Advice for graphics card

Current system:
CBPro 9.5
P9X79WS
i7 3930K
16GB Corasir memory
PNY (Nvidia) NVS 300 driver release 340.52 (served me well over many years a 2 systems)
SSD - system, HDD - audio, samples, backup
RME Fireface 802 via TI firewire card

Been getting cpu spikes and dropouts. After reading many older posts, I ran LatencyMon. Results are invariably highest reported DPC routine execution time is the nvidia driver. It can run <5 minutes to >2 hours before the red text of doom appears…unpredicable. At this moment I have running LatencyMon, CBPro 9.5, and chrome. Still good after 45:03 minutes, but the spikes are not predicable.

NVIDIA seems to be ubiquitous in new cards. Any advice for a new GPU appreciated.

Chrome can be a real pain, I never run it while recording.

Actually, I was just hoping users would tell me which graphics card they’re using with success.

Any GPU released in the past 5 years should work well with Cubase. Get an AMD if you’re unsure.

Don’t be afraid to try more recent GPU drivers. They rarely make things worse.

I’ve always used Nvidia in all my PC’s but since moving from PT to Cubendo I was having some real problems with spikes at lower buffers. Using LatencyMon, it turned out the Nvidia drivers were using a LOT of my overhead. I switched out the Nvidia for an AMD (R5 230) and it made a big difference. These things are pretty much individual system specific though so YMMV but certainly for me going AMD instead of Nvidia was a good move.

I recently had a new music computer built by specialists. I was told that Cubase uses the processor power of the graphics card and so a reasonably sophisticated card is needed. They installed a ASUS Strix R7 370 2048Mb. I have had no problems at all.

I use a NVIDIA GTX760, but I don’t run Chrome at the same time as Cubase.

Also, if you’re using an NVIDIA make sure you’ve only got the standard graphics drivers not all the other software that is often installed with NVIDIA (including its control panel).

When I switch to nvidia 1050 Ti after Integrated gpu intel hd 4000.
I didn’t see any difference.

NVidia GTX460 here - six years old and about as basic as a video card can get. No issues as long as you only install the driver and none of the other software.
When I replace it I’ll probably go for AMD.

Gigabyte GTX1070 Xtreme edition working fine here.

Cheap and cheerful passively cooled AMD Radeon 6450 HD here - works like a charm. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Radeon-Silent-Graphics-Profile-Warranty/dp/B004X8EO6Q

I use the DVI output to my monitor and HDMI out to a large television for the mix console.

I have a computer that is dedicated to run DAW software (I also have a main computer for graphical work, gaming and my administration).

I have also noticed some spikes when I was using a standard (GTX) NVIDIA card with the latest drivers, so I switched to the “professional” Quadro graphic card series and different drivers tailored for the Quadro series.

I now use the Nvidia Quadro 600, and the R375 U11 (377.83) WHQL drivers (clean installation with ONLY the drivers and NOTHING ELSE). With this combination I don’t have any spikes at all, so I guess a lot of these spikes where generated by “gaming” drivers and additional (not needed in a DAW) programs.

The Nvidia Quadro 600 is still sold in some places, but also sold second hand for a very low price. Please notice that the Quadro series are not at all targeted at gaming. In other words - It are no gaming cards, and if you do not have a dedicated DAW/CAD/Graphic workstation, but a “home” computer that’s also used for gaming, I cannot recommend this card. For a workstation, however, it are great cards.

I hope this helps a bit.

Thanks everyone for your responses, much appreciated!!!

So after much pondering, I purchased an Asus Radeon RX550 2GB, partly because it was on sale and partly the inventory of non-nvidia cards was slim pickins’. What I didn’t anticipate though, was learning that new graphics cards do not support analog outs, even with adapters, so I was told.

Apparently, I’ve been out of the loop for a while, sheesh. Luckily, my monitors have both VGA and DVI inputs. So I had to fork out for some new cables, no biggy. My VGA cables will get relegated to a previous build or be added to my basement computer parts repository.

I’ve been running LatencyMon for over 3 hours without issues. I am relieved … knock on wood. The Radeon driver is well down the “highest reported DPC routine execution time” list at 0 (ms). Top 3 now are ndis.sys, tcpip.sys, and USBPORT.sys, but still well in the green.

@Romantique Tp - I did try a bunch of new drivers, at least the newest for my old card - same poor result.
@ChazC - ya, same here from PT to Cubase.
@Planarchist & Maincat - I only checked boxes to install drivers, but nonetheless, it still installed the Nvidia Control Panel.
@PeppaPig - sounds like a cool setup, might have to look into that!

Nvidia has served me well through my last few builds, but it was time for change.

For years I ran a nVidia GTX8800 without problems. Then I moved to multi monitors and got dual GTX 560Ti’s to support 4 monitors. Nice cards, but the animation of cubase meters and Fabfilter VSTs was not smooth on all monitors.

Upgraded to a single GTX780Ti which supports 4 monitors on the one card. Lovely smooth animation of all Cubase stuff.

Now running GTX980Ti which also supports the 4 monitors on one card. No better than the 780Ti for Cubase, but more powerful when gaming.

So whatever people tell you, the GFX card does make a difference to Cubase, at least when you start going multi monitor.

Regards

Re running Chrome and Cubase at the same time, never had a problem with that, even with multiple Chrome tabs open.

I understand the advice to not run other stuff alongside Cubase, but I can run very heavy Cubase jobs with the ASIO meters up high even on my decent hardware (see sig.) and it doesn’t seem to make any difference having Chrome open in the background. Even tracking at 16 samples/96khZ/24Bit (1.4ms latency)

So I’m not advising you do it, but if your hardware is good, it isn’t a cause of problems.

The cheap card I mentioned has DVI, HDMI and analogue outputs. Still, the one you went for has a good reputation.
Demand from crypo currency mining is causing a shortage of certain cards at the moment.