Tools to test overclock with PT stability?

[atticmike]

Hi,

What tools and settings do you use to test Pro Tools' stability?

I've so far used Aida 64 with my 9900k but that doesn't really prove to be stable.

Pro Tools does tend to trash a lot even though Aida 64's only FPU Test was stable and I know it is based on voltage.

Do you think I should try small like prime 95 small FFT avx and go down from 5.1 to 5 GHz?

Gesendet von meinem SM-G965F mit Tapatalk

[JFreak]

Why not underclock if stabilitynis what you need?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[The Weed]

Personally I would try using the stock clock and use Processor Affinity, one core off with Hyperthreading off and two cores off with Hyperthreading on.

[Obsidian Dragon]

What are you trying to achieve with overclocking? Usually overclocking is associated with gaming to squeeze a few more frames per second or for video rendering to reduce the time for rendering by a few percentage points. I'm not aware of any benefit for overclocking with Protools. I don't think you will get more tracks of recording or playback. Plugin performance is usually sample based so will see minimal improvement. About the only thing that I can imagine that can improve is bouncing to disk, and that will only be saving a few seconds per bounce. Maybe someone with experience with this can enlighten me.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by atticmike

... Pro Tools does tend to trash a lot...

You need to troubleshoot why PT is crashing. OC is not the solution.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

What are you trying to achieve with overclocking? Usually overclocking is associated with gaming to squeeze a few more frames per second or for video rendering to reduce the time for rendering by a few percentage points. I'm not aware of any benefit for overclocking with Protools. I don't think you will get more tracks of recording or playback. Plugin performance is usually sample based so will see minimal improvement. About the only thing that I can imagine that can improve is bouncing to disk, and that will only be saving a few seconds per bounce. Maybe someone with experience with this can enlighten me.

I have fifteen years experience with overclocking CPU's, and you can definitely get much more from PT with a stable overclock. More tracks and plugins, snappier. It's like having a faster and more powerful CPU... PT will always love that. Careful though, overclocking can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing!

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by atticmike

Hi,

What tools and settings do you use to test Pro Tools' stability?

I've so far used Aida 64 with my 9900k but that doesn't really prove to be stable.

Pro Tools does tend to trash a lot even though Aida 64's only FPU Test was stable and I know it is based on voltage.

Do you think I should try small like prime 95 small FFT avx and go down from 5.1 to 5 GHz?

Gesendet von meinem SM-G965F mit Tapatalk

The difference between 5.1 and 5GHz would hardly be noticeable, and if 5GHz would make your system stable, by all means go for it. Tweaking your voltage can help with stability, but you should know what are safe voltages for your CPU, and good cooling is very important for a successful overclock. Some of these tools will overstress the processor and affect its lifespan. Asus has a utility that's efficient without killing your CPU.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by EGS

You need to troubleshoot why PT is crashing. OC is not the solution.

+1. First make sure PT is stable at the standard clock rate, before you even think of overclocking.

[JFreak]

I have also +40 years of experience hurting my knees and elbows when running too fast. So what was the point of overclocking again..?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ejinbc]

Originally Posted by atticmike

Hi,

What tools and settings do you use to test Pro Tools' stability?

I've so far used Aida 64 with my 9900k but that doesn't really prove to be stable.

OP

Overclocking the latest Intel processors is pretty easy - lots of great YouTube tutorials. You should be able to get ~4.9 GHz with almost any processor (higher OC usually means you were lucky with that chip). The trick is to find the lowest voltages (i.e. temperatures) at which any given OC is stable - so cooling is typically key.

For Protools OC, I have an 8700K OC to 4.9 GHz with a -2 AVX Offset. The AVX offset is critical. Protools uses AVX and that code can really heat up a CPU. So, when Protools is running this is equivalent to 4.7 GHz overclock - which is OK for me given Air Cooling and preference for quieter fans. My current system is 24/7 stable and quiet.

I don' think stress testing using synthetic benchmarks is a good way to optimize Protools overclocking. These tests push the CPU far harder than ProTools will, so I just use a BIG Protools session with lots of VIs and Plugins and let it go for 3 hours watching temperatures.

IMHO overclocking is perfect for DAWs because it lets you turn Turbo Mode off and all the C-state switching. This, for me, is the big reason to OC - and the ~10% performance increase is good too. As Les pointed out above, for low latency work with Buffers at 64 for 24/96 operation, an Affinity switch is required to free up one virtual core for the operating system - the best core to release MIGHT depend on the interface driver software.

Hope that helps. Best of the season.

ejinbc