Why is Cubase 12’s frame times so erratic, this is a capture of Cubase just opened, sitting idle.
The frame time graph is all over the place, yes I know there is no real GPU usage as in MHZ, but it definetly uses NVidia’s api as the geforce experience overlay always starts when you run Cubase.
Usually this only happens when launching games?
Could this be the cause of pops and crackles when running in balanced mode? I always have to switch to High power profile for windows when using Cubase.
The frame time graph here should be flat not spiking all over the place. Something wrong here. As soon as I shut down Cubase, the graph goes back to being flat…
The problem is, your system is not optimized for real time audio as recommended by Steinberg.
Use the Studio driver, it has no GeForce Experience overlay.
Cubase is using graphic frameworks that use hardware acceleration.
You may be right.
But testing other DAWs ableton, Reaper, Reason12, and Studio one,
none of them have this erratic frametime graph, Ableton and reaper are totally flat.
Reason 12, actually pauses the GPU when you arent doing anything, so the only time the frametime graph moves, is when you click on the window, press play etc, studio one does similar.
None of the mentioned above trigger the Nvidia overlay, which is why, I wondered about Cubase 12.
I could use the studio driver, but I game on this machine too, so, I have never thought about using the studio driver, maybe I will give it a try.
Daws are not that GPU intensive, I would advise that steinberg maybe remove the hook which causes the Nvidia overlay to come on at start up, it does not come on on screen, but it runs in the background.
Maybe you should think about a dual boot system if you game too.
I have a multiboot setup, Win10 DAW, Win10 for normal things like games etc and a couple of Linux partitions, all hidden from each other.
Cubase is more delicate when handling graphics than others , it does require a lot of optimising , i started a thread in the lounge about Graphics after running the newer machine setup issues and you really do need a half decent graphics card with Cubase , even thou Steinberg won’t admit this my findings in my world tell me i do .
Sluggish behavior opening plugins , sluggish Gui , spikes on the asio meters are all part of a non capable graphics card .
You can’t do a comparison with other DAW’s , you either want Cubase to work or you don’t . Run Latency mon , watch the drivers freak out in the red while running the audio software and then find the cause . I tried three different graphics cards and finally this one now runs very very well .
Laptops .
Steinberg always back in the early years recommended not to buy a laptop with integrated graphics BTW
Hello,
Thanks for the reply.
My specs are right on the video in the OSD display.
I am running an RTX3080ti, so its not my GPU, Its way more than enough.
I have to disagree, its not graphically intensive, no more so than other daws. Its just using the api wrong.
I can run fine as long as I am using High power profile, which is normal for most Daws, but the frame times should not be that erratic,
I am sorry, but if Cubase took their time to code the GUI to use the GPU properly, that frame time line should be flat, with the odd spike here and there, when you open up Vsts etc… And it should not be hooking into the Nvidia overlay, at all, as this is requesting features of the GPU that are not required for running a DAW.
Cubase has no business using any part of Geforce experience, Leave that side of it to the games its designed for.
I will disagree with you , you can make Cubase very graphically intense , if you run 3 monitors with a Full mixer open , the project page and Supervision with 7 meters set to graphics all open .
There has been a big thing about the Studio drivers , it must be a thing otherwise Nvidia wouldn’t of made specific drivers would they , you have also been told there is an issue running Nvidia Experience , for audio work you should install the display driver only and run on Max performance , If you choose to ignore the info provided to make your system run well with Cubase then there’s not a lot that can be done , it’s down to you and your setup
I switched to Nvidia after being Radeon , but my 12 year old GUI which was more than capable threw up errors with C12 so , I heard and watched all the horrors with Nvidia drivers but you can’t argue with this while Spectral layers is running in the background
Of course, you can set up an Nvidia based system that runs smooth, but it often needs the optimization to work. My AMD systems running out of the box with no optimization done. Just the right drivers. But the performance improves with optimization.
My System spec is all there on the video, in the OSD read out.
processor, GPU and RAM, not sure what other specs you need.
WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 2 tb
windows 11
Like I said before, I run it fine, I use High power profile. No audio pops or clicks.
I’m just saying it could be better, if they got the frame times to be better. This was a feedback post. Maybe hoping Steinberg would see it. No program, while sitting idle, should be generating those sort of frame times.
Cubase can be a bit quirky like that, I had a problem with it flickering on a G-Sync screen because of the fluctuations. Luckily you can fix the frame rate and such things within the NVidia control panel, i.e.:
I think the main problem is that Cubase has been updated across decades to match modern hardware. Whereas newer DAWs are built from the ground up on newer frameworks and concepts that never existed for Steinberg previously.
