Slow graphics when displaying Avid plug-ins

[Paul Maunder]

I've just installed Pro Tools 12.3.1 along with OS X El Capitan on my 2013 Mac Pro. I was previously using Pro Tools 11.3 with Yosemite. Now, whenever I open an Avid plug-in, the graphics slow down considerably. If I open 2 or more Avid plug-ins, it slows down to the point of being unusable. Third party plug-ins such as Waves don't cause the same issue. I have trashed all preferences and re-installed Pro Tools from scratch but the problem is still present. Audio playback is unaffected, as is the playback of any video within the session. It's just the graphical display of the Pro Tools interface itself which becomes extremely sluggish.

If I have plug-ins open which cause it to slow down and I then drag a mac Finder window in front of the plug-in so it's no longer visible, I can see that the Pro Tools graphical display returns to normal, with metering and time displays etc updating as they should.

I have 64GB of RAM installed so I know it has nothing to do with this. Also, I've tried it with both my HD Native Thunderbolt/OMNI interface and with the mac's built in line output and the issue is the same.

The CPU usage remains low and is unaffected by this problem. It's purely a graphical issue and I have so far been unable to resolve it. Has anyone else experienced this?

[philbert354]

I have the exact same issue. My video is lagging a little without any plugins active, but opening just one causes major video lag. It can be as simple as the click ii metronome.

This even occurs in a session with only one audio track, and no external hardware attached.

Also, I notice my computer heats up significantly. It appears that there is something going on that is severely taxing the GPU.

I'm on a 2.8 i7 mac pro, 16GB.

Processor, memory, and disk usage is minimal, so I'm convinced, like you, it's not a hardware limitation.

[Paul Maunder]

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad that I'm not the only one having the issue. I was considering reinstalling my whole OS but I think I'll hold off for a while.

I have done some further testing and it seems that the problem is present with third party plug-ins, just to a lesser extent than the stock plug-ins.

Track count on my system also has no bearing on the issue. I'm experiencing it with just one track in the session as well.

My Mac Pro is the 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 with the AMD FirePro D500 graphics cards

[Steviebhoye]

Confirmed.

Strange how only Avid plugins seem to do this including the 'Pro' plugins. Dyn3 Comp/Limiter + Expander/Gate + DeEsser Pro Compressor all unusable for me at the moment, Even EQ3 1 Band is very glitchy.

Updated to El Capitan hoping for the hyped graphic improvements - sadly the opposite is true! All 3rd party plugins seem fine?

Opened an old session on my old 2009 iMac yesterday couldn't believe how snappy OSX 10.8.5 felt and how much smoother the graphics are in PT10.

Hope Avid sort this asap its a real problem.

[Darryl Ramm]

search for "beam sync" on DUC... And go disable that. This has been much discussed here in the past.

[Steviebhoye]

Beam Sync can not be disabled in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

[Paul Maunder]

I've already looked at the beam sync thing. It can no longer be disabled in the current version of Quartz Debugger.

[Darryl Ramm]

Unfortunately I suspect the problem is still related to beam sync/coalescing, a good reason to avoid El Capitan. And either way something Avid should be able to work around...

If you can I would just roll back to a less horrible OS X release. I would not recommend El Capitan to anybody who did not have to run it.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Steviebhoye

Beam Sync can not be disabled in OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

OK but did disabling beam sync on older OS X releases on the same computer (before you upgraded to El Capitan) fix your problem?

[Paul Maunder]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

OK but did disabling beam sync on older OS X releases on the same computer (before you upgraded to El Capitan) fix your problem?

I didn't have any issues on the previous operating system so never had to try disabling beam sync.