Cubase is unusable on one specific computer

Cubase
1

I’ve written about this before but for some reason Cubase is completely unusable on one of my machines. Here are the specs:

i7 6700K CPU
Gygabite GA-Z170X-G3 motherboard
64gb memory
Nvidia GTX 750TI
Intel onboard graphics
Avid Eleven Rack
Steinberg UR22
Windows 10

The main issue is that as soon as I press play on any Cubase project the ASIO meter goes nuts with spikes and dropouts. This behavior is isolated to Cubase only. I also use Studio One, Pro Tools and Reaper, and they all work flawlessly, they are all up to date but even the older versions worked great.

I have tried disabling hyper threading, all configurations of ASIO guard, all sample rates/buffer combinations, varying project sizes, turning on/off drivers and components, installing Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, using Cubase 7.5, 8.5 and 9. Cubase 7.5 has the least amount of these issues, but it’s still not stable. I also tried with and without the Nvidia card, and I tied the updated Nvidia drivers, with no difference in performance. These issues are the same regardless of which audio interface I use.

In Studio One and Reaper I made sure to include the Steinberg plugins just so the playing field is level. In my test project Reaper was steady at 26%, S1 at 40% and Cubase was around 50% when it wasn’t spiking all over the place.

The only thing that helps is installing MacOS on this machine, which I would be ok with if Cubase’s video performance in MacOS was acceptable to any degree.

I honestly have no clue whatsoever what is wrong with this combination of hardware and Cubase, I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s unusable, there’s no way to record any audio without constant dropouts, playback is not smooth and it’s just riddled with problems. I’ve been trying to figure this out for a year now while using my backup DAW as my main, but it’s time I figured this out once and for all. :frowning:

2

I’m no computer expert so I hope you get some further assist and feedback but have you tried these suggestions:

  • delete the audio driver off of the graphics card.
  • delete the HD audio driver from the motherboard. Leave the regular driver, whatever it’s called, for typical PC sounds.
  • disable the Intel Graphics function on the motherboard.

I had to do the first two items to get my system to work good. The third item I listed did not do much for me but, I figured I list it for your consideration.

Regards. :sunglasses:

3

Thanks, but I already tried those things on all the cards I tested (GTX 550, 650, 750ti, 970, 980) with the same results. I have only ever tried onboard graphics and nvidia cards, maybe I will try an AMD card in there and see what happens.

4

So I found an old ATI HD5450 in my closet, popped it into the machine, not a single dropout or spike yet. All my other DAWs use Nvidia cards and they work fine, so I wonder what it is about this specific combination of hardware that did it.

I have a few other HD5xxx and HD6xxx cards from years ago, I might pop them into my other daws and see how they work…