OS X CPU usage peaked even when Live is stopped
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2002 1:42 am
It would appear that Live is extremely wasteful of CPU time even when idle in MacOS X. A quick experiment with my PowerBook G4/550 running 10.1.5:
* Open CPU monitor, leave running in task bar. Near 0 CPU usage at this point.
* Start Live with a blank set. CPU usage is now 60% or so when you just let it sit. Live's CPU meter says 5%
* Move the mouse around. CPU usage peaks to near 100%. (In all fairness, mousing around in the finder also spikes the CPU usage up, too -- spikes of maybe 20% or so.)
* Hit the spacebar to start playing, still with a blank set. CPU spikes to max. Live's CPU meter stays at 5%.
* Hit spacebar to stop again. Now CPU slowly oscillates between 80-100%, and Live still says 5%.
A couple observations: first, the user interface seems to suck down more CPU than it should when redrawing or checking if it should redraw. Live's minimalist UI look appears on the surface to allow for super-fast drawing, but perhaps that's not the case? Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate Live's clean UI look and feel, but I'd personally run a profiler on it to make sure it's not wasting more time than you think.
Second, the pure idle state after playing and stopping play is super-high. It would seem that either Live is keeping a pool of threads running full-throttle for quick responsiveness, or it's letting a thread run away. Hopefully it's the first case!
Now for the big disclaimer: I'm not actually having problems with Live -- no drop-outs or anything. I can run a bunch of tracks at once with some effects and Live's CPU meter never goes above 40% or so. So this isn't necessarily a "bug" or "problem," just an observation. I'd much rather have Live hog the CPU than have drop-out or latency problems! You guys are clearly doing an excellent job, but I figured this might be worth a post in case it's helpful.
Best regards,
Josh
* Open CPU monitor, leave running in task bar. Near 0 CPU usage at this point.
* Start Live with a blank set. CPU usage is now 60% or so when you just let it sit. Live's CPU meter says 5%
* Move the mouse around. CPU usage peaks to near 100%. (In all fairness, mousing around in the finder also spikes the CPU usage up, too -- spikes of maybe 20% or so.)
* Hit the spacebar to start playing, still with a blank set. CPU spikes to max. Live's CPU meter stays at 5%.
* Hit spacebar to stop again. Now CPU slowly oscillates between 80-100%, and Live still says 5%.
A couple observations: first, the user interface seems to suck down more CPU than it should when redrawing or checking if it should redraw. Live's minimalist UI look appears on the surface to allow for super-fast drawing, but perhaps that's not the case? Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate Live's clean UI look and feel, but I'd personally run a profiler on it to make sure it's not wasting more time than you think.
Second, the pure idle state after playing and stopping play is super-high. It would seem that either Live is keeping a pool of threads running full-throttle for quick responsiveness, or it's letting a thread run away. Hopefully it's the first case!
Now for the big disclaimer: I'm not actually having problems with Live -- no drop-outs or anything. I can run a bunch of tracks at once with some effects and Live's CPU meter never goes above 40% or so. So this isn't necessarily a "bug" or "problem," just an observation. I'd much rather have Live hog the CPU than have drop-out or latency problems! You guys are clearly doing an excellent job, but I figured this might be worth a post in case it's helpful.
Best regards,
Josh