CPU Temps and Intel Turbo Boost

[Chris August]

Yeah I’ve been leaning towards getting one of those. It’s just crazy because this machine is so powerful and if it wasn’t for the overheating it would be amazing. I still wonder if there is some sort of bug with Avid making it worse because the moment I turn enable turbo boost it goes up 20 degrees in temp…even with a session that’s not pushing anything. I could have just my template open with no plugins turned on and it will still do it. Whereas if I do the same in Logic it runs normal and cool.

Well, at least now I know there are others who have this problem with that machine. Helps it make more sense.

I appreciate all the replies!!!

[Darryl Ramm]

Chris

I thought I would run a few heating tests on my MBP: Intel 15-inch 2019, 2.3 GHz 8 core i9, 32 GB, 2TB SSD. Rinning 2022.4 on Big Sur. So close to yours.

I'm not sure if there are issues with some MBP or how much different folks sensitivity to fan noise is here. I had an older MBP (early unibody 17") that had chronic overheating issues, both would run hot enough to be uncomfortable on my lap and the fan was loud... it maybe had an underlying fault, but also was full of dust at times and was annoyingly noise (even to me) because of a slowly dying fan that eventually made a horrible noise. Replacing the fan, boosting the fan speeds, and cleaning out the dust/vents all helped some. So I am by far not

I both ran it up using the Endurance utility from the Mac App store, to just busy all CPUs (it does not put load on the GPU) and running a Pro Tools test session (96 kHz, 32 tracks, feeding 32 Aux with 5 plugins on each track

And playback engine set to suspected worse values: ignore errors and enable turbo boost, don't limit real time threads. I'd get the occasional red CPU indication in the Pro Tools CPU meter, but no AAE errors as long as ignore errors was set. This may have maxed out the CPUs according the Activity Monitor...remembering that hyperthreading means virtual core pairs cores are not really fully separate and can't run at full 100% for real world applications. overlap. (And you can see that Pro Tool CPU usage disagrees here... both can't be right ).

My normal working environment has the laptop next to a 27" 5K monitor with screen open and there is a heavy velvet like curtain behind the desk with Genelec monitors to either side, that curtain and partial obscuration by the 5K display likely cuts down on fan noise reflecting and being annoying and I'm maybe less sensitive to fan noise than others, am not trying to track audio near to the MBP etc.

You can see temps and fan speeds in the istat screenshots.

Anyhow you can see Endurance utility to load all CPUs

And Playback Engine settings

And here Pro Tools just playing back in a loop

[Chris August]

Hey Darryl! Thanks for running those tests. Definitely interesting to see different results. I saw you said you had the turbo boost enabled when running those, but on the playback engine screen shot it shows that it’s not enabled. I’d be curious to see a side by side of results if you hit that button and then run that same test.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Chris August

Hey Darryl! Thanks for running those tests. Definitely interesting to see different results. I saw you said you had the turbo boost enabled when running those, but on the playback engine screen shot it shows that it’s not enabled. I’d be curious to see a side by side of results if you hit that button and then run that same test.

Doh, no it was enabled. Pretty sure the screenshot of the settings was wrong—made before then I changed it. But I’ll compare both here soon.

[its2loud]

So what's the best way to run Pro Tools with these i9 or i7 MBP? I've been disabling Turbo Boost on my 2015 MBP i7 and still continue to get playback errors.

I haven't disabled on the i9 but the fans are screaming when running Pro Tools.

Suggestions?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by its2loud

So what's the best way to run Pro Tools with these i9 or i7 MBP? I've been disabling Turbo Boost on my 2015 MBP i7 and still continue to get playback errors.

I haven't disabled on the i9 but the fans are screaming when running Pro Tools.

Suggestions?

If you are just trying to solve for CPU errors you would enable not disable Turbo Boost. Solve for CPU errors if you get them… full optimization, standard troubleshooting esp. checking plugins, increasing IO buffer (if problems happen when using the IO buffer… if they happen in pure playback using the large playback buffer then suspect a bad plugin), freeze/commit tracks, changing plugins to lighter/better behaved ones and/or using bussing to see if you can run fewer plugin instances, use hardware monitoring instead of software, … but I would avoid “ignore errors” when tracking.

[its2loud]

Thanks Darryl. I’m not tracking. Just mixing. Years ago I remember turbo boost causing havoc with Pro Tools on the 2015 i7 MBP. Maybe this has improved over time and with subsequent OS. What’s interesting is on the i9 2019 BMP. Checking if unchecking Turbo Boos in Pro Tools doesn’t seem to make a difference in performance.

[Darryl Ramm]

Chris

Well this is embarrassing, thanks for your sharp eyes on that dialog screen shot. If I check allow Turbo Boost in the playback engine dialog and click save and then reopen the dialog it is unchecked. Totally reproducible here, I trashed prefs with PT Prefs and it's still doing it. Let me do some more troubleshooting, not sure when this happened pretty sure it used to stick, and I'll think about anything else that might be causing this. But yes all my recent comments might be invalid... and I'll be really curious if anybody else sees this. This Mac is used for development and not very clean at the moment. I may spin up a clean Big Sur install to test since I need to get on that anyhow.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by its2loud

Thanks Darryl. I’m not tracking. Just mixing. Years ago I remember turbo boost causing havoc with Pro Tools on the 2015 i7 MBP. Maybe this has improved over time and with subsequent OS. What’s interesting is on the i9 2019 BMP. Checking if unchecking Turbo Boos in Pro Tools doesn’t seem to make a difference in performance.

My experience was turbo boost would help really heavy sessions sometimes having CPU errors, (but heck right now I can't even get turbo boost to stick on so just WTF... looking at that).

If you are playback/mix only then hopefully you are already largely running through of the large fixed playback buffer but can increase the IO Buffer to a large value to check/see if that helps--if it does then go fishing for why it has any effect (live VIs? etc.).

Remember there were improvements in AAX processing in 2019.5 that can be significant help especially if using long chains of plugins. I saw a significant change after that release in some sessions.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by Chris August

Yeah I’ve been leaning towards getting one of those. It’s just crazy because this machine is so powerful and if it wasn’t for the overheating it would be amazing. I still wonder if there is some sort of bug with Avid making it worse because the moment I turn enable turbo boost it goes up 20 degrees in temp…even with a session that’s not pushing anything. I could have just my template open with no plugins turned on and it will still do it. Whereas if I do the same in Logic it runs normal and cool.

Well, at least now I know there are others who have this problem with that machine. Helps it make more sense.

I appreciate all the replies!!!

Are you running MacOS 12.3.1 and do you have the Pro Tools video engine disabled? I would try those two things.

Dominic