Audio interface plays a significant roll in what cpu you get at which latency.
On my new computer beginning 2023, i7-12700F cpu, I tested two usb based interfaces.
Running Sonar last updated 2016 as only daw I use. Windows 11 Pro.
RME Digiface USB and Presonus 1824c.
- started at 64 samples on RME that I did for a long time, 5ms roundtrip
- to get same latency roundtrip around 5-6ms on Presonus I had to go to 32 samples buffer
- and presonus had double cpu getting in that range latency for the same project
So weakest link in the chain reasoning, look at all parts.
On my i7-12700F I finally turned off E-cores, 4 of them in that cpu.
- 13th generation I think 8 E-cores, and 14th even worse if 12 or so
E-cores are basically half speed cores compared to P-cores with HT.
- and no daws so far really support placing the right threads on P-cores only AFAIK.
- what I saw in ProcessLasso was same thread handling like E-cores were as main P-cores.
- just a year ago Cubase had warning not supporting E-cores, not sure if that is handled now
So which latency are you OK with?
StudioOne always has an extra asio buffer for processing making roundtrip longer for the same buffer size.
Reaper has similar as realtime monitoring goes, if any latency on a plugin, an extra buffer at least making roundtrip longer, not only as much as plugin uses. Discovered this already 2010 doing Reaper.
Cubase has asio guard which you can turn off if you like and target which plugins also as I recall. But doing video, not sure if Cubase fixed the new video engine to be comparable to other daws. Projects with video use 30% more cpu in Cubase compared to StudioOne or Sonar at the time I ran Cubase Pro 9.5.
So just looking for a daw that fix everything is too narrow approach as I see it.
- what latency are you ok with at which cpu?
- are you doing video at all?
And which daw is having the smoothest freeze handling of plugins if finally needing that?
- there is no smother than Cakewalk/Sonar IMO
- it's one click and plugins are rendered and resources released
- and one click to restore again
- you have built in oversampling as well, selected on plugin level to use or not
When I ran Cubase I had an issue I was troubleshooting, and found that when audio engine restarted it was 7 threads that restarted.
- what happends if a cpu has a good bunch of those threads at half speed E-cores?
You get higher benchmark result with E-cores enabled too, but I found that better to turn those off.
- cpubenchmark.net benchmark software gave me 31000 with E-cores, and 29000 without.
- if doing 13th generation with more E-cores it hurts more to turn off E-cores completely but you can tell a process to only use certain cores with a parameter in shortcut for daw.
- in my case with 12th generation, E-cores are the last 4 cores if using cpu affinity
- some people recommend Process Lasso to handle a process cpu like this
I get constant 4.5 GHz cpu, not jumping up and down in frequency the way I set it up.
Experiment and see what you like better.
On my new computer beginning 2023, i7-12700F cpu, I tested two usb based interfaces.
Running Sonar last updated 2016 as only daw I use. Windows 11 Pro.
RME Digiface USB and Presonus 1824c.
- started at 64 samples on RME that I did for a long time, 5ms roundtrip
- to get same latency roundtrip around 5-6ms on Presonus I had to go to 32 samples buffer
- and presonus had double cpu getting in that range latency for the same project
So weakest link in the chain reasoning, look at all parts.
On my i7-12700F I finally turned off E-cores, 4 of them in that cpu.
- 13th generation I think 8 E-cores, and 14th even worse if 12 or so
E-cores are basically half speed cores compared to P-cores with HT.
- and no daws so far really support placing the right threads on P-cores only AFAIK.
- what I saw in ProcessLasso was same thread handling like E-cores were as main P-cores.
- just a year ago Cubase had warning not supporting E-cores, not sure if that is handled now
So which latency are you OK with?
StudioOne always has an extra asio buffer for processing making roundtrip longer for the same buffer size.
Reaper has similar as realtime monitoring goes, if any latency on a plugin, an extra buffer at least making roundtrip longer, not only as much as plugin uses. Discovered this already 2010 doing Reaper.
Cubase has asio guard which you can turn off if you like and target which plugins also as I recall. But doing video, not sure if Cubase fixed the new video engine to be comparable to other daws. Projects with video use 30% more cpu in Cubase compared to StudioOne or Sonar at the time I ran Cubase Pro 9.5.
So just looking for a daw that fix everything is too narrow approach as I see it.
- what latency are you ok with at which cpu?
- are you doing video at all?
And which daw is having the smoothest freeze handling of plugins if finally needing that?
- there is no smother than Cakewalk/Sonar IMO
- it's one click and plugins are rendered and resources released
- and one click to restore again
- you have built in oversampling as well, selected on plugin level to use or not
When I ran Cubase I had an issue I was troubleshooting, and found that when audio engine restarted it was 7 threads that restarted.
- what happends if a cpu has a good bunch of those threads at half speed E-cores?
You get higher benchmark result with E-cores enabled too, but I found that better to turn those off.
- cpubenchmark.net benchmark software gave me 31000 with E-cores, and 29000 without.
- if doing 13th generation with more E-cores it hurts more to turn off E-cores completely but you can tell a process to only use certain cores with a parameter in shortcut for daw.
- in my case with 12th generation, E-cores are the last 4 cores if using cpu affinity
- some people recommend Process Lasso to handle a process cpu like this
I get constant 4.5 GHz cpu, not jumping up and down in frequency the way I set it up.
Experiment and see what you like better.
Statistics: Posted by lfm — Mon Jan 01, 2024 5:24 am