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Old 02-04-2018, 03:01 PM
smokeydan smokeydan is offline
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Default LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

Hi!

We just got a new system and I’m having problems with CPU usage and 9171 / 9172 errors under certain circumstances. Is anyone else using the LG 34” Ultrawide display and experiencing issues? I was expecting that the GPU would be able to handle it, but it appears to be stealing CPU usage from Pro Tools. Doesn’t seem to make any difference whether I have GPU on or off in the PT preferences, but the LG Display certainly appears to be a contributing factor with the issues we’re having.



The session I have been using to test the system is fairly modest, 96k, around 55 audio tracks, a handful of auxes, mixture of DSP and Native plug ins - but unless I set a buffer of 1024 or 2048 I get very high CPU usage and 9171 or 9172 errors. Even sometimes with the buffer set at 1024 or 2048 I get errors. I have sent DLogs to Avid but I’m hoping to accelerate the troubleshooting process by putting it to the community here!

I have been through the standard/recommended OS optimization procedures. Tried with wifi and bluetooth off. All energy saver settings disabled. Firewire Networking / Filevault off. iLok drivers = latest. Automatic Updates off. I have deleted the preference files detailed in the Avid troubleshooting pages.

So - If I disconnect the Sonnet chassis with the HDX cards and run the session entirely natively - no problem. CPU usage is stable and sits at around 20% throughout the session even at the lowest buffer setting.

If I connect the chassis and run with the HDX engine and a mixture of DSP and Native plug ins - I get CPU spike and errors. A single instance of Waves Abbey Rd plates, Kramer Tape or Altiverb on an Aux causes a huge increase in CPU usage and eventually an error.

If I disconnect the LG Ultrawide display and connect one of our old 4:3 (1280 x 1024) displays, CPU usage is far lower and more stable - but even so, a couple of Native plug ins in the wrong place cause issues - but the ultrawide display does seem to be at least a part of the problem.

If I set the resolution of the Ultrawide lower (eg 2048 x 858) - CPU usage is again reduced. But still not very stable, especially compared to when I run the system entirely Natively (disconnected from the Sonnet Chassis) or with the lower res screen.

I have the Ultrawide connected to the HDMI (I have tried Thunderbolt connection too) and I have taken care that the chassis with the audio drives and the sonnet PCI chassis with the HDX cards are all on separate Thunderbolt buses.

I have tried running the session from the internal hard drive and disconnecting the drivedock chassis. Does not appear to affect performance.

I have tried running with just one, and then the other HDX card. Does not appear to affect performance.

I have tried a different Sonnet Chassis. Does not appear to affect performance.

I have replaced all thunderbolt cables. Does not appear to affect performance.

So- does anyone have any ideas what I should try next? Am I expecting too much of the graphics card on the Mac Pro to run the LG display? Are there any additonal apps or drivers I should install which might help optimize the set up of the LG?

OS is a fresh install, so there’s no accumulated junk on the computer. It only has PT and a few other necessary apps installed on it (ilok, Waves Central, UAD software for example)

I note that the activity monitor shows that the Pro Tools Quicktime Server is almost always red after a ProTools error. I have tried quitting this process after reading a thread here, but it does not appear to affect anything. (Interesting that it’s the only 32 bit process that ever shows up in the activity monitor.)

Any insight welcomed, thanks in advance!

Dan

System details:
Mac Pro 6,1 64GB RAM / OSX 10.13.2 High Sierra, 2 x HDX cards in Sonnet Chassis / Audio drives in OWC thunderbolt drivedock chassis. Pro Tools HD 12.8.3
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Old 02-04-2018, 03:04 PM
LukeHoward LukeHoward is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

My experience from running a 4K display with Pro Tools HDX (2010 Mac Pro, AMD RX480 GPU) is exactly the same. I went back to my old display, running at a lower resolution (1680×1050 if I remember right).
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Last edited by LukeHoward; 02-04-2018 at 03:38 PM.
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Old 02-05-2018, 11:31 AM
smokeydan smokeydan is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

OK, thank you for your input Luke.
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Old 02-05-2018, 12:22 PM
BScout BScout is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

I know other studios that are struggling with 5k screens over HDMI and Pro Tools (mostly GUI lag not crashing)

I have one 4k and one 2560x1440 on my system and the system runs perfectly (Mac 5,1) -- both at full resolution. 2560x1440 via DVI-DL and 4k via displayPort to HDMI (this needs SwitchResX to get the resolution/timings right.)

I do know on the Mac 6,1, not all thunderbolt ports are the same. This happens with a studio I work at with 3 screens and they have to be on particular ports or there are problems (I believe one of the screens even has to be attached to the Sonnet chassis.) So trying each port might be worth a try. I would also stick to thunderbolt to DP instead of using HDMI. What are your cable lengths?
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Old 02-05-2018, 12:39 PM
smokeydan smokeydan is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

Thanks BScout - yes I had discovered I am getting more display options and apparently less CPU usage in PT if I connect the display over Thunderbolt rather than the HDMI - but it had not occurred to me that the 3 Thunderbolt buses might have different properties. I will add it to the list of configurations to try.
Cable lengths are currently 3m for the display, 1m for the OWC Drivedock and 5m for the Sonnet Chassis (although I have tried with a 1m cable for the Sonnet, it didn't appear to make any difference)
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Old 02-05-2018, 01:53 PM
LukeHoward LukeHoward is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

Not to hijack this thread, but if anyone gets this working reliably I'm curious to know what to do differently. With my MacPro5,1 (HDX/UAD/Blackmagic PCIe cards), running at 4K display resolution and with a buffer size less than 2048 was generally unusable at 96k. CPU usage was through the roof. I originally posted about it here - http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=393463
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Old 02-08-2018, 06:37 PM
wolfhound wolfhound is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

I have an LG Ultrawide and have been having problems, but never thought it could be attributed to the display. I'm going to look into this! Thanks for the heads up.
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  #8  
Old 02-09-2018, 11:28 AM
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DetroitT DetroitT is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

My add on thoughts.
High speed HDMI cables?

Mini-Displayport to Dual-Link active adaptor?
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Old 07-16-2018, 07:59 PM
dversion dversion is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

Open Activity Monitor and check out the "kernel_task" CPU usage. Using Thunderbolt tends to activate thermal throttling on Intel chips and basically the CPU is occupied by "junk" instructions to occupy some of it's processing power in order to keep the temperature down. Apple likes to operate well within the Intel spec for CPU temps.

Myself, I bought a new MacBook Pro and an external PCI thunderbolt box with Native card and two external monitors daisy chained or running on Thunderbolt. I was upset to find out that CPU takes a huge hit running this way and temps spike quickly. I'll have to look into a Desktop solution or one of the newer 6 core CPU's to be able to run the system with a medium plugin load.

I downloaded iStat pro to keep an eye on things like CPU temp which helped me analyze some of the hits to the CPU as I attempted different daisy chaining configurations.

Hope this helps someone...
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Old 07-16-2018, 09:44 PM
Mixchump Mixchump is offline
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Default Re: LG ultrawide display & CPU problems?

Yes, @smokeydan and @LukeHoward, I have the exact same display (LG 34" Ultrawide 4K - 3440 x 1440), and I've been having the same struggles but working through it... I really do love having this amount of screen real estate, but the GUI lag and constant 97xx quits are killing me. I've decided to downgrade my display situation to something that will run on DVI rather than dealing with the Displayport / 4K madness.


I discovered, after diving into this world, that there's no such thing as a 20' Mini-Displayport cable, and no kind of adapter situation would work when the screen was hanging off of a 5770 graphics card. SO, I swapped out the graphics card for an Nvidia 660 that my son had laying around (which has a full-sized Displayport connector) but unless I flash the card, I have no video until boot into MacOS...


After all that, it does work well on most anything other than ProTools, and I do LOVE the look of the screen. I'm just freakin' DONE with the crashes and GUI lag, so I'm now investigating other dual screen options. If anyone has some awesome suggestions, I'm all ears!


PS. I should mention that I'm on a 5,1 MacPro 12-core 3.33GHz machine with 48GB RAM, and MacOS 10.12.5



Cheers, eh?

Last edited by Mixchump; 07-16-2018 at 09:46 PM. Reason: additional system info
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