I have a Windows 11 Laptop with both an integrated graphics processor on the CPU (iGPU) and a dedicated graphics processor (dGPU) in the form of an RTX 3070.
The issue: Cubase 13 seems to send all or most of its GUI and plugin rendering loads to a Windows process called Desktop Window Manager rather than interfacing with the GPU driver directly. For complicated reasons having to do with power savings, this process seems to be hard-locked to the iGPU on my machine, which results in all graphics rendering loads in Cubase being directed to the very limited capabilities of the iGPU while the 3070 sits mostly idle. Opening any plugin with an analyzer - or even simply opening the mixer itself with all its meters - immediately overloads the iGPU causing dropouts.
In short, because of how Cubase seems to handle rendering, this monster laptop with an 8-core, 16-thread processor and a desktop-class NVIDIA 3000 series graphics processor can’t handle opening a Pro-Q 3 plugin.
I’m working remotely for the holidays and I’m kind of stuck with this issue. Does anybody have any suggestions? I think the answer, if there is one, is going to lie in Cubase settings as I’ve already explored Windows and BIOS options with no success.
Did you try disabling the internal GPU via the device manager?
But to be honest I found that Cubase runs fine on the internal GPU. Strange that you have issues with it. Is your CPU/Asio/Audio performance well until you open a plugin, or is it nearly maxed out?
I can’t disable the iGPU bc there’s no MUX switch in this laptop. That means Windows is hard connected to the iGPU and dGPU traffic goes through it first. I haven’t tried disabling the iGPU yet, but I’m relatively sure that’ll just crash the system.
I’m sure the iGPU is fine in most cases, but this mix is pretty big and I’m working on a 10th gen Intel processor which has a notoriously weak iGPU. I’m actually surprised it’s as weak as it is, though.
Nah, that doesn’t happen. I was doing things like these for decades without issues (IT guy).
It is even recommended in many cases, to avoid issues like yours and conflicts between both cards.
You could try to disable it in the BIOS first, which would probably be the best solution.
I have a similar issue using a 4K monitor connected via HDMI 2 60hz slot on my laptop (Asus FX506HE) .
The annoying part is that even with a few plugins loaded the DWM.exe goes thhrough the roof 45% CPU etc.
Has anybody found any solutions on this or experienced anything similar ?
All of the annoying screensavers / lock screen etc are disabled.
After spending ages on this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no solution. If you’re machine doesn’t have the ability to turn off the iGPU via hardware multiplexor switch or software in BIOS, then nothing can be done.
All you can do is drop your screen resolution as low as possible so the struggling GPU has physically fewer pixels to draw and disconnect any secondary displays. Also, try to hide the meters in the mixer and be carful of opening any plugin with an analyzer.
It’s a fairly devastating outcome, frankly. It’s shocking to me that high end hardware could be rendered useless in this use case over something so stupid, but here we are.