Keystroke latency

[Meads]

This has been the case for forever, and it's driving me nuts.

There's a keystroke latency in every session, no matter how big or how small, even without having any plugins or VIs inserted on any track. When I zoom in or out, or tab to the next clip or whatever else there's a small but still very noticeable delay from pressing the key to PT performing the task (in the milliseconds to half a second area)

I'm on a maxed out cMP 5,1, running a freshly installed 10.12.6 and a freshly installed PT HD 2018.1.0 on an HDN card.
But I've hat this same issue on other Macs running other OSes and versions of PT12. It makes editing incredibly annoying.
Does anyone else experience this? I can't be the only one...

It feels like I'm working on a very underpowered system and PT is struggling, but it really isn't.
This is what my system usage looks like in the session I'm working on right now (no plugins or other processing used, it's editing only):



I have 20GB of RAM dedicated to disk cache wich is plenty for that session, and FWIW all audio resides on an internal SSD.

Any insight on that would be appreciated. I'd like to work like in the PT10 days again, where this issue hasn't been present.

Edit: Even making all tracks inactive doesn't solve a thing concerning this issue.

[bolooki]

maybe related to graphics issues... do you notice as well when playhead is off screen or not playing back?

also as many will suggest, try trashing your prefs and waveform cache. it might help some and narrow it down.

[Meads]

Thanks for chiming in. It's unrelated to playback. Zooming for example shows this behavior no matter if playback is running or not.
But typing as in naming a track for example works like a charm. The letters appear instantly on keypress.

I tried trashing prefs and the whole shebang many times on the other machines I've been working with that show this problem. Right now I'm on a literally fresh system. There's nothing to trash.

[BScout]

you mentioned your audio is on an SSD. What type of drive is your system drive? what type of drive is the one where the pro tools session is stored?
What are your monitor screens (resolution) and graphics card?


(BTW, no issue on my MP 5,1 maxed out)

[Meads]

Originally Posted by BScout

you mentioned your audio is on an SSD. What type of drive is your system drive? what type of drive is the one where the pro tools session is stored?
What are your monitor screens (resolution) and graphics card?


(BTW, no issue on my MP 5,1 maxed out)

System drive is an SSD as well, session drive is the same as the audio drive, so also an SSD. All audio is cached into RAM.
I'm using two 1440P screens and one 4K. All connected via Display Port using a GTX 1060. Tried a 980TI as well with the same result.

[BScout]

Are you using any scaling? If you unplug two monitors, what happens with responsiveness (one of them being the 4k)

Is your 4k actually running at 60Hz or 30Hz or lower?

[Meads]

Originally Posted by BScout

Are you using any scaling? If you unplug two monitors, what happens with responsiveness (one of them being the 4k)

Is your 4k actually running at 60Hz or 30Hz or lower?

No scaling, all screens run their native resolution. All at 60Hz in their respective resolution.
I'll check tomorrow what happens, if I disconnect two screens and only use one of the 1440p's.

Thanks for your input! I'll report back.

[Meads]

Okay, so disconnecting two screens seems to help. It's still not perfect but noticeably better with only one screen connected to the machine.

But that obviously isn't a viable solution. Any ideas?

[BScout]

I take it you tried it with the 1440. Try it only with the 4k. Also, what is your cable lengths for displayport?

You might be better off swapping your graphics card to an AMD/ATI with a supported chipset by the OS.

[ScottRobinson]

I'm having a similar issue. Just upgraded to PT2018 from PT11 and never had this problem in 11. I am running a 2012 Mac Mini i7 w/ 16gb RAM, HDMI into an LG TV (which has a slight mouse lag, but this is different). Would love to know if anyone has a solution.