Disabling core parking - more CPU power without overclocking

[Nokatus]

Ok, there have been threads on this topic before, but as I was in the middle of a very CPU heavy project and remembered to try this now -- it gave so good results I really felt like writing a short heads-up. My workstation is i7-3770K based, running Windows 7 64-bit, and your mileage can of course vary.

In short, disabling the power saving mechanic of parking CPU cores can give better performance in a multi-core audio environment. The settings aren't usually visible in the power profile settings, but there is a convenient little utility called ParkControl to do it. It isn't even a constantly memory resident thing, just makes the appropriate changes to the power profile to turn this on/off.

I tested this with a project running several Bazilles and Divas (multi-core mode), on a pro system with a buffer of 64 samples and very low DPC latency throughout. I pushed it to a point where it was glitching heavily just because of the CPU load. Then I disabled core parking, and just like that it completely stopped glitching.



These are the settings to try: completely disabling the parking. The number "100" indicates the percentage of cores kept running at all times, i.e. 100% of cores will be running and won't be parked.

Seriously, try it out! Needless to say, AT YOUR OWN RISK , but it worked like a charm here.

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

[Taperocket]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents for those debating the effectiveness of core parking. I was struggling with getting my new 4th gen I7 2.2GHZ 8 core PC to run Ableton 9.1.6 on Windows 7 pro without pops and clicks. I initially addressed DPC latency and performed a seemingly endless amount of optimizations and tweaks to no avail.

Once I downloaded the core parking app and ran it my issue dissapeared. I am now seeing way better CPU efficiency, and most importantly, I no longer experience any pops or clicks when running a 128 sample buffer. Clicking around the session view used to cause stutters/static that no longer exist as well.

I can confirm that disabling core parking made a HUGE difference in my case. I suspect that those who didn't enjoy a performance boost must have another bottleneck somewhere else in their system/set-up. Reportedly, there are some minor risks associated with disabling core parking but I have experienced zero issues myself and am excited that I can finally use my new PC to the fullest.

Hope this helps those on the fence!

[Z Wolf]

Is there an equivalent to this procedure on Mac? I could really use some help getting my performance rig to stop stuttering.

I did a search but Apple apparently stopped offering their tool "CPUpalette" which you could allegedly use to accomplish this. Anyone have any suggestions?

[vanhaze]

Afaik there is no such tool for mac.
But you can go the Hackintosh way and overclock/cpu tweak away.