Ok, that’s more like I expected. The unknown change to the Power Mgmt was the cause of that. Just to be sure, went back to Cubase project to double-check glitches… still there. So it’s not a power mgmt issue.
Cubase is setting an own power management scheme on launch.
Latest LatencyMon… This time just left the PC with DAW on and example project which has the glitches. Power mode is as expected, i.e. Steinberg @st10ss
dxgkrnl.sys? I see a few references to this on the forum but no real answers.
@st10ss …the Processes and Services lists are huge and not easy to screenshot, anything specific for me to focus on?
As a quick aside - I was originally inspired to get that exact AMD Ryzen because of this video https://youtu.be/AV3KkmX6Mb4?t=894 with Cubase SuperUser Dom. Unfortunately I am not getting anything like the performance he is showing in his stress test… he’s on 32 buffer and I’m struggling in 1024! 
I use a Ryzen 7 5700G, and I’m on 64 samples.
dxgkrnl.sys is the DirectX driver for graphics cards.
I too invested heavily in a supposed all-singing-all-dancing PC earlier this year - sadly you’ll need to be patient to get the best out of it. Some good advice across this forum is already available, so dig in and be prepared for a bumpy ride!
First off I concur with what has ben said about using the basic Nvidia drivers, and not the full suite. On the Nvidia control panel be sure to set Power Management Mode to ‘Prefer Maximum Performance’ as per this screenshot:
Also, I have found Windows 11 to be far superior to 10 (Home version is better than Pro IMHO). But I wouldn’t update … better to wipe the PC and install 11 from scratch.
Another thing I found was that my DDR5 memory was too fast for my SSD. I replaced the SSD with a Samsung 980 PRO which runs at 7,000 MB/s Read, and 5,000 MB/s Write. That solved many of my problems straight away, so the original SSD is now in a Ugreen enclosure as my second/backup disk.
As far as LatencyMon is concerned, don’t be too much of a slave to it. I still get bits of spikes on the results and it tells me that I may have problems with real time audio, but in practice my Scarlett 8i6 runs at 128 samples and records audio without a hitch, and I can drop the samples down further to reduce latency, but the Scarlett runs at extremely low latency anyway.
Of course be aware of high CPU usage plugins like some of the Waves stuff.
For me I would be looking to wipe the machine completely, install with Win 11 Home and then make sure the hardware drivers are up to date. On my PC Solutions setup there is a firmware update facility for the ASUS mobo- should be in the ASUS documentation. Then once you are completely happy that LatencyMon is giving reasonable results on a virgin machine, install the stock Cubase (I have stayed on 12.0.6 as it has stabilized things for me) without changing the preferences file and begin with some basic tests using the stock plugins.
Sadly more powerful isn’t always best when it comes to Cubase. CB doesn’t utilize the full power of your PC, and the need to have a decent graphics card properly setup is something that most of us have found by trial, error, and reading this forum. That is not something that has been documented properly by Steinberg.
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Thanks for the comprehensive answer, @manassas77
In order.
NVIDIA - Yep, I have only the Studio drivers installed - and following your suggestion I have changed the power management in Nvidia control panel.
Win11 - I’m beginning to think a full clean install of Win11 is the way to go… a complete reset!
SSD - My C: drive is an Samsung 980 Pro NVMe M2 1TB
Waves - Funnily enough, that was one of the first things I checked/removed! 
Cubase - Having previously been a Cakewalk user (since Win3.1!) I changed to Cubase a couple of years ago when I upgraded my system and I do like it a lot. However, I keep coming across references to its problematic nature when it comes to ongoing development, like video cards, etc.
So, the big reinstall…
If I go down that route, I’m guessing there are a few considerations when it comes to Cubase licensing etc. Will Steinberg still recognise the machine as the original machine where Cubase was installed before Win11 upgrade? …or do I need to “unlicense” first?
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far - Much appreciated. Whatever I find is the answer I will return the favour to this forum and write up a solution post.
In the meantime, please keep any and all ideas coming! 
CB is definitely problematic, but worth the effort. When it runs smoothly I don’t think anything can beat it.
Following the recommendations of others on this board during the version 12 tribulations I tried the evaluation version of Reaper, which seems to be leaner, and less of a problem child. But once you have invested your time and effort into learning a DAW, going back to basics means more time learning and less time creating. So CB for all its faults it is. (I jumped ship from Ableton some years back).
Oh, and I may be speaking out of turn, but I didn’t have any issues with rebuilding my PC and having Cubase recognise it as the only machine it was running on.
My Steinberg account just shows the one activation, so I’m guessing the authorisation recognises the Mobo? (More knowledgeable forumistas will be able to chime in here).
I do love it! I’m a MIDI/plugin/synth guy rather than recording ‘real’ instruments and Cubase is truly great for that kind of work.
Good to know.
At the moment I’m busy hunting down all my user presets for all my VSTs before I go for the clean sweep and new installation of Win11. That is, unless someone wants to persuade me otherwise …in other words, they have the solution to my original issue!
I’m still going to probably sway toward a clean install, because the search for user presets has shown how much junk is left from legacy VSTs or stuff I’d forgotten I’d installed.
Watch this space 
Update… SUCCESS! 
It took nearly 25 hours at my PC but the glitch/performance problem is now fixed. As promised, here are the steps I took, the first two being very important.
Summary - I started afresh by doing a clean installation of Windows 11 …NOT an upgrade. I wanted the PC to be swept clean of everything (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/cleaninstall) and then reinstalled everything I wanted to keep.
1 - Backup everything on a separate device, drive or on the cloud. Just in case!
2 - I spent several hours collating and storing the presets from my many plugins (essentially I went searching for ‘presets’ folders). When doing the same, places to check include:
- C:\Users\yourusername\Documents - Developers like Native Instruments store them here. You will also find a Steinberg folder with Cubase presets like FX Chain Presets.
- C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming - This is a hidden folder so you will need to switch on visibility first of hidden items first. In this folder you will find a lot of developers including more Steinberg stuff (like Cubase Windows layout, Staff Presets). There’s a folder in there called Audio which Plugin Alliance uses for Kiive Xtressor. Vienna Ensemble Pro uses Roaming as well for presets.
- C:\Users\Public\Documents for Process Audio
- C:\Users\Public\Waves Audio …for, you guessed it, Waves! - Although, I later took the opportunity to NOT reinstall many of them. Rumours of clunky coding guided me! And besides, if I didn’t use them, or any other plugin for that matter, why keep them!?
IMPORTANT: To make this easy as possible to restore later I saved all of the presets using the same directory structure as the original. For example: Backup Drive\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg
3 - If you want to make sure you know ALL of the programs you had before you upgraded to Windows 11, use something like UninstallView to get a list. It’s free. Similarly, if you don’t have everything sync’d with the cloud, export any bookmark lists etc from your browser.
4 - Remove any hardware you don’t use within your PC. I did this to minimise any clashes between stuff. I had a Blackmagic video card and SoundBlaster ZXr sound card, neither of which I needed anymore, so removed them.
5 - Get a list of all plugins in Cubase by downloading a Plugin Report from the Cubase Plugin Manager (see bottom of the plugin manager screen for link to click)
6 - Install Win11 …while you wait, decide what you want to reinstall from Programs and Plugin lists. I got rid of a lot of junk I had completely forgotten about.
7 - Once you know you are up and running with the basics, install your audio device then Cubase. If all ok, load your plugins.
REMEMBER to note down all of the various locations plugins are stored, you will need this next…
8 - Add these locations to the Cubase Plugin Manager and click refresh icon (top of window). If, like me, you use Vienna Ensemble Pro too, you will need to do the same for that.
9 - Cross your fingers and load the previously glitchy project… 
WAHOOOOO! …Instead of my performance meter maxing out, it now sits between 25-50%. Glitches have gone and I am a very happy man!
10 - Now you know all ok, restore your previously saved presets.
Hope this helps anyone in a similar position. Thanks again to everyone who pitched in with suggestions on this thread. Much appreciated! 
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You are really telling us afterward that you have a Blackmagic card and a Soundblaster card installed?
Now I bet that these two were the origin of your problems.
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Do I detect a hint of rebuke @st10ss? 
They were in the PC but not installed …no drivers, etc.
I’m fine on my desktop PC (Nvidia GT730), but with my laptop I have to disable the Nvidia 3060 graphics card and just use the basic AMD Radeon card. When I do that, all my glitching disappears.
Quick follow-up… All working great still, so very happy.
I had one small latency issue that sounded like double-triggering when running a parallel compression track for my kick. It was fixed by boosting the buffer size, however I wanted to see if there were any tweaks I was missing that could resolve this without increasing the buffer.
Well, thank YouTube! It’s great when you ‘teach’ it to give you the content you want/need …and bingo, a great video suggestion came my way. Having checked the comments for feedback on the ideas presented, all seemed well, so gave the suggestions a whirl.
Result: Issue fixed
So here are a couple of extras that you might find useful if optimising your system:
7 Crucial Tips to Optimize your PC For Music Production in 2023
And a follow-up with a way to make certain settings ‘stick’:
4 Hidden PC Settings that Boost DAW and OBS Performance
Note: With the first video, there is some debate about the background processes suggestion, but the rest seems pretty good content. I chose not to follow that particular suggestion. The rest worked for me.
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With my previous studio notebook I needed to do the same: to disable the nVidia and to work with the integrated graphic card.
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