Brand New 12C Mac Pro "Out of CPU power" 11.2.2

[notedmusic]

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

I have seen this problem on haswell imacs. The audio degradation can be cured by toggling the buffer size, but this is only temporary... the problem will always come back. A lot of people on the apple forums thought it was caused by fusion drives, but I think it is either something from the OS that runs in the background or it is a hardware problem. The problem happens with any audio app, and seems to be unrelated to to actual CPU load, even something as simple as playing a song in itunes can cause it.

There is nothing else in the background and it happens at the same spot in my timeline (and also at random times).
I don't have fusion- 100% SSDs.
This is probably not a hardware issue since I had the same problem on a mac pro 6-core 32gb as well. Upgrading to a newer mac (but brand new hardware) didn't do anything for this error. This is incredibly frustrating since clearly the CPU has plenty of headroom.

[notedmusic]

Originally Posted by albee1952

What interfaces are you using? The reason I ask is because my own rig was running 10 great, but 11 was useless. However, once I fixed the mis-patch of Loop Sync cables on my pair of HD IO boxes, everything is happy in 11 now (yes, 10 ran perfect.....go figure)

Tried this with both HD Omni Thunderbolt and using only Core. CPU spikes (though not nearly to 100%) and then PT throws the error.

[notedmusic]

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

This is a horrible problem to troubleshoot. No one seems to know what the cause of it is. Some people report that it was fixed with 10.9.4, some are having it even with mountain lion. I originally thought it had something to do with USB3, but it's unclear if that holds any weight or not. I was hoping i'd never hear about it on the new mac pro's…. but this thread has me worried. I really hope someone figures this out and finds a solution.

Me too.

[feliponk]

Originally Posted by notedmusic

I upgraded the OS to 10.9.5 and did the tweaks. It seems to be a tiny bit more stable, but it still throws "out of CPU power" error with only 25% CPU used, according to Activity Monitor.

Audio randomly distorts and garbles, especially with a lot of notes in a kontakt track with ProjectSam.

Thanks for the info. Yesterday I have uninstalled Pro Tools 11 from my laptop and installed 10.3.9. Will test it today and see if I got the same issues that I had with 11. I'm assuming the risks of running an unsupported configuration, but at least will not be with customers.

If not, the OS can be discarded, since it's the same and the interface too.

[John_Toolbox]

Originally Posted by notedmusic

There is nothing else in the background and it happens at the same spot in my timeline (and also at random times).
I don't have fusion- 100% SSDs.
This is probably not a hardware issue since I had the same problem on a mac pro 6-core 32gb as well. Upgrading to a newer mac (but brand new hardware) didn't do anything for this error. This is incredibly frustrating since clearly the CPU has plenty of headroom.

I think this thread is proof that it's not likely to be a hardware problem. This now says at least 6 completely different models of macs from the last 5 years have shown the same problem.

[notedmusic]

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

I think this thread is proof that it's not likely to be a hardware problem. This now says at least 6 completely different models of macs from the last 5 years have shown the same problem.

I agree. I think certain plugins are more susceptible to this (Play, Kontakt) but this has been going on for some time. I really hope it is resolved soon.

[audiobob]

I have no idea what it is..but I'm trying to live with it. 12 core Mac Pro Mid 2012, 20 gigs of ram PT HD Native PCIe 11.2.2...but it's been happening ever since I went native. Only happens at lower buffer sizes. I only do post. Happened today at a buffer size of 128 samples. Was recording a radio show and needed low latency. (I still hear latency at 128 but the hosts don't care) 5 plugins in the session recording on a stereo track. System usage hanging out at 4%...then BAM....spike up to 100% and recording stops. Great...right in the middle of the show. It was just sitting there recording...I did nothing.

I do record voice over a 64 samples with some success but there has to be not much going on in the session...and I do get nervous...especially with clients in the room and it stops on a good take. Would LOVE to record at 32, but there is no way...it would spike even with no plugs in the session.

I've tried everything suggested with no success. Removed plugins, fresh install, hyper threading trick....nothing. It happens with no rhyme or reason. Well, there has to be a reason..I just haven't figured it out yet. I'm holding out hope that the Yosemite update will improve things.

[zion]

Originally Posted by notedmusic

I agree. I think certain plugins are more susceptible to this (Play, Kontakt) but this has been going on for some time. I really hope it is resolved soon.

I must be the only one that has never had these errors with Play or Kontakt or any other plugin as far as I can remember on my old or new Mac pro. It has been good for me since OS X Mountain Lion. I am running projects at 32 and 64 buffers with no errors. I'm even recording in with plugins. Strange to hear this. Maybe you guys can list all the plugins you were using in the projects that gave you these errors and maybe we can see if theres a common plugin problem.

[audiobob]

Originally Posted by zion

Maybe you guys can list all the plugins you were using in the projects that gave you errors and maybe we can see if theres a common plugin problem.

Avid Pro Compressor and Limiter
EQuality an EQuick
Waves Renaissance (in the system but not used in months)
Izotope RX
McDSP ML400 and Compressor Bank
Play is installed. Never have used Kontact

A few others...but this has happened on a clean install with no other 3rd party plugs installed, so plugs for me have been ruled out.

[feliponk]

Originally Posted by audiobob

... 20 gigs of ram PT HD Native PCIe 11.2.2...

Bob: that RAM configuration is not correct by any meanings.

Dual processors computers must have the same amount of RAM per CPU lanes, so I don´t know how you get that number.

Mixing RAM type/speed/size only reduces the performance of the computer.

Now, I doubt this caused your issue, since I faced the same problem on my MBPRetina recording @ 44.1, 512 and only 8 tracks....