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  #81  
Old 02-16-2018, 11:27 AM
mrguitarguy mrguitarguy is offline
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Default Re: Is my MONSTER 12-core 3,33GHz Mac Pro underperforming on low buffer sizes?

Update:

I tried a fresh install of PT 2018.1 with High Sierra 10.13.3 (only version I could download) and I had the same problem with nothing but the HD driver installed (no additional plugins).

Since I was loosing hope and not planning on keeping the OS install, I downloaded Apple’s Xcode and disabled hyper threading. Bingo! Virtually no issues while recording 26 tracks. In fact I knocked the buffer down to 32 samples (session at 44.1), and it worked fine. While scrolling did bump the cpu usage somewhat, it was nothing like it had previously been. I even threw on a few instances of d-verb.

When I re-engaged hyperthreading, I couldn’t even get the system to record.

I will test this with my main Sierra system drive, but this seems to be the solution for now.

Kroon, perhaps you can try this and see if you have similar results. I wonder how hyperthreading affects Yosemite?




Second update:

Just for fun, before I went back to my main system drive, I tried to see how many d-verbs I could get going at 32 samples. I had up 120 instances on 26 aux tracks and I was able to keep recording for over 12 minutes until I stopped (but not before scrolling and zooming in and out on the screen like crazy and opening d-verbs trying to get it to stop). For me 10 minutes of continuous recording is plenty as I primarily work with mainstream music and most songs are not longer than 5 minutes on average. There was no indication that the recording would stop at any point however. The CPU got up to about 100% at some points but it kept recording and it dropped when I started scrolling.

On thing that may be of interest to those with more knowledge about how CPUs work was that cores 1, 11, & 12 showed almost no usage while the other cores were very high.

The session had 1 stereo track with audio being sent out my interface back to inputs 1 & 2. I then recorded that audio on 26 mono tracks set to either inputs 1 or 2 so that audio was being recorded (and Pro tools would have to draw the waveforms). Each actively recording track was sending to headphones and also sending to the aux tracks with d-verb (5 d-verbs per aux). The d-verb auxes were routed to my main output and also sending to the headphones.

This test was performed with the Nvidia Quadro 4000.

Before anyone gets too excited, I have not installed any other plugins or software on the system. Still this seems like it might be a real solution tot the problem.

Last edited by mrguitarguy; 02-16-2018 at 12:16 PM.
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  #82  
Old 02-16-2018, 11:49 AM
BScout BScout is offline
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Default Re: Is my MONSTER 12-core 3,33GHz Mac Pro underperforming on low buffer sizes?

How many of the people facing problems are using EFI flashed systems vs stock from Apple, Mac Pro 5,1 systems? Wonder if this is a commonality.

mid-2012 model and no issues here.
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  #83  
Old 02-16-2018, 01:11 PM
mrguitarguy mrguitarguy is offline
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Default Re: Is my MONSTER 12-core 3,33GHz Mac Pro underperforming on low buffer sizes?

After very quick testing on my Sierra install with all our our plugins, backup software, etc. I saw a similar result in cpu usage when disabling hyper threading via Xcode.

Interestingly, CPU cores 1, 11, & 12 never went over 5% while the rest showed they were working hard.


I was not able to run as many instances of D-verb at 32 samples, but I was still able to run more than enough plugins. This hard drive has a lot more programs so I'm sure a lot more is running in the background.

At 64 samples I had many d-verbs going (didn't count the exact number, sorry) and an instance of Fabfilter's Pro-Q 2 and Elysia's Nvelope plugin on every on of the 26 recording track without issue.

With the ability to freeze tracks, etc. this would surely suffice for most large tracking sessions.


Final update:

I have to get some real studio work done today, but here is my final update for the day. I loaded the session on our Sierra drive and tried hyper threading on and off on a session with a 256 buffer. I had 26 tracks recording with Fabfilter's Pro-Q 2 and Elysia's Nvelope plugins, six of those with Bias Amp on them (each instance with totally different settings) and all tracks were sent to headphone outs and bussed to 4 aux tracks. The first had Softube's Tsar-1 reverb and Pro-Q, the second had Relab's VSR S24 (massive cpu hog ) and Pro Q, the third had Sound Toys' Echoboy Jr. and Pro Q, and the fourth had Line 6's Echo Farm and Pro Q-2. With hyper threading the CPU usage was 10-15% higher than without it. So Pro Tools 2018.1 does seem to work better at various buffer sizes without hyper threading on Sierra and High Sierra (at least on Mac Pro 5,1 computers).

I'll try Yosemite and some large mix sessions another time. I hope to hear from others if they discover anything else.

Last edited by mrguitarguy; 02-16-2018 at 01:26 PM.
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  #84  
Old 02-16-2018, 03:04 PM
Kroon Kroon is offline
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Default Re: Is my MONSTER 12-core 3,33GHz Mac Pro underperforming on low buffer sizes?

Quote:
How many of the people facing problems are using EFI flashed systems vs stock from Apple, Mac Pro 5,1 systems?
Yes, I'm curious too.

Mine is an Early 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1.

On the other hand, mrguitarguy says he has two 5,1's - one stock and one upgraded - and both are having similar problems.
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