Upgrade worth it or am I missing something? - CPU woes

[Gmonics22]

Hi All,

Long time Live user hoping to get some advice on that tedious old "is my PC powerful enough?" question...

Current laptop is a few years old. I7 4700mq (quad core @ 2.4ghz) 8gb RAM, Windows 8.1, Scarlett 2i2 interface. I'm using Live 9.7.

I've never been happy with its performance in Live since day one, but have only played around with Push and haven't put together a full project in years. Finally getting back into it now and really want to stick with Live, but I'm maxing out the CPU with really basic stuff. Current example:

1 Drum Rack with stock 909 kit
4 VST synths (2 x Synth1, Firebird, GenesisCM)
A couple of audio tracks playing short loops
A few native fx on each track (EQ8, compressor, saturator etc)
2 sends, one for reverb with a short decay, another with a delay and frequency shifter
512 buffer
44.1khz 16bit

This is bringing my laptop to its knees! My old Q6600 with 2gb RAM would've shrugged it off, and on paper was nowhere near as powerful. I've done all the standard optimisation, DPC latency @ under 200, power settings are all on high, drivers up to date. Actual CPU usage in task manager is only showing around 8-10%... checking individual cores, none ever go above 15% or so.

I know the CPU meter in Live isn't the same as the system level one, but the gulf between the two seems crazy!

Is there anything really obvious I could be missing? Sorry for such a tired thread, but I've Googled this to death and can't find any answers. The kind of projects people were able to run on similar specs a few years ago dwarf mine.

Just looking for thoughts before I shell out on a new PC unneccesarily.

Thanks for any help

[Tone Deft]

I've never been happy with its performance in Live since day one,

that's all the user experience feedback I'd need to hear to say yes, buy a new computer.

sounds like even if you 'turned back time' on it by installing a new hard drive with a fresh Windows install to start all over you wouldn't be having fun with Live and that's the whole point.

be happy. buy a new computer. have fun with Live.

[pottering]

IMO you need to raise the buffer.

[Gmonics22]

Thanks for the replies. I've tried the buffer at the max (1024) and it doesn't make any difference to the CPU usage but does up my latency to 101ms which makes Push kind of pointless...

I'm pretty sure I want to go ahead and upgrade anyway, but I'd still like to work out why Ableton seems to be ignoring 90% of my current system's resources (I know thays not exactly hoe the CPU meter works but you get my point). I mean I know it's not bang up to date, but doesn't the current performance I'm getting seem kind of ridiculous? There must be something not right.

I guess I'm feeling like I have a pretty normal car but it won't go above 20mph even though it should easily. I'm hopeful that a new better car will get me to 70mph. But it might be that I just don't realise I have to change up from 1st gear... I don't want to splash out on the Porsche and still be ignorant, driving around at 30mph.

Sorry to be a bore but I'm prettt desperate to work out what's going on at this stage. Any ideas anyone?

Cheers.

[kitekrazy]

The Q6600 was a great processor. It's not always about ghz but architecture.

[twisted-space]

I think something's not right with your setup.

I have an i7-3610QM (quad core @ 2.3 Ghz and a gen older than your cpu) and 8Gb ram

Current project has Revolution 909 kit, Diva, Repro-1, Hive, Fabfilter Twin-2, a couple of audio loops, Eq8, Compressor and Saturator on every track, sends with Delay and Reverb, and Glue Compressor and Eq8 on the master.

Live's resource meter is at 30% and in task manager, Live is using ~24% cpu

Live 10.1.7, Windows 10 pro, RME Babyface @ 48 Khz with buffer @ 128 samples

[kitekrazy]

I think something's not right with your setup.

I have an i7-3610QM (quad core @ 2.3 Ghz and a gen older than your cpu) and 8Gb ram

Current project has Revolution 909 kit, Diva, Repro-1, Hive, Fabfilter Twin-2, a couple of audio loops, Eq8, Compressor and Saturator on every track, sends with Delay and Reverb, and Glue Compressor and Eq8 on the master.

Live's resource meter is at 30% and in task manager, Live is using ~24% cpu

Live 10.1.7, Windows 10 pro, RME Babyface @ 48 Khz with buffer @ 128 samples

Scarlete 212 is not even in the same league as a Babyface. That's a big difference.

[Gmonics22]

Twisted-space - Thanks for the reply, your comparison made me determined to sit down and get to the bottom of this. I was up until 2am, but after lots of digging I finally found the cause. There's an issue with some Lenovo laptops which causes the CPU to be throttled to 32% frequency (regardless of power profile) when running on mains power. Very odd but it's a thing.

I downloaded Throttlestop and unchecked "BD PROCHOT" which is a process which clocks down the the CPU to prevent overheating when the GPU is running hot. My CPU is now running at the correct 2.4ghz rather than 800mhz! Temperature is sitting around 60c which in theory is well within limits, so hopefully nothing will melt!

Result is my example project at full tilt is now down from 120%+ to around 30%. Live is opening and loading projects much faster too. Happy days!

Cheers, now to make up for lost time XD

[twisted-space]

Cool, glad you got it sorted!

[fishmonkey]

for future reference, Intel Power Gadget would have helped you find that issue sooner:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articl ... er-gadget/