This issue is affecting alot of people, I have been dealing with this issue ever since Cubase 7 and it has really affected my motivation & enthusiasm towards my music as I don’t have confidence in my DAW at the moment.
My computer hardware is the following:
OS: Windows 7 64bit
DAW: Cubase Pro 8 v8.0.30 build 536 (64bit) - Going to test with Cubase Pro 8.5 soon
CPU: i7 960 Bloomfield (Turbo & C1E disabled)
Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E x58 Chipset
BIOS: I have tried a bunch of different bios versions between v108 to v701
(NOTE: I have disabled C-States, Turbo-Boost, Enhanced Halt, Speed-Step, EIST etc in the BIOS and SATA Controller set to AHCI)
Graphic Card:
Previously: AMD 7970
Currently: Nvidia GTX970 - Driver 373.06
(NOTE: I have been through 2 different graphic cards since Cubase 7, I experience the issue with both cards)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance, Corsair Dominator, G Skill Ripjaws
(NOTE: I have tried 3 different sets of RAM over time, I like having extra sets lying around for testing purposes)
HDD:
Previously: Mechanical WD Black
Currently: Samsung EVO SSD
(NOTE: I have been through a handful of Windows reformats since Cubase 7, I have used cubase with both mechanical & now currently SSD drive & still experiencing the same issue)
Audio Interface:
Previously: Presonus AudioBox
Currently: RME Fireface UCX - Driver 1.095 Rev46
(NOTE: Buffer is currently set to 256 but I have also tested with 512 extensively, The issue persists on both audio interfaces)
Network Adapter: Intel Gigabit CT PCI Card (Onboard disabled)
I have tried several fresh Windows reformats since Cubase 7, but the issue is consistent no matter what. My reformats are super clean with no bloatware or uneccessary software installed, my computer is used for production and basic internet only.
I have also tried different USB ports for my Audio Interfaces to see if it had something to do with my motherboard chipsets IRQ assignments, but to no avail.
Windows 7 Power settings have been tweaked for max best performance. (I have disabled all sleep, hibernate and USB selective suspend etc)
The issue happens with both 32bit and 64bit version of Cubase.
I have had this 100% performance load spiking issue ever since Cubase 7 and it has continued over to Cubase 8.
Steps to replicate the issue for my particular situation are:
1) Dragging events around on the Arrangement track
2) Hovering / moving the Mute or Cut Tool over events on the Arrangement Track
3) Hovering the Cut Tool over a empty Arrangement Track will cause the performance meter to start spiking around 20% which I find interesting
4) The rest of the time is less frequent and random for eg. a spontaneous performance spike might happen when im playing around with a VST, or writing something in the piano roll, or just scrolling the Arrangement Track, although these patterns are not as consistent as the above.
When a 100% Performance Load spike happens it will typically cause a short pause / glitch type sound, Cubase seems to become unresponsive during that short moment as the program windows seem to freeze / flash and refresh quickly.
Last words, I havn’t spent enough time analysing with different graphic card driver versions, but as far as I can tell I have been experiencing this issue with every driver version (because I do not update graphic driver that regularly), same issue on both cards.
If you need any additional information please let me know.
Steinberg, Please highly prioritise this issue or find out what is the cause of this issue atleast, its really killing me.
Thankyou