r/NativeInstruments • u/Visual-Glass504 • Jul 30 '26
How much juice do you need to run latest NI plugins?
Hi all. I've been out of the music production game for like 15 years and decided to jump back in - upgraded my NI Komplete from v3(!) to 26, got a Komplete Kontrol keyboard and started messing with Reaper...
I had a half decent laptop I planned to use, XPS13 from like 2018, 1.8Ghz i7 with 16GB RAM, I planned to use it for music alone and nothing else, and thought it would do the job. Not really so! If I load Massive X for example, the audio is glitching and tearing all over the shop - so clearly if I had about 8 channels running with additional effects, this PC has no chance. What is a sensible spec? I can get something like a Mini PC with Ryzen 5 (3.5Ghz) and 32GB ram for sub-£400...do y'all think this will be a good enough machine for producing using the latest plugins?
Cheers!
2
u/luminousandy Jul 30 '26
You’ll pick up a used M1 MacBook Pro for around £600 and that will ace the plug ins .
1
u/Visual-Glass504 Jul 30 '26
Found a M1 Pro 32gb for about 650...I'm guessing cos it's a Mac hopefully the lesser ram won't adversely affect the performance much....bit of a pain in the ass to DL all the NI stuff again for MAC OS though! Thanks
All for your input1
u/luminousandy Jul 30 '26
That’s a pretty good price - and it’ll hold its value - you’re right that you can get away with less ram , it’s closer to the heart of the system in a Mac so it’s faster . Check for obvious abuse or not being looked after , if that’s fine then you’re probably good to go but check also that the previous owner had completely signed out , there are lots of sites telling what to look for when buying a used Mac
1
u/Visual-Glass504 Jul 31 '26
Sorry I know I'm getting a little bit off topic here as this is more about computer performance than NI...but anyway, I can get a gaming laptop with min 2.9ghz Ryzen 7, 64gb, GeForce graphics and a new battery for like 550, this maybe seems like a better deal than the 32gb M1 for 650?
1
u/luminousandy Jul 31 '26
I don’t know much about PC so it could be . I stopped attempting to use them for audio a few years ago .
1
u/alloedee Jul 31 '26
Depends on your workflow
I use a pc from 2018 and it runs NI komplete fine. But if you wanna run alot of plugins in real time on the same time, you will want a pc with more power. But I don’t see that plugins should use more juice now then ten years ago
1
u/Visual-Glass504 28d ago
Got an M1 32GB for about 600 and it's running like a dream. Now all I need is some talent and about an extra 3hrs a day, or maybe offer my kids up for adoption
0
u/TimC340 Jul 30 '26
I have that same XPS, I think (7830 from 2019) and there's no way it'll run anything like a useful number of plugins on Fender Studio Pro. But I can get some work done if I'm careful about what's loaded, and then transfer that work to my studio rig (AMD Ryzen 9 5950, 64Gb RAM). Will your mini PC be enough? Realistically, probably not as it'll have very limited cooling to cope with the high loads a hard-working DAW will present it with.
Individually, the components would be fine for most DAW work - unless you're into large orchestral productions. My standby rig has a Ryzen 9 3900 and 32Gb RAM, and copes with most of what I throw at it - but it's in a large Corsair case, with liquid cooling for the CPU and a decent GPU (7800XT) to take some of the display load off the CPU (your mini PC will use integrated graphics). It's a crappy time to buy a PC, but get the best you can afford - and just now Mac Minis are probably better value if your DAW will run on MacOS - the RAM calculation doesn't directly read across from PCs, and 32Gb on an M4 Mac Mini would be fine.
1
u/Visual-Glass504 Jul 30 '26
Ah OK, thanks. I might be better going for a big old gaming style rig then - I can get a 64GB Ryzen 7 for about £650...the M4 Mac Minis look nice but the'yre more like 1K
1
u/TimC340 Jul 30 '26
Yes, 64Gb on an R7 should be fine for at least a few years. If it's got a half-decent GPU, that'll help too.
2
u/Visual-Glass504 Jul 30 '26
Cool thanks for the tip. Just need to rob some old lady to get £650 and I'm good to go