FYI: CPU and Power Settings tools for Windows

Cubase
1

I know that Cubase has a power plan available, but for those who want more control or simply want to be able to look at some of the CPU and power settings in more detail, I thought I’d put my experience of some utilities out there up on the forum.

For many years I have been using BitSum’s (https://bitsum.com) Process Lasso and ParkControl utilities on my PCs :

  • Process Lasso provides some great control (ProBalance to make sure no app takes over completely) but also allows detailed control over core allocation, including for Intel P and E cores as well as automatic switching of power plans, etc. — with ProBalance and other advanced features off, this can be a useful and very lightweight tool to help automatically control the Windows Power plan and other key behaviours (like core allocation especially in Intel Hybrid CPUs) for any audio software.
  • ParkControl allows easy access to Core Parking and Freq Scaling settings and is seen as a supplementary tool for Process Lasso.

I have also just come across CoderBag’s Quick CPU (https://www.coderbag.com) utility which also looks very useful:

  • Quick CPU allows control over CPU Parking, Freq Scaling and loads more of the CPU settings, and also allows very fine-grained setting (and comparison) of Windows Power Plans, which I have found useful to understand what the various power plans are doing.

Personally, I now have Process Lasso installed and running in the background to switch power plans from my default state of Balanced when I am making music (which, in performance mode, also switches of Freq Scaling) plus Quick CPU installed (but not running in the background) to check on/change power settings including CPU Parking.

I hope this is useful for others on the forum.

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I use Process Lsaso plus Audiogridder (in the same PC) for some CPU hungry tracks…

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Had not heard of Audiogridder - looks an interesting option as well. Are you saying you “split” the CPU up to the DAW and specific plugins using Audiogridder inside the same machine, as that’s a really imaginative way of doing things. How does it do with regards to latency for the separated plugins?

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it adds a little latency per instance but I get a 5 to 10% less CPU load.
Spikes and playback stops are due to a “heavy” track more than to a hundred “light” tracks and I add it on that heavy track.
I´m not an AD expert, I just use it.

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