Cubase 5 slower on Windows 7 than on WinXP?

Hi!
Here’s the deal: I upgraded WinXP to Windows 7 because I aim to buy Cubase 6. But at the moment I’m still working in Cubase 5. Is it normal that my projects run slower than on XP? I installed both the 32bit and the 64bit version of Cubase (so it’s clear that I installed Windows 7 64bit). Inside the 32bit Cubase the projects cannot run properly with the same buffer size as before. And inside Cubase 64bit it’s way slower. I have to raise the buffers to an unacceptable amount. Anyone else experienced this?
My machine: Core 2 Quad, 4x2,4 GHz, 4GB memory (before on XP I had only 2 GB installed), RME Fireface 800
Any suggestions on improving the speed?
I also recognized that the mouse pointer feels somehow delayed when I start Cubase, even when there’s no project open.
Any ideas?
Thank you!

Sounds like a driver issue. Make double sure all updated.

I downloaded the newest driver of every piece of hardware that is installed. That shouldn’t be a problem.
Is it possible that it needs more ressources to run Cubase 5 32bit on Windows 7 64bit than Cubase 5 on WinXP (both 32bit)?

After you upgraded to Win7 did you do any of the common tweaks to your system to get it to run better? I somewhat discovered the same thing. I loaded old projects and had all kind of cpu issues. I would have to turn off a lot of the compressors and stuff to get it to play back smoothly. I just recorded a new project this week with C5 and Win7 and it seems to run better. It must not like the older projects. BTW I also discovered that 64 bit Cubase wasn’t working well with my system. It runs much better with C5 32 Bit. My system is roughly the same as yours. AMD 64 x2 processor with 4GB of ram.
All is good now.

I would really like to know those tweaks. I’m new to Win7…uses WinXP for about 1000 years. Could you give me some advice on how to tweak the system?

This is the site I used to optimize Windows 7 x64.
http://tweakhound.com/windows7/index.htm

Windows 7 loads faster (est 45 Sec) and runs Cubase faster than XP did, once I got all the tweaks figured out. But it does take some time and preparation. I’m running all x64 and haven’t looked back.

Cheers!

Okay, Thanks. I looked into it and tried the tips I think that would work for me. There’s still no speed improvement. But I also wonder why the 64bit Cubase version is so much slower than the 32bit version. Is this depending on the plugins involved? For example: The two projects I use contain guitar amp and cabinet simulations (both 32bit). Do 32bit plugins slow 64bit Cubase down?

Just to show you…please always look to the VST meter in the lower left corner. All screenshots were made at buffer size of 128 samples.
These screenshots are from the Cubase 5 64bit version:

(all channels frozen or 32bit plugins on unfrozen channels deactivated)

(two instanced activated…VST meter is way higher!)

(another two instances activated and one Roomworks SE…at this level I get around one drop out within 3 seconds all the time)

This screenshot is from the same project from within Cubase 5 32bit:

(there are a lot more activated instances but I get the same amount of drop outs like on the screenshot above…under WinXP this project ran with 128 samples buffer size without any drop outs)

Okay…any suggestions?

Hey coder2k,
Yes, I at first had a similar problem using BFD2, looks like pretty much the same issue as yours. (I run at 256 samples personally but that shouldn’t make any difference here).

The one thing that solved it for me is moving from the VST Bridge to JBridge for my 32 bit plugs. Before moving over, the ASIO meter would be spastic between something like 50 and 80%, with many dropouts. After moving over much better performance, and the ASIO meter was quite calm, even at 256 samples.

To give you a reference based upon your pictures… if superior drummer performs similar to BFD2… your ASIO meter should drop anywhere from 10 to 25% after moving to jbridge, and any crazy jumping around of it would be reduced by more than 80%. I ended up removing the VSTBridgeAPP completely from the components folder, just to make sure it wasn’t running at all. (You can cut and paste to another location to store it, and it doesn’t harm the running of Cubase).

Two other major things regarding Windows 7. Make sure the UAD is set it’s lowest setting. “Never (prompt?)”, and disable as many network services as you can (this last took some investigating for me).

What do you mean by “UAD”?
I gonna have to re-install Win7 today, because the installation is somehow messed up. What’s your advice? Should I install Cubase 32bit (and hope that it will work as fast as before on WinXP) or should I install Cubase 64bit and use JBridge (and hope that it will work as fast as before on WinXP)?

Sorry, I was thinking music and made a typo. It is User Account Control (UAC) that I was thinking about.

I am not typically one to jump upon the latest technology without finding out if it is stable by other users first. I only went all x64 after looking around and making sure there were good user reviews about it. So when I installed Windows 7 (x64) and Cubase 5 (x64) I could be fairly confident that it was going to be stable.

Assuming your computer is up to spec, I would personally install Windows 7 (x64) for sure. At that point, you can either install Cubase (x86) or (x64) and either one will work well. Again I would choose 64 Bit and use JBridge. This is the way I have done it myself. But it did take a while to find all the nooks and crannies that needed tweaking to make everything run perfectly. You would have to do this on Win 7 no matter what though.

I have attached a document that I recently wrote up for another member here. It gives a rough outline on how to install and make everything stable.

Also, would you mind listing your computer Hardware (like CPU, Ram, etc?). I just want to make sure nothing else is giving you problems on the install.
Daw_vs_Comp.doc (81.5 KB)

My specs: Intel Core 2 Quad (4x2.4 GHz), 4GB DDR2 PC800 RAM, Gigabyte EP35-DS3 Mainboard, some Geforce graphics card. I already have Win7 64bit installed, so that’s not the problem. But I gonna re-install it because I messed up some program installations.

Ok. I just installed Cubase 64bit, Superior Drummer, JBridge and the old 32bit plugins. Now at least the 64bit version seems to run as fast as the 32bit version before (which I didn’t install this time). JBridge made my day!
Just a little sad that it’s not as fast as on WinXP before. But I’m gonna try your tuning tips and gonne check the net if I find more about tweaking Win7. Thanks for your help!

It’s good that you got it all working. Even after I had a stable system, I was able to drop CPU usage another 5 - 10% after further tuning. I’d wager you can sneak a similar amount out of yours. The main difference for me is that I have a 6 Core and 12 Gigs of Ram, so that could also help. I think Win 7 can take better advantage of more power. It seems to distribute power more efficiently than XP did. (But my old XP system (and Cubase SX3) was a solid performer too.

I’ve pretty much gone through most of Win 7 by this time, so if you have any specific questions just let me know.

Cheers!

Coder: although it’s not directly related to your ASIO meter, I found that once I went to Win 7 64bit, it helped a great deal to increase from 4Gb to 8GB of RAM. That’s really the chief reason to go to 64-bit – the larger amount of RAM it can address.

I’ve read various “benchmark” articles on the web that asserted that Win 7 was “slower” than XP. I think there may be something to this. But speed isn’t my main concern, it’s headroom – the amount and number of vsti’s I can have running simultaneously in a given project. Migrating to Win 7 64bit and adding some RAM has really helped me in this regard. I’ve also installed Cubase 64-bit but have hesitated to start using it, but recently i decided to leave C5 32bit behind and start using C5 64bit exclusively. BTW, I do use JBridge, which seems to work perfectly