Cubase 15.0.21 GUI redraw errors / realtime audio instability on Apple Silicon

Cubase
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1

My System’s Details :

  • Mac mini M4 Pro (48 GB RAM / 1 TB SSD)

  • macOS 26.4.1

  • Cubase 15.0.21 (Native and Rosetta Both)

  • Audient iD4

Issue Summary :
I experienced significant realtime audio processing instability in Cubase 15 on an Apple Silicon Mac mini M4 Pro despite the system having substantial CPU/GPU resources available.

The instability was especially noticeable during common editing and playback operations involving:

  • faded audio events

  • time-stretched/transposed audio (Musical Mode and Manual Stretch)

  • enabling/disabling cycle range

  • looping playback

  • rapid timeline navigation

  • waveform redraw during playback

Observed audio issues before workaround:

  • random clicks/pops during playback

  • short audio interruptions

  • inconsistent realtime responsiveness

  • spikes during playback of faded or transposed audio

  • temporary playback instability when toggling cycle mode

  • occasional lag when looping sections repeatedly

Workaround discovered:
Disabling GPU Acceleration in Cubase significantly improved realtime audio stability.

Additionally, increasing the Disk Preload Buffer from 2 seconds to 4 seconds further improved playback consistency and reduced audio interruptions.

After these changes:

  • realtime audio became substantially more stable

  • playback of faded/transposed audio improved

  • cycle playback became more reliable

  • fewer interruptions occurred during editing/navigation

However, disabling GPU Acceleration introduced GUI rendering problems.

Observed GUI issues with GPU Acceleration OFF:

  • GUI regions fail to redraw correctly

  • portions of the interface remain visually blank until hovered

  • waveform rendering becomes sluggish/choppy

  • fullscreen toggling forces GUI refresh

  • mixer/editor redraw responsiveness decreases

  • scrolling waveform display becomes less smooth

  • moving the mouse over affected regions repaints them correctly

Additional observations:

  • issue appears cosmetic only

  • no audible degradation after workaround

  • exports render correctly

  • audio engine stability improves despite GUI regressions

Behaviour appears related to:

  • GUI redraw/compositor invalidation

  • Apple Silicon/macOS graphics scheduling

  • Retina/high refresh display rendering interaction

Additional Settings :

  • fixed 60Hz refresh rate

  • HDR disabled

  • Stage Manager disabled

  • “Displays have separate Spaces” disabled

  • Default display scaling instead of “More Space”

GPU Acceleration ON:

  • smoother GUI behavior

  • better waveform rendering

  • fewer redraw glitches
    BUT:

  • worse realtime audio stability

  • more frequent audio interruptions during fades/transposed playback/editing operations

Request:
Please investigate the interaction between Cubase 15’s GPU acceleration/rendering pipeline and realtime audio processing on Apple Silicon Macs.

The current behavior forces a tradeoff between:

  1. stable realtime audio processing
    and

  2. stable GUI rendering

on a high-performance Apple Silicon system where both should ideally function correctly simultaneously.

2

I’d like to chime in here and bring this two more focus in the forum .

I get pops on stopping and starting and it’s really bad for my hearing fatigue and quite a few people have actually mentioned it.

I’m rather positive it’s a cubase issue and a lot of people just haven’t noticed it that much because of the kind of work they’re doing.

I’ve tried using different audio interfaces and get the same results, myself and the original poster both have pretty high-end systems with very capable audio interfaces and are still getting the pops.

3

I’ve seen redraw problems in the latest version 15.0.30 too. On the left side the fader area is gone in the inspector.