Cannot set more then 8 out of 16 cores

[PTcomposer]

I've got a shiny new Mac Pro 2.26 gHZ dual quad (8 core) and while performance is generally spectacular, I discovered early on that if I set more then 8 cores active in System Settings I would get CPU spikes and general instability.

Now, this is 8 cores out of 16 possible cores (PT reads the 8 cores as 16 cores with hyperthreading).

Anyone else experiencing this? I'm aware that one should set less cores active then one physically has to let the OS do it's thing, but am I seeing the best possible performance with 8 cores enabled? And with a hyper-threaded system, what does 8 cores even mean? Does that mean 4 cores are active?

[PTcomposer]

Surely someone is using LE on an 8 core machine and can comment on this? PT shows 16 virtual cores due to hyperthreading. Anyone getting any success running more the 8 out of 16 cores in System Settings?

[Obsidian Dragon]

Mine shows 16 cores and I have it set at 15 (leaving one for non-realtime plugins) and everything is running fine. I'm not sure if it runs better than setting it at 8 cores but it runs fine at 15. I have no CPU spikes or instability of any kind.

[dougied]

I have a dual quad core as well and I leave mine just set at 4 cores. It works flawless.

[PTcomposer]

Mine shoots to 99% CPU usage with 15 cores enabled. Running Kontakt 3.5 and Kontakt 4.1 in the session (3.5 is not approved by Digi), though multi-processor support is disabled in Kontakt per suggestion.

I'll have to do more research and report back in a few days....

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by PTcomposer

Mine shoots to 99% CPU usage with 15 cores enabled. Running Kontakt 3.5 and Kontakt 4.1 in the session (3.5 is not approved by Digi), though multi-processor support is disabled in Kontakt per suggestion.

I'll have to do more research and report back in a few days....

That Kontakt 3.5 (and any other incompatible plug-ins) are likely the cause of your problems. Removing them an only using compatible versions should allow you to increase the number of CPU's dedicated to RTAS processes.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

That Kontakt 3.5 (and any other incompatible plug-ins) are likely the cause of your problems. Removing them an only using compatible versions should allow you to increase the number of CPU's dedicated to RTAS processes.

When did Kontakt 3.5 become unsupported?

It was actual the first version of Kontakt that worked extremely well.

I thought that's what most were running - well at least those not updating to K4.

I don't have issues with it.

[PTcomposer]

I've removed Kontakt 3.5 from the plugins folder and I belive all of my other plugins are up to date and supported. I still cannot select more then 8 cores on my 2009 Mac Pro without CPU usage shooting up to 70-80% and getting a distorted, pop ridden playback experience.

What other info can I provide, Avid, to get to the bottom of this?

[bfx]

Have you tried to move all 3rd party plugins out of the plugins folder, trashing preferences, rebooting? That way you should be able to check if DTS's advice was the right direction...