Major disappointment with Xeon E5-2670 system: please help

[dvdr]

After some research and professional support from my dealer, I invested quite some money into a new computer, since Pro Tools 12 was exceeding my current computers CPU-power.
Now, with my new system, I still do get "not enough CPU-power, disable some plugins" error message.

Here's my new system, maybe, you can point me how to solve the situation.

Fujitsu R920 Workstation with 2x Xeon E5-2670 Octacore @ 2.6 GHz
64GB RAM
SSD (1x 1TB OCZ VX500, 1x Crucial BX300 480GB) @SATA III
Nvidia NVS510
RME Fireface UFX II
WIN 10 Pro + all manufacturers MB drivers properly installed from scratch
Latest Pro Tools 12 version

I followed all optimization rules, including BIOS (hopefully, I got THAT right), and I still max out the CPU (running at 32 threads!) when playing a 30-track project. In Pro Tool's sytem usage meter, thread #16 is around 50-55%, all other threads are "crawling around" at the 5% - 10% margin, the "summing" CPU meter is hitting red shortly periodically.
Pro Tools does not even START to play back the project, even if I set the Fireface's buffer to 4096 samples.

Looking into Windows' own CPU load display, it is below 10%, not hitting any spikes, RAM usage is pretty low at around 5GB.

So, why would Pro Tools 12 max out this system and what should I do? Have I invested in the wrong hardware?

Thank you in advance for your help

[junkgear]

Originally Posted by dvdr

After some research and professional support from my dealer, I invested quite some money into a new computer, since Pro Tools 12 was exceeding my current computers CPU-power.
Now, with my new system, I still do get "not enough CPU-power, disable some plugins" error message.

Here's my new system, maybe, you can point me how to solve the situation.

Fujitsu R920 Workstation with 2x Xeon E5-2670 Octacore @ 2.6 GHz
64GB RAM
SSD (1x 1TB OCZ VX500, 1x Crucial BX300 480GB) @SATA III
Nvidia NVS510
RME Fireface UFX II
WIN 10 Pro + all manufacturers MB drivers properly installed from scratch
Latest Pro Tools 12 version

I followed all optimization rules, including BIOS (hopefully, I got THAT right), and I still max out the CPU (running at 32 threads!) when playing a 30-track project. In Pro Tool's sytem usage meter, thread #16 is around 50-55%, all other threads are "crawling around" at the 5% - 10% margin, the "summing" CPU meter is hitting red shortly periodically.
Pro Tools does not even START to play back the project, even if I set the Fireface's buffer to 4096 samples.

Looking into Windows' own CPU load display, it is below 10%, not hitting any spikes, RAM usage is pretty low at around 5GB.

So, why would Pro Tools 12 max out this system and what should I do? Have I invested in the wrong hardware?

Thank you in advance for your help

It sounds like you are having the same issues with your new system that you were having with your old system. So, that makes me think there is either something setup wise you are doing wrong or there is a plug-in or something that is causing an issue.

When you say you did all of the optimizations, where did you get the information from? Did you go through the Help Us Help You thread?

Can you post a full SANDRA report?

Does this happen with a new, clean session? You may need to build a test session one track at a time until you find out what is causing this resource usage.

[dvdr]

Thank you for being helpful. I followed the avid optimization guide(s).
I will try to post a SANDRA report as soon as I am back home.
What really is interesting: the system usage graph in Pro Tools looks like (aboutish) this:

x
x
x
xx
xx
xxx
xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxx
xxx
xx
xx
x
x
x

So the distribution of the individual processes is not hitting equally as far as I can see.
If I remember properly, the distribution on the "old computer" looked not that "spikey" and concentrated on ONE thread, but more equally distributed (and, of course, much higher and maxing out the CPU)

I will follow you suggestions and start a completely new session and build it up step by step plus look into the mentioned help-thread.

Thanks so far for your help

[Darryl Ramm]

Stop looking at the system usage graph, it is a waste of time, and not telling you anything useful. What it is displaying is normal, and you are just seeing effects of having more cores.

Do the standard troubleshooting. *always* suspect plugins.

Sandra report. And on that note what partitions your sessions and samples are on. What exact version of Pro Tools? Was Windows a complete new install? Hopefully Windows 10 Pro with updates fully disabled, and no AV software. I don’t know what c r a p ware Fujitsu computers come installed with but if there is any then do a clean MS Windows install. Did you install Pro Tools and everything else manually or did you clone off the old computer? Did you do this or a dealer?

Do *every* optimization. Double check them.

Interface driver up to date/compatible?

Dynamic plugin processing off. Disk cache enabled (set to a size). Ignore errors off.

Especially, trash prefs. Move all plugin files out of the plugin folder. Start with a new empty session. Start with a new admin account... keep going doing them all until it is stable... if that is not it then grab a spare partition install Windows there from original MS Windows installer (not an OEM recovery version, and absolute minimal drivers, Pro Tools and ILM and nothing more and check carefully that works).

Why did you buy such an expensive PC with only SATA SSD? The BX300 especially is a low-end SSD. M.2 PCIe/NVMe SSD like the Samsung 960 and similar OEM versions will blow this low-end stuff out of the water.

While I would suspect software first we don’t see many Fujitsu computers here. Does the seller have much experience with those working with Pro Tools? If so great.... if not I would have gone with building your own PC or buying a pre-built Pro Tools PC. Unfortunately “Xeon” and “Workstation” marketing are not assurances that a computer is great for Pro Tools. And I don’t know who the mobo vendor is, Fujitsu increasingly OEMs PC products, no idea if they do that here. The Sandra report may help. Do you have time to return the PC? (I would hurry troubleshooting to meet any return deadline).

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[dvdr]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

stop looking at the system usage graph, it is not telling you anything useful.... Hopefully Windows 10 Pro with updates fully disabled, and no AV software. ......I don’t know what ******** Fujitsu computers come installed with but if there is any then do a clean MS Windows install. ..... Especially, trash prefs. .... Start with a new admin account?....Why did you buy such an expensive PC with only SATA SSD?

- I just thought, this usage graph could give an indication on what's happening, especially when it is contrary to what Windows itself tells me.
- Sandra report will follow
- As I wrote: Win 10 Pro, fresh install from scratch, no bloatware, deinstalled every unnecessary app, also did a Windows optimization by disabling all things not necessary. System is up to date as of drivers etc.
- I only set the machine up with Pro Tools (latest version 12.8.2) and Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop. Nothing else. No games, no frills, just a workhorse...
- Clean install = no previous prefs. But trashed them, anyway, again.
- New Admin account: since everything was set up from scratch and the computer is not bloated with tons of "old stuff", should I really???
- I had already bought the SSDs - the BX300 is for photos (I need a lot of storage), the VX500 for Pro Tools (deliberate choice because of "MLC" and not "TLC").
- It's a Fujitsu WORKSTATION, a power workhorse, comparable to the big HP Workstations like Z820 or Z840, that are used in quite a few studios. Sturdy, professional build, no consumer or gamer product. They come with nothing installed.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by dvdr

- It's a Fujitsu WORKSTATION, a power workhorse, comparable to the big HP Workstations like Z820 or Z840, that are used in quite a few studios. Sturdy, professional build, no consumer or gamer product. They come with nothing installed.

Well some issues can arise out of the chipsets the mobo uses.

Hopefully not for you, but in the past there have been issues


I would triple check BIOS settings

Specifically that C States are all disabled

Virtualization is disabled
There are some other ones that I can't recall off the top of my head.

[guitardom]

The only times I have seen the CPU meter that out of whack is when there is hardware / bios problems with the system.

Open Windows Resource Monitor and see if any single core looks abnormal when Pro Tools is NOT running.

[Darryl Ramm]

Yes you really should do *everything* I suggested... and Guitardom suggested.

And again vendor marketing calling something a “workstation” or using “Xeon” processors is not sufficient assurance this is a great Pro Tools platform. Various HP Z series were trusted because they were known to work pretty well with Pro Tools, I don’t know how much we know about what you have.

If one drive is dedicated to photos, where are the audio sessions and samples stored? SATA SSD are really not fast enough to reliably combine stuff on, unlike fast PCIe SSD. Again indicate clearly in your Sandra report...

It is super easy for vendors to install all sorts of c r a p ware, I would not assume anything, and not waste a lot of time before doing a perfectly clean Windows install myself with no vendor recovery media involved.

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[dvdr]

Thank you all so much for your advice, I will try everything suggested (btw., it is really interesting, that after trying to follow all Pro Tools setup and optimization guides still can result in a problematic outcome - I would not have expected that).

I will provide you with more info asap.

One thing, that comes to mind, still, is the question of SSD speed / "delivery" speed of audio data mentioned of you. Why would a system max out a processor, when it's not even playing back? Isn't the SSD NOT the culprit then, but other things like resource-hungry plugins or incompatabilities with the motherboard (btw., it uses an intel C602 Chipset)?
But I guess, we will be able to clarify that with the sandra report

In the meantime, for those interested: here's the link to the PDF with the data-sheet: https://sp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/Publi...LSIUS-R920.pdf

[Darryl Ramm]

There is no sign anything is being “maxed out” and that is the wrong way to think about these errors in many cases. You are seeing high *latency* in some internal operations and Pro Tools is detecting that and deliberately crashing. That latency can trivially be caused by plugins, BIOS settings, bad other things, storage, other drivers,... exacerbated by bad mobi/chipsets etc.

Have you done *every* last optimization? Every last thing? No bluetooth, no wifi, AV fully disabled or uninstalled, etc.

You should not be super surprised, lots of computer installs can have issues. We don’t know what you really have... Sandra report needed, and you have not even scratched the surface yet on standard troubleshooting...


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