Pro Tools Ultimate CPU Spikes.. come on!!!!

[toolz]

Double post

[toolz]

Bump!! Avid!!!!!!!! Time for action!!!!

It's now been 9 months using 12.8.1

But I'm still paying every day for the support and upgrades and bug fixes!

My last contact with Avid, remember I'm on all Avid hardware with a FULLY SUPPORTED and currently QUALIFIED Mac Pro:

Entered on: 02.05.2018 10:38 Entered by: Maciej

"Hello Andy,

It's good that we found what is the issue. Unfortunately we have to wait until the upcoming release which should hopefully resolve it in some extend.

For now the only workaround is to use the older OSX system with the older PT version which work much better on the older machines.

Regards,

Maciej
Avid Customer Care | Audio Post & Pro"

This was the eureka moment... and the bug found....

"Please try closing all the windows of ProTools and see if that get's the spikes out. (I have that issue here with other system and closing windows get's rid of the problem so if that's the cause I need to raise a critical bug)

Regards,

Maciej
Avid Customer Care | Audio Post & Pro"

Not being greedy,

..I'm a 20 year TDM user, and alway bought Digi/Avid hardware with a supported mac, to avoid such issues as I'm having now.. its truly embarrassing having to whinge! on this forum in order to get a stable version, that's not been tested correctly at Avid or it's Beta team in the first place.

I've since ditched my HD native PCIe and bought HDX2 in hope this would remedy my situation, without luck.

[s.d. finley]

Originally Posted by LDS

Interesting. I am actually experiencing the exact same phenomenon here - a 32bit float, 96khz session with 30 empty tracks and the CPU usage is spiking when scrolling the screen. The video is actually with a 64 sample buffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRlZ...ature=youtu.be

My computer is a 2010 Mac Pro - 12x 3.33gHz, 16gb of ram and an ATI 5770. I too have the same Pro Tools QuickTime Server (not responding) message... but the issue doesn't seem as pronounced here than it does for you... and I reckon it has to do with the HD Native card you are running. I am using a Zen Studio via USB. If I switch the Mac's built-in output in Pro Tools, the spikes more or less evaporate (there might be a 15-20% fluctuation).

Do they go away if you select the built-in sound card in your Mac?


Hi All!! I am running pretty much the exact same Mac Pro 5.1 as the OP, same amount of RAM and dual Hex core with a HD Native card. At the time of the error posting I was using El Crap. I updated to Sierra and my buffer errors where greatly reduced but did not disappear. I recently installed a SATA3 accelerator PCIe card and 2 SSD SATA3 HDs , one for OS and one for PT sessions and that certainly helped quite a bit. I can run larger sessions, of the medium variety, maybe 35+ tracks with just about as many plug ins @ 64 buffer with minimal issues. I STILL get an occasional buffer error but its rare. This is also a 24/48k session. Now I am also on PT2018.3 and I use no bluetooth and no wifi. I know, PITA.

This issue appears to me to be a HD NATIVE issues. Why? Because the same exact system ran 100% native has zero issues with buffer errors. Its the HD native card which I NEED because I NEED more than 32 i/o. AVID needs to fix this issue which is more than likely some kind of driver issue with the native card.

A user by the name of s.d. finlay was also running into some spiking issues with a similar system to yours. He/she did report having some improvements after doing a complete reinstall of the system.

[s.d. finley]

Hi All!! I am running pretty much the exact same Mac Pro 5.1 as the OP, same amount of RAM and dual Hex core with a HD Native card. At the time of the error posting I was using El Crap. I updated to Sierra and my buffer errors were greatly reduced but did not disappear. I recently installed a SATA3 accelerator PCIe card and 2 SSD SATA3 HDs , one for OS and one for PT sessions and that certainly helped quite a bit. I can run larger sessions, of the medium variety, maybe 35+ tracks with just about as many plug ins @ 64 buffer with minimal issues. I STILL get an occasional buffer error but its rare. This is also a 24/48k session. Now I am also on PT2018.3 and I use no bluetooth and no wifi. I know, PITA.

This issue appears to me to be a HD NATIVE issues. Why? Because the same exact system ran 100% native has zero issues with buffer errors. Its the HD native card which I NEED because I NEED more than 32 i/o. AVID needs to fix this issue which is more than likely some kind of driver issue with the native card.

A user by the name of s.d. finlay was also running into some spiking issues with a similar system to yours. He/she did report having some improvements after doing a complete reinstall of the system.[/QUOTE]

[Ru_C]

I'll post this agin here in case its relevant...maybe needs its own thread..

I've become convinced the poor low latency performance on PT NON-DSP is connected to how PT handles the graphics, rather than the audio.

This is a quick demo video I made..

https://youtu.be/syhrOtDpaWg

Its a typical rock/metal session i'm working on at the moment . 60 tracks of audio, 16 strereo auxes for bussing & FX, & bunch of plugins.

Waves, Sonnox & AVID plugins used liberally throughout.

I've armed a pair of tracks & am attempting to overdub with a 32sample buffer.

With the Edit view running as normal in the background, we get the CPU spikes many of us have become familiar with.

Switch off the Edit view (PT still recording in the background) & the CPU usage massively drops off. Switch Edit view back on & they return.

Obviously working in the dark without the Edit view on is not very practical, but this does possibly point to where AVID could be making code optimisations .

[skizzo]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

I'll post this agin here in case its relevant...maybe needs its own thread..

I've become convinced the poor low latency performance on PT NON-DSP is connected to how PT handles the graphics, rather than the audio.

This is a quick demo video I made..

https://youtu.be/syhrOtDpaWg

Its a typical rock/metal session i'm working on at the moment . 60 tracks of audio, 16 strereo auxes for bussing & FX, & bunch of plugins.

Waves, Sonnox & AVID plugins used liberally throughout.

I've armed a pair of tracks & am attempting to overdub with a 32sample buffer.

With the Edit view running as normal in the background, we get the CPU spikes many of us have become familiar with.

Switch off the Edit view (PT still recording in the background) & the CPU usage massively drops off. Switch Edit view back on & they return.

Obviously working in the dark without the Edit view on is not very practical, but this does possibly point to where AVID could be making code optimisations .

hmmmm, that is a pretty interesting observation

[arche3]

Agree it is graphics related. Even making edit window smaller helps. I've tried this exact same test and get the same results.

[toolz]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

I'll post this agin here in case its relevant...maybe needs its own thread..

I've become convinced the poor low latency performance on PT NON-DSP is connected to how PT handles the graphics, rather than the audio.

This is a quick demo video I made..

https://youtu.be/syhrOtDpaWg

Its a typical rock/metal session i'm working on at the moment . 60 tracks of audio, 16 strereo auxes for bussing & FX, & bunch of plugins.

Waves, Sonnox & AVID plugins used liberally throughout.

I've armed a pair of tracks & am attempting to overdub with a 32sample buffer.

With the Edit view running as normal in the background, we get the CPU spikes many of us have become familiar with.

Switch off the Edit view (PT still recording in the background) & the CPU usage massively drops off. Switch Edit view back on & they return.

Obviously working in the dark without the Edit view on is not very practical, but this does possibly point to where AVID could be making code optimisations .

Yes! this is the exact same bug, closing window (not hiding) gives correct performance. It's logged with Avid, but I'd do a support ticket, as it's two months since mine, with no action.

My findings: HD Native and HDX both share this issue, I'd only upgraded to HDX in the hope it was a native issue.. and it would go away, sadly not for me!

[CHRIS AIKEN]

Yes it's definitely graphics related. When I have a big mix and the cpu meter is bouncing around 70%. When I open Slate VMR or Fabfilter MB they usually cause playback to stop with an error. If I don't change anything on the screen the session plays back fine. It's the sudden change of graphics that seems to cause the problems.

Hackintosh 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 - 10.12.6 -16 gigs Ram - Lynx Aurora 16 Thunderbolt - Protools 2018.3 HD

[toolz]

Again here's the youTube I made for Avid 2 months ago, they asked me if closing (not minimising) edit and mix restored correct operation, having replicated my issue.

I think this is definitely the case, and I'm eagerly waiting on this critical bug fix, and maybe a 9 month refund on my support fee, as I had to spend two weeks uncovering this issue, that seemed to pass both Avid CS and Beta team, please check the you tube, and test your setup @ 96k 128 buffer, and let us know your findings.

https://youtu.be/z82ZrOE0Dq4