PT and CPU usage

[amagras]

Been here, done that. Not my thread.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by EGS

"What I will never understand is ..."


Do all AVID recommended system tweaks
Post your complete system specs including a Sandra report
Ask a clear & concise question
Thoroughly read the "Help Us Help You" tab at the top of the forum page

Then...

we will help you understand.

EGS - Really? I've been on this forum for nearly 10 years, I'm not a noob!

No Sandra report is going tell you why there's a discrepancy between the PT CPU usage meter and the Windows one. Clearly the PT meter is measuring something differently than the Windows meter. All I'm asking is what accounts for the difference. And, no, I've never understood why its different, and the manual does not explain it either. Logically, if the CPU meter is PT, which measures how much of each processor PT is using as well as EW, clip gain and plugins usage, is pegging out at 100%, you would expect the Windows CPU meter, which supposedly is measuring CPU usage for ALL applications running, would be at or near the same levels. But when PT is at 100%, and the Windows CPU meter is at 30%, then there has to be some explanation as to why there's such a difference. Either the Windows meter really isn't measuring total CPU load OR the PT meter is not, or at least is measuring it in some other way. All I'm asking is what makes for the difference.

[guitardom]

The CPU meter and PT meter has to be different. The CPU meter is also reading system tasks of the OS that the PT meter is not. PT is given a certain amount of system resources to work within that equate the Pro Tools system meter. In my testing, it has seemed like PT is capable of using about 80-85% roughly of the total system resources. Unfortunately, Avid has never been able to come out and give specifics. I am sure there is a huge list of variables that go along with this along with some voodoo.

Unless you have some serious issues, you will never see the PT meter at 100% and the system meter at 30%

[mjslakeridge]

Open up Pro Tools and then open Task Manager and click on More Details near the bottom of the box. Then go to Details and Right Click on Pro Tools. Under Set Affinity, make sure you have all cores selected. You may try selecting all but one of the cores for Pro tools, so the system will have 1 core dedicated to system tasks.

You can also look at Set Priority and make sure Pro Tools is not set to Below Normal or Low. Fool around with the Set priority options to see which gives you the most stable PT operation.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by guitardom

The CPU meter and PT meter has to be different. The CPU meter is also reading system tasks of the OS that the PT meter is not. PT is given a certain amount of system resources to work within that equate the Pro Tools system meter. In my testing, it has seemed like PT is capable of using about 80-85% roughly of the total system resources. Unfortunately, Avid has never been able to come out and give specifics. I am sure there is a huge list of variables that go along with this along with some voodoo.

Unless you have some serious issues, you will never see the PT meter at 100% and the system meter at 30%

Thanks for the further explanation. That's the first time I've seen an explanation that makes sense. So, the PT meter is only telling what percentage of the overall resources given to PT are being used and not ALL system resources, which is what the Windows meter should be telling me. I'm going to run some further checks to see what the levels look like under different scenarios.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Open up Pro Tools and then open Task Manager and click on More Details near the bottom of the box. Then go to Details and Right Click on Pro Tools. Under Set Affinity, make sure you have all cores selected. You may try selecting all but one of the cores for Pro tools, so the system will have 1 core dedicated to system tasks.

You can also look at Set Priority and make sure Pro Tools is not set to Below Normal or Low. Fool around with the Set priority options to see which gives you the most stable PT operation.

Thank you. I seem to recall doing all this a while back, but I'll go back and look again.

[DonaldM]

Just to be clear, I'm not having any actual issues with PT. Its just that I know my CPU is limited, being an older one, and I'm at the point where the work I'm doing keeps pushing at those CPU limits. Hence my question trying to understand how PT's meter vs the Windows meter measures CPU usage. I'm pretty sure I've optimized everything that can be optimized and gone through all the other tweaks, but I'm going back through later today to double check.

Of course, all this goes away once I'm able to build a system with more CPU horsepower, which I'm looking into doing right now.

Thanks for all the responses!

[DonaldM]

So I checked on everything. I had the cores all selected as I thought. I set the priority from "normal" to "above normal" to see what would happen. Seems like everything works fine.

I played around with Dune 2 (since that seems to be the biggest resource hog) and looked at the PT meter along with the Win meter. They seemed to run in tandem. If the PT meter pegged out at 100%, the Win meter got pretty close to that too. Then I unselected 1 core, and noticed that with the same set up in PT with Dune 2, the PT meter still pegged , but the Win meter stayed around 35-40%. NOt sure exactly what that's telling me.

But the bottom line is, all meter reading aside, I just need to upgrade the system for more CPU horsepower. I've pretty much optimized and maximized everything I can.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

EGS - Really? I've been on this forum for nearly 10 years, I'm not a noob!...

DonaldM - my post was in response to amagras's post:

quote:
amagras
What I will never understand is why just opening PT without any session open would sometimes take half the CPU, sometimes even with red spikes (this happens one day without making any other changes)
quote:

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by EGS

DonaldM - my post was in response to amagras's post:

quote:
amagras
What I will never understand is why just opening PT without any session open would sometimes take half the CPU, sometimes even with red spikes (this happens one day without making any other changes)
quote:

Apologies, then. I misunderstood!