CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Pieterrr
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Joined: Fri May 13, 2011 6:45 pm

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by Pieterrr » Fri May 06, 2022 9:23 am

marbles wrote:
Fri May 06, 2022 7:57 am
Old thread but I wanted to reply since I was having a similar problem with my m1 iMac running Monterey. The CPU load meter never got above 15% on my ancient iMac and was instantly 20% (up to 60) on my m1 iMac. Separate from this, I realized that Live 11's recording buffer was set to 512 samples by default.. dropping it to the minimum (32 samples) got the load meter down to 1%.

The mystery is why latency would correlate with CPU load in the opposite way that it used to, but regardless it solved my problem.
Hi, I have a similar problem. My Mac Studio (max) has CPU spikes, especially when pressing the spacebar (start/stop). Even up to 1000%, while my old 2017 iMac played those sessions nicely. I've also experienced digital clicks in my audio recordings, making them almost unusable.
I'm still troubleshooting, but so far it helps to switch to VST instead of AU.

Pasha
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Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by Pasha » Thu May 12, 2022 9:36 am

M1 with 128 samples here and sweet spot confirmed. 8GB RAM - do not know if that affects CPU overall.
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

cids
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Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by cids » Thu May 12, 2022 12:38 pm

FYI this was mentioned by Ableton before, short summary; on M1 processors lower buffersizes are more efficient...

"For larger buffersizes and low load, macOS determines that it can use the M1's efficiency cores to do the audio calculation, and it only switches to performance cores when the load hits certain thresholds. With lower buffer sizes, macOS uses performance core more predictably. We're in contact with Apple about this issue, but it's unclear when / if we can improve this or if this requires a fix by Apple."
Mac Studio M2 Max and MacBook Pro M1

Genelec M030; Live 11.3.x and Live 12; macOS Sonoma

UAD Apollo Twin

Ableton Push 2

okubi
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:52 am

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by okubi » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:59 am

Hey everyone, I've recently gone from a PC laptop to an M1 Mac mini (2020) 16gb ram, I'm also encountering the issue of my CPU load being high at all times (on my basic template it sits on average at 25% or so, I tried changing the buffer size to be lower which didn't help, and tried remaking my older racks again to see if that helps. No joy!

It sometimes peaks really high even when just playing on my hardware synths - I've got basically no heavy VSTs or effects loaded too.

Has anyone has any other solutions or heard anything fe Ableton on this?

Thanks

[jur]
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Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by [jur] » Thu Jan 19, 2023 10:07 am

okubi wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:59 am
Hey everyone, I've recently gone from a PC laptop to an M1 Mac mini (2020) 16gb ram, I'm also encountering the issue of my CPU load being high at all times (on my basic template it sits on average at 25% or so, I tried changing the buffer size to be lower which didn't help, and tried remaking my older racks again to see if that helps. No joy!

It sometimes peaks really high even when just playing on my hardware synths - I've got basically no heavy VSTs or effects loaded too.

Has anyone has any other solutions or heard anything fe Ableton on this?

Thanks
If you're on L11, do cmd+i on Live's app icon, it'll open a window, here make sure the Rosetta option is switched off.
If you're in L10... this version isn't m1 compatible so it'll run in Rosetta no matter what.
Ableton Forum Moderator

cids
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Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by cids » Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:57 am

On Apple Silicon (M1/M2) make sure that the buffersize is set to 128 samples as this is the optimal setting.
Mac Studio M2 Max and MacBook Pro M1

Genelec M030; Live 11.3.x and Live 12; macOS Sonoma

UAD Apollo Twin

Ableton Push 2

okubi
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:52 am

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by okubi » Thu Jan 19, 2023 12:52 pm

I did try this as well but it remained the same really! Will try the solution suggested above later but seems a bit random!

cids
Posts: 691
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:53 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by cids » Thu Jan 19, 2023 12:57 pm

Which version of Live are you using? I have same config Mac mini M1 and no utilisation issues at all...
Mac Studio M2 Max and MacBook Pro M1

Genelec M030; Live 11.3.x and Live 12; macOS Sonoma

UAD Apollo Twin

Ableton Push 2

okubi
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:52 am

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by okubi » Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:31 pm

cids wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 12:57 pm
Which version of Live are you using? I have same config Mac mini M1 and no utilisation issues at all...
I'm using Live 11 (11.2.7) - the only thing I'm wondering is if it's an issue with my default template which was carried over from my PC version, could that be the issue? I don't want to really recreate this whole thing again with all the routings and everything but can if that could be an issue.

okubi
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:52 am

Re: CPU overload M1 chip on Big Sur Mac OS

Post by okubi » Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:32 pm

[jur] wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 10:07 am
okubi wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:59 am
Hey everyone, I've recently gone from a PC laptop to an M1 Mac mini (2020) 16gb ram, I'm also encountering the issue of my CPU load being high at all times (on my basic template it sits on average at 25% or so, I tried changing the buffer size to be lower which didn't help, and tried remaking my older racks again to see if that helps. No joy!

It sometimes peaks really high even when just playing on my hardware synths - I've got basically no heavy VSTs or effects loaded too.

Has anyone has any other solutions or heard anything fe Ableton on this?

Thanks
If you're on L11, do cmd+i on Live's app icon, it'll open a window, here make sure the Rosetta option is switched off.
If you're in L10... this version isn't m1 compatible so it'll run in Rosetta no matter what.
"Open using Rosetta" is off anyway here

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