Let's talk about the CPU !

[adayinalife]

Since I'm working on Live 10 , The CPU spikes as hell !

Am I alone on this earth ?

I can't work anymore ...

Why my CPU can go up to 150 % with a few basic plug , and audio tracks ?
I've never experimented that with Live 9 .

BUT when live 10 runs and I go back to the finder ( I mean The live window doesn't appear on my main screen ) everything works perfectly .
it's like magic , but obviously you can't work .
I'm so disappointed .
Even The Support center can't help me . I called them for 1 hour !
The guy told me it's a known issue but he can't help ... really !?

I really need help ,
I'm working everyday with live , it's my job but I'm about to switch because it makes totally crazy !

Thanks in advance ,

Julien


Mac os High sierra 10.13.5

Macbook pro 2015 full option 16gb RAM

[jestermgee]

If possible, try the Beta.

There have been some CPU issues identified for some users and there are some fixes in the Betas that may help, if not then a great time to send some data to assist them in helping.

There is also the option to roll back to Live 10.0.1 (not sure where the link is but someone may be able to chime in with it if needed) or if you say Live 9 worked fine, continue using that until you see a new release that addresses your issue.

Always test a new installation before migrating fully and making the move (where possible) ESPECIALLY if you are using it for professional reasons. You can install several different Live versions at the same time just to be covered. Sometimes shit happens and systems are all different. If everyone jumped ship at the first sign of any issue you may as well just stay in the water because every software package has some issues that need attention at some point

[Bonehead]

Running the latest beta here and I don't think there's any improvement there. CPU spikes and fan speeds are out of control on a Macbook Pro. My fans hit almost 5000rpm just by starting Live. Currently unworkable for me.

From the beta forums, it looks like it's something to do with the GPU. You could try running gfxstatus if you're running a Mac with discrete graphics.

[scheffkoch]

...no problems here with a late 2016 mbp and live 10.0.1...some spikes (that don't end up in drop outs) but i have the impression that live 10 runs smoother than live 9...

[Semitone]

This is driving me crazy as well.

I just bought a 2018 MacBook Pro with quad intel core i7 thinking that I would be able to work again and run my projects.... But I still get CPU spikes with audio dropouts and clicks.

Please solve this!!!

[scheffkoch]

...do you have an audio interface? what's your buffer setting?...do you have all energy saving features switched off?...there are several reasons a cpu can give spikes and like i said...no problems here even with my kinda big setup...

[H20nly]

From the beta forums, it looks like it's something to do with the GPU. You could try running gfxstatus if you're running a Mac with discrete graphics.

i've seen similar issue in the past with Windows.

i'm not having the issue, but if i was... i would put some time into exploring this angle.

[Bonehead]

...no problems here with a late 2016 mbp and live 10.0.1...some spikes (that don't end up in drop outs) but i have the impression that live 10 runs smoother than live 9...

I'm on a 2016 MBP as well. The CPU spikes don't bother me much (no dropouts), but are you saying your fans don't get loud when running Live? IIRC some of the earlier versions of Live 10 didn't have this issue, it just got worse with updates. 10.0.2 and several of the last betas have all run like this.

If you can, please let me know what speeds your fans are running at. I can't get gfxstatus to run correctly on my model. So, I'm all out of options currently.

[scheffkoch]

...yep, i can barely hear the fans (if they're spinning at all)...this is with live 10.0.1 (i switched back because of the problems with arturia plugins) and my liveset using between 25% and 45% cpu according to the ableton meter...i don't have any problems playing a 45+ minutes set...
i'd try setting the computer to using only the dedicated graphic card (= no switching) within energy saving settings...then maybe resetting live's preferences...then re-installing macos (you can just reinstall it "over" your current version - it won't destroy any settings)...

[Bonehead]

I think I'll try Live 10.0.1 first. I don't remember this issue being this bad on the earlier versions of Live and the beta.

EDIT: Ok, that didn't help either. 10.0.1 ramps up the fans at no load as well.

[adayinalife]

Hi , sorry for the delay guys . I was on vacation .

So ! I'm an Ableton beat tester , I tested the new beta and I had the same issue .
I just sent an email to the the Ableton beta support about this issue .
They told me to use the integrated graphic . So I downloaded GFXcardstatus , I forced osx to use the integrated graphic card and now... ( H20nly , I didn't see your answer but thanks anyway ! )
all works perfectly , no more CPU spikes , dropout , the fans aren't spinning like hell .
There is obviously an incompatibility with discrete graphic card and Live .
I'm pretty sure they're going to fix that with the next update .

Anyway , thanks for your answer !

Julien .

[ark]

In addition to possible bugs in your particular graphics card, I have encountered two other reasons for CPU spikes:

1) Perhaps the machine is not set for its highest-performance power mode.
2) Perhaps there is a problem with a cooling fan.

I spent a month trying to figure out why my laptop was misbehaving; the problem turned out to be that the cooling fan was clogged with cat hair. So after a while the CPU would overheat and the firmware would slow it down to avoid damage.

[Stromkraft]

A good first step is to make sure your CPU is not stepping down the operating frequency. If it is you have to find the cause of this hardware issue instead of solely looking at Live.

The graphics card and it's drivers can also be involved in these things, as I think was touched on here, as can audio interface drivers.

Repeating this post from CPU Overloading with Ableton here:

An observation I just made: My 2.2 GHz I7-2720QM CPU according to Intel Power Gadget 3.0.3 usually runs at about 3 GHz with a base clock of 0.22 GHz.

At the moment it's at a temperature of about 70°C. When I check the frequency, because I had stutter at 512 samples audio buffer it's down to about 1.7 Ghz. Cores look all-right in Activity Monitor and are not overloaded.

Live's CPU meter is struggling but while staying at about 70% it's fluctuating above 100% in quick bursts when I have crackles.

I played this track last night without issues.

Clearly this is the CPU kicking in some protection or power save mode. It's not Live!

…

5 minutes later the CPU is at 75°C and back at 3 GHz. no crackles whatsoever. Live fluctuates between 40 and 64% according to the CPU Meter with the exact same scene.

I used Intel Power Gadget to gauge my CPU frequency. I couldn't get the current version 3.5.3 to run on my 2011 MBP as it might require a newer CPU or High Sierra, but I used the 3.0.3 version instead in 10.12 Sierra. Let me know if you need this version so I can dig up the link.

[Stromkraft]

Further even as my experience above indicate speed-stepping can happen also for other reasons than the CPU getting too hot — I got back full power at temperatures above what I had when encountering crackles — looking over your temperatures for the CPU and the graphics card would seem very important first steps to make.

Where is your machine physically placed and on what surface? Is there room for air below the bottom? What's the temperature in the room? Is the machine running hot? Are you toggling multicore support in plug-ins? Do you have a check-list over these things and going trough it when problem arises? Did you consider speed-stepping?

[H20nly]

he got it working.

all works perfectly , no more CPU spikes , dropout , the fans aren't spinning like hell .
There is obviously an incompatibility with discrete graphic card and Live .