MAC M1 PT 2022.4 vs 2021.3.1 videos

[audiogamble]

Originally Posted by BScout

Your demo shows 100% memory use with disk cache at 10%. What happens in both versions if disk cache is set lower so that the 100& memory use isn't happening in that version. Obviously all the meters are broken in some way.

I've tried adjusting that setting. Unfortunately, no notable performance improvements in 2022.4 with different settings. There's definitely an "optimal" setting, but not to the degree that it makes heavy sessions useable in 2022.4.

[audiogamble]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

If you do see 100% memory usage on Apple Silicon Macs, please look at the memory usage in Activity Monitor. Just the Memory Pressure graph at the bottom of the memory usage page should be enough. If it's high that may explain CPU related errors. A screenshot of the whole memory page, or at least top memory consuming processes and the bottom graphs would be great.

Yeah I thought it was pretty curious too when I started seeing it. Ironically, the PT version that makes the memory meter jump to 100% (2021.3), actually performs considerably better. I have checked activity monitor for actual memory usage and everything seems normal - not even close to maxed out. I think this meter just doesn't work.

I actually used to set this to "normal" but the avid rep on this support case suggested increasing it. I get the meter at 100% now but it actually performs better. In 2022.4, the meter is more accurate but the performance is a lot worse.

[persen]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Some memory comments while we are weighing in lot of stuff.

(and answering mine and bscouts questions now likely helps get the focus on the problem, support folks would likely be asking those questions anyhow. Please don't take the questions as criticism, I *want* to get to the fastest point of having a confident showable bug for Avid to work on, with no "obvious" things missed that could explain the behavior.).

If you do see 100% memory usage on Apple Silicon Macs, please look at the memory usage in Activity Monitor. Just the Memory Pressure graph at the bottom of the memory usage page should be enough. If it's high that may explain CPU related errors. A screenshot of the whole memory page, or at least top memory consuming processes and the bottom graphs would be great.

macOS uses a combination of sophisticated memory compression and demand paging to NVMe/PCIe flash. And on Apple Silicon the SSD speed/optimization is even faster on one hand, and on the other the limited memory configs and unified memory may increase the likelihood of memory exhaustion. While paging to these SSDs are lot faster that paging to spinning disk, if it happens enough it might cause havoc with CPU burn (to compress and uncompress pages etc.) and CPU glitches (adds latency spikes). If this is happening you want to stop it, not only is it likely to cause CPU errors but if happening enough or let go for long enough you risk wear on the ultra-fast SSD (yes those SSDs that I've been saying normal use wear does not matter... if you are paging to them a lot, that's well above normal use wear).

If you are running low on memory, you can try shutting down other apps, reducing the disk cache size or set it to "normal" and try excluding plugins that may have memory leaks, or maybe Pro Tools itself has a memory leak in some versions. The reason for mentioning this is normally CPU and memory stuff is somewhat separate, the more sophisticated these systems become the more that memory exhaustion potentially appears as a CPU related problems, maybe without traditional behavior folks are used to (e.g. overall performance of the whole machine may not becomes absolutely unusable as it would on older systems).

Hi,

I have attached 4 screenshots:

PT 2021.3.1 CPU from Activity Monitor
PT 2021.3.1 memory from Activity Monitor
PT 2022.4 CPU from Activity Monitor
PT 2022.4 memory from Activity Monitor

The session on 2022.4 is actually playing now. Gonna see how much it lasts when I start with automation

When i bypass all the sends I use (quiet a lot) the CPU usage drops about 20%...

Thanks !

[Eric Lambert]

It might be the same Apple, but it's not quite apples-to-apples. Do a fresh install of 2021.3 with new Prefs, then compare with a completely fresh install of 2022.4 with new Prefs, but *not* as a coexist. Short of that, and other factors, we're stuck with a suggestion of evidence, but not concrete evidence.

[Macsearcher]

Originally Posted by audiogamble

Here's a similar comparison I posted on another thread. For anyone else getting these sort of performance hits, please bring this up to avid formally with a support ticket.

"Here are screen videos of a mix I recently completed without issue on 2021.3.1 , and the same mix on 2022.4 .

2021.3.1 - Smooth scrolling during playback. Session plays back with no errors. Activity monitor has pro tools using around 300% during playback. 150% in idle. (Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxt051r5uy...ssion.mov?dl=0 )

2022.4 - Session tells me cinematic rooms is causing crashes. When I disable that plugin I can finally play the session, but am unable to scroll fluidly through the session. Cursor is unresponsive. Lots of pinwheels. Can't zoom in/out without lag. Meters are super laggy. Activity monitor showing 300-350% cpu usage in idle (no playback), and more on playback. CPU runs a full 10 degree celsuis hotter. Basically unuseable. (Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rz2z152jao...ssion.mov?dl=0 )

And here's another thread laying out systematically at least one element that contributed to this problem: https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=419777

The bottom line here, is that silicon machines took a serious performance hit since 2021.6 it seems. Some users may notice it more than others depending on workflows. But if you're like me and have demanding sessions, these latest updates are not useable.

Same experience here.

[audiogamble]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

It might be the same Apple, but it's not quite apples-to-apples. Do a fresh install of 2021.3 with new Prefs, then compare with a completely fresh install of 2022.4 with new Prefs, but *not* as a coexist. Short of that, and other factors, we're stuck with a suggestion of evidence, but not concrete evidence.

During my support ticket with Avid they had me do this. Even had me make a fresh user account on my mac for it. Same problem.

[persen]

Hi,

Just wanted to show the sends-"problems" with 2022.4.
In these two videos I have PT 2022.4 sending 60 sends to some auxes.

The other video is PT 2021.3.1 sending the same auxes....

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qfzwoiov2...roCAu-OTa?dl=0

Persen

[glasswing]

Originally Posted by persen

Hi,

Just wanted to show the sends-"problems" with 2022.4.
In these two videos I have PT 2022.4 sending 60 sends to some auxes.

The other video is PT 2021.3.1 sending the same auxes....

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qfzwoiov2...roCAu-OTa?dl=0

Persen

Well that is weird. Not good! But I wonder, does anyone ever use this many sends?

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by glasswing

Well that is weird. Not good! But I wonder, does anyone ever use this many sends?

Perhaps not, but PT should pass the stress test. Or, at minimum, it would be good to know why the results are different. Whatever's causing it might also cause other problems that we would encounter.

[persen]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Perhaps not, but PT should pass the stress test. Or, at minimum, it would be good to know why the results are different. Whatever's causing it might also cause other problems that we would encounter.

Yes, and this is without any plugins.

I have big sessions with a lot of sends and some of the sessions is not working on 2022.4 but completely fine on 2021.3.1....