PT 2020.5 Windows 10 user

[ihate100bees]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I am not familiar with this switch. Can you tell me where it is located and what its purpose is? Thank you so much!

[The Weed]

There's DUC thread about Processor Affinityhttp://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=383052

Also discussed farther in this thread.

And here is a hex code calculator. Just check the cores you want to use, then take the numbers/letters after the last 0. For example, I now have Hyperthreading turned on and want to have PT use cores 1 through 7 leaving the 0 core out, so the code would be FE.

You can also use Task Manager>Details>ProTools.exe right click and click Set Affinity, but you have to do it every time you open Pro Tools as the Processor Affinity setting reverts to All when PT is closed.

The cmd switch above won't change the Processor Affinity if you have Pro Tools set to "Run this program as an administrator", you have to uncheck that. Good idea to use Task Manager>Details above to check to be sure the cmd switch is working. It's how I found out running PT as Administrator had to be turned off.

[seanmccoy]

Has anybody removing cores from PT found that it matters which processor is disabled?

[DontLetMeDrown]

Thank you everyone for posting about the affinity tweak. It should probably be a "sticky" thread on the forum. It works so well, I'm actually kind of irritated that Avid doesn't suggest it in their optimization guide. I'm not even on 2020.5 yet. 2020.3 brought lots of pops for me at settings that worked fine in previous versions. After doing the affinity adjustment, my system is now working like before.

[ejinbc]

Originally Posted by seanmccoy

Has anybody removing cores from PT found that it matters which processor is disabled?

YES ! I definitely found that some affinity settings were better than others. On a 4 core/8 thread system (3770K) I found that FC worked best. On my 8700K (6 core/12 thread) FFE works best. Experiment.

For me, a critical optimization for highly stable low latency performance. Really, for several years now this tweak and 24/96 recording has made for a very low stress / low latency experience. I repost this 'trick' at least once a year.

And again, I have found (YMMV), low latency VI performance is very dependent on single core benchmarks. For larger mixes with lots of plugins at modest latency, performance is very dependent on the number of active THREADS that are running - as long as you don't overwhelm any given core (single core performance is still important) - which is highly dependent on processor scheduling to maintain the real-time audio pipeline (which can be dependent on plugins, plugin order, number of inserts, number of sends with heavy processing, etc...).

When running a big mix at modest latency I DO NOT use the affinity switch. It appears as thought the larger buffers get around the processor switching (??) issues that the Affinity switch solves.

IMHO. YMMV. This is just what I have found over the years. Only trying to help.

ejinbc

[seanmccoy]

Originally Posted by ejinbc

YES ! I definitely found that some affinity settings were better than others. On a 4 core/8 thread system (3770K) I found that FC worked best. On my 8700K (6 core/12 thread) FFE works best. Experiment.

Thanks much. In Task Manager Details I have cores 0 through 7 to choose from. Would you mind interpreting the hex for a programming dummy?

[ejinbc]

As The Weed indicated below, first use the task manager to experiment with core assignment, once you find the best setting that minimizes clicks while maximizing performance (i.e. don't shut off too many cores) hard code that assignment into your command line using the HEX calculator that The Weed so usefully pointed out.

For example, If you have a 4 core/8 thread system that's - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 in binary and FF in HEX. Think of the '1' as on. So if I want to stop PT from using the first thread of the first core that would be - 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 7F HEX. Or say the last 2 threads of core 4 that would be 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 = FC. An 8 core / 16 thread system (e.g. 9900K) would be 1111 1111 1111 1111 = FFFF HEX.

BTW, the calculator built into Win 10 does Hex<>Bin as well.

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by The Weed

And here is a hex code calculator. Just check the cores you want to use, then take the numbers/letters after the last 0. For example, I now have Hyperthreading turned on and want to have PT use cores 1 through 7 leaving the 0 core out, so the code would be FE.

You can also use Task Manager>Details>ProTools.exe right click and click Set Affinity, but you have to do it every time you open Pro Tools as the Processor Affinity setting reverts to All when PT is closed.

[seanmccoy]

Okay, gotcha, thanks. I've found that my system is subject to more frequent CPU stops since upgrading to 2020.5, especially during recording (very embarrassing), so I'm hoping I'll find a combo to remedy that.