Hi @Starnaf - this thread seems to help me fighting a somewhat-similar-somewhat-different issue that appeared just recently. I just changed the affinity to avoid E-cores (in Cubase 14 Windows 11) and it seems much better. Now, I was able to change the affinity successfully from the task-manager but somehow I couldn’t make that happen in a more permanent manner via a shortcut (it just starts without affinity…). How did you change your affinity? Did you use process lasso? Or did you do it from a shortcut?
EDIT: I now understand what probably happened to me and @starnaf (and anybody else who use affinities) should be aware of (apologise if it’s well-known here) - It seems like the affinity of cubase 14 changes dynamically, trigerred by multiple events (that I’m not fully sure what they are). For instance, if I set an affinity (using the task manager) then this affinity will hold - but if I change the buffer size of my audio interface (RME UFX+ in my case) while cubase is running (e.g., from 64 to 256), it seems like an event that causes cubase to reset its affinity to “all CPUs” (e-cores included). However it seems to happen more frequently - maybe even when plugin window is activated - not sure…That’s why, most probably, I thought I “failed” in setting the affinity from the shortcut - I actually didn’t fail, but it simply changed back.
There may be a variety of reasons for that change-back - it could be that the process “restarts itself” upon some events and the lose its affinity settings. But it is much more likely that cubase changes the affinity by itself.
It’s intereseting whether process lasso can catch those changes (I’m currently not using process lasso - at least not yet)
BTW, my way of checking what is the “current affinity” is by using the task manager (details tab) - the dialog box that changes the affinity also shows what the current affinity is.
Process Lasso is able to set and keep (store) the CPU affinity settings of any process. Here is how to do it:
Go to Cuabse exe process in Process Lasso, select CPU Affinity, then tab ALWAYS (this is important!) - uncheck not necessary E cores there and you done. Process Lasso store this information and no need to run it each time you open Cubase - after this change by default Cubase is set to use only P cores. Works like charm.
For anyone having performance issues in Cubase 14 or 15. Here are the actions I took to make it much better:
If you are on DELL machine - uninstall or disable Dell Support Assist
In Defender or your antivirus software - exclude Cubase.exe and the whole Cubase folder as well as you projects folder and VST libraries from real-time scanning.
Using Project Lasso as above - set Cubase to use only P cores of your CPU
Using Park Control - unpark all your cores, (especially the E cores which Cubase is not using - will help to handle other processes in your system)
If you have enough RAM (64GB in my case) you can remove the virtual memory in Win 11. To remove virtual memory (paging file) in Windows 11, disable the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” option in System Properties, select No paging file, and set it. But be aware - if you have not enough RAM don’t do it.
Turn off PCI Express power saving in Windows, open Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings. Expand PCI Express > Link State Power Management and set “Plugged in” to Off.
Turn off power saving for PCI USB cards/ports, disable USB selective suspend in Windows Power Options, uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device” in Device Manager for USB Root Hubs.
One small comment - since cubase changes the affinity very often (you can see it in real-time with process lasso), you may also want to turn on process lasso’s “forced mode” (see the “options” menu in process lasso UI). Without it, cubase can change back the affinityl, and process lasso will be VERY SLOW in reacting (even a minute or so) - at least that’s what I see on my computer… With “forced mode” it reacts pretty immediately, and gets back to the affinity you defined.
