd -no swap disk used - total score 32103.
dkamen avatar
dkamen avatar
The benchmark gives a lot of weight on CPU speed swap transfer rate but for me at least what takes the longest time is preprocessing and integration. In the abstract, that workflow involves reading/writing hundreds of files and storing as much as possible in RAM (ideally: the entire registered data set + local normalization files + any other tidbits such as drizzle data + the integration + rejection maps + temporary files). For the most part, things are read/written once or twice. They are not swapped from/to disk 50 times.

Which means having ample RAM and ample fast disk is generally more important than a fast CPU. 

Whichever platform allows you to have at least 16G RAM and at least 1TB NVMe with fewer $$$, wins.

edit: that said, I don't think it is so easy for a laptop to reach 20K in the benchmark. Laptop CPUs simply aren't that fast, due to power/thermal considerations.
Helpful Insightful
Victor avatar
Victor avatar
Thanks dkamen. I will keep that in mind on my purchase.
Your M3 must have been a pretty penny.
But I am sure it performs great.
Vic
dkamen avatar
dkamen avatar
Also: 
*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*******************************************************************************

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.08
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number .......... 33X6KIYUBG43TP82K21QKJR43081J7S6

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1355U

System Information
Platform ............... Linux / Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
Operating system ....... 6.2.0-37-generic #38~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Nov  2 18:01:13 UTC 2 GNU/Linux
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 12
Total memory size ...... 15.303 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 00:43.97
CPU time ............... 00:33.16
Swap time .............. 00:10.33
Swap transfer rate ..... 1604.432 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 10699
CPU performance ........ 11416
Swap performance .......  8886

*******************************************************************************

This is from my Dell Inspiron 7430 2in1, with 16G RAM and 512GB NVMe. It is a Linux but I am not expecting Windows performance to be significantly different. 

Cheers,
Dimitris
Victor avatar
Victor avatar
Thx Dimitris
Willem Jan Drijfhout avatar
Willem Jan Drijfhout avatar
14" MacBook Pro M2 Max, 64GB RAM. Total score 22,251. No swap disks used.
Fantastic machine and super happy with it. Only downside is it makes my 4-year old 16-core MacPro with 160GB RAM slow with total score of 18,734 and 50% faster swap performancesmile

Btw, why does PixInsight report Apple Silicon CPU's as 'GenuineIntel'? 

*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto.
All Rights Reserved.
******************************************************************************* 
Benchmark version …… 1.00.08
Input checksum ……… 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number ………. YRB43ROBKG5E7ENF2X3W93L1482X7GKH 

CPU Identification
CPU vendor …………. GenuineIntel
CPU model ………….. VirtualApple @ 2.50GHz 

System Information
Platform …………… MacOSX
Operating system ……. macOS 14.2.1 23C71
Core version ……….. PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ….. 12
Total memory size …… 64.000 GiB 

Execution Times
Total time …………. 00:21.14
CPU time …………… 00:18.14
Swap time ………….. 00:02.95
Swap transfer rate ….. 5618.044 MiB/s 

Performance Indices
Total performance …… 22251
CPU performance …….. 20870
Swap performance ……. 31116 
*******************************************************************************
Die Launische Diva avatar
Die Launische Diva avatar
Willem Jan Drijfhout:
Btw, why does PixInsight report Apple Silicon CPU's as 'GenuineIntel'?

Due to the Rosetta 2 dynamic binary translator, which enables applications built for Intel processors to run on Apple Silicon Macs.
Ian Dixon avatar
Ian Dixon avatar
I like my Macs.  My M1 laptop works great with 16 gigs of ram, 1 TB SSD storage.

Its no Ferrari, but it gets the job done nicely. 



My 0.02
Ian
apennine104 avatar
apennine104 avatar
I use a PC for most of my processing, but have a MacBook Pro as my laptop.

Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
64GB unified memory
2TB SSD storage
*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*******************************************************************************

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.08
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number .......... 3C1YI97I8A4401YHYC7O8V0O4FPZH7UC

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. VirtualApple @ 2.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... MacOSX
Operating system ....... macOS 14.2.1 23C71
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 12
Total memory size ...... 64.000 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 00:25.50
CPU time ............... 00:22.89
Swap time .............. 00:02.57
Swap transfer rate ..... 6459.922 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 18444
CPU performance ........ 16536
Swap performance ....... 35779

*******************************************************************************
dkamen avatar
dkamen avatar
Die Launische Diva:
Willem Jan Drijfhout:
Btw, why does PixInsight report Apple Silicon CPU's as 'GenuineIntel'?

Due to the Rosetta 2 dynamic binary translator, which enables applications built for Intel processors to run on Apple Silicon Macs.

Pretty impressive that kind of performance under emulation, btw. I suspect if a native version comes out, it will be crazy fast.
Jonny Bravo avatar
Jonny Bravo avatar
Sean Mc:
I prefer osx to windows as well. Pixinsight is a dog for performance, and apparently the ability to use the gpu to speed up certain add-ons is going away.


Source? The RC tools have significant performance gains using CUDA. In fact, there's a post started by Russ himself from just a couple weeks ago on the PI forum with a new experimental repo to get everything installed and running. That surely doesn't sound like it's going away any time soon.

Oh, if you're using MacOS, you get acceleration by default because it uses the coreML library. No need for all the rigamarole required of Windows and CUDA and tensor flow and all that fun stuff . Of course, PI still isn't running natively on Apple Silicon. Maybe 1.9?
Helpful Engaging
Die Launische Diva avatar
Die Launische Diva avatar
Die Launische Diva:
Willem Jan Drijfhout:
Btw, why does PixInsight report Apple Silicon CPU's as 'GenuineIntel'?

Due to the Rosetta 2 dynamic binary translator, which enables applications built for Intel processors to run on Apple Silicon Macs.

Pretty impressive that kind of performance under emulation, btw. I suspect if a native version comes out, it will be crazy fast.

I don't have the expertise to comment on the speed gains of a native Apple Silicon version. I can only say that given the pace Pleiades Astrophoto delivers new software versions, we won't see a native version for Apple Silicon anytime soon. And maybe that's a good argument on choosing your hardware first based on your daytime/daily needs and not on a software needs of a hobby like astrophotography.
Well Written
dkamen avatar
dkamen avatar
For my daily tasks I am using the laptop where I ran the benchmark.

For astrophotography (and photography in general) I am using a much slower NUC with a core i5 and 16GB RAM. But it has 1TB NVMe and 4TB SSD. smile
SouthWestAstro avatar
SouthWestAstro avatar
I have an Intel iMac Pro from 2018 with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Here are my results:




*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*******************************************************************************

Benchmark version …… 1.00.08
Input checksum ……… 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number ………. 06K4VN6WS6C4WML2X1U4JYA96IP5NJA4

CPU Identification
CPU vendor …………. GenuineIntel
CPU model ………….. Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-2140B CPU @ 3.20GHz

System Information
Platform …………… MacOSX
Operating system ……. macOS 14.1.2 23B92
Core version ……….. PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ….. 16
Total memory size …… 32.000 GiB

Execution Times
Total time …………. 00:36.86
CPU time …………… 00:29.57
Swap time ………….. 00:07.19
Swap transfer rate ….. 2306.827 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance …… 12763
CPU performance …….. 12800
Swap performance ……. 12776

*******************************************************************************

Benchmark with S/N 06K4VN6WS6C4WML2X1U4JYA96IP5NJA4 has been recorded on 2024/01/02 22:32:42 UTC
SouthWestAstro avatar
SouthWestAstro avatar
I use a PC for most of my processing, but have a MacBook Pro as my laptop.

Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
64GB unified memory
2TB SSD storage
*******************************************************************************
The Official PixInsight Benchmark version 1.0
Copyright (C) 2014-2021 Pleiades Astrophoto. All Rights Reserved.
*******************************************************************************

Benchmark version ...... 1.00.08
Input checksum ......... 2cd72b67e12fff2812ef5b5da054ab2a70a25e23
Serial number .......... 3C1YI97I8A4401YHYC7O8V0O4FPZH7UC

CPU Identification
CPU vendor ............. GenuineIntel
CPU model .............. VirtualApple @ 2.50GHz

System Information
Platform ............... MacOSX
Operating system ....... macOS 14.2.1 23C71
Core version ........... PixInsight Core 1.8.9-2 (x64)
Logical processors ..... 12
Total memory size ...... 64.000 GiB

Execution Times
Total time ............. 00:25.50
CPU time ............... 00:22.89
Swap time .............. 00:02.57
Swap transfer rate ..... 6459.922 MiB/s

Performance Indices
Total performance ...... 18444
CPU performance ........ 16536
Swap performance ....... 35779

*******************************************************************************

Heckuva laptop !!!
Michael Nemetz avatar
Michael Nemetz avatar
This is really a question of your own ecosystem and personal preference. But it always triggers the "fan-boy"  / "fan-girl" posts.
I can see here benchmarks for a Windows I 7 9th generation from 2018 vs a Mac M2 from 2022, how can this be a fair comparison.
Intel is now at the 14th generation.

I own Windows, Mac and Linux systems and I use all of them for different purpuses, but that's because I work in IT.

I swapped back from Mac to Windows for my workhorse because most software is for Windows and because of CUDA. Everytime I had a software that supports hardware acceleration, I couldn't use my Mac or Windows computer with AMD graphics and there were probems with OPENGL for AMD.

I don't know how far the development for AI support e.g. for all the Blur/Noise/StarXTerminator and other tools is for MAC but the spped boost with NVIDIA CUDA GPUs is significant.
Victor avatar
Victor avatar
Thank you Michael.
vic
Georg N. Nyman avatar
Georg N. Nyman avatar
Both have advantages and disadvantages - the Mac is usually more reliable and probably faster, Photoshop works on both platforms but Affinity Photo is for Windows only - in case you do not want to spend quite some money for Photoshop and Adobe. 
IMO the main drawback for IOS is its price - that is for people like me prohibitive - I just cannot afford it. You can find a very powerful Win11 laptop for half or even less the price than a new M3 Macbook with comparable RAM, SSD etc. - at least here in Austria.
So - what would I suggest to you? If you want and can afford it, got for the IOS, if you rather want to save some money for other activities or items for astrophotography, then go for a Win11 laptop.

Would be interested to hear what you have bought..

CS
Georg
Supportive
andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
Michael Nemetz:
I don't know how far the development for AI support e.g. for all the Blur/Noise/StarXTerminator and other tools is for MAC but the spped boost with NVIDIA CUDA GPUs is significant.


Hardware acceleration (external to the CPU) on Apple Silicon chips is already embedded in the OS so you get that kind of boost, in fact probably faster on a laptop where the GPU isn't top notch.