PLEASE optimize the graphics!!!
I think this is a big problem, almost a bug.
***Or add setting that will switch UI drawings into mode as in old versions, that do not do unneeded load. *** also can add two modes: a light mode and completely zero-load (turn off “beautiful”). PLEASE!!!
This not only affects the energy consumption and responsiveness of the OS, but also creates an excessive load on the CPU by causing a real-time peaks, and crackles, especially when recording at 192kHz.
noticed a long time ago that with each update, the load increases without reason. But since it was gradually, I thought that there was the influence of OS/drivers, etc.
But after ver14 is come out, i worked in parallel in ver12, so I was able to finally confirm that it was cubase problem, no other parts influence, it just works worse every time… Old Cubase ver, or Reaper (new also), the load on CPU and GPU is almost zero! Absolute silence!
ver14 is the worst update in performance.
Thats why i did this test yesterday, I attach the tests screenshots just for an example, but I think everything is clear even without explanations…
Cant add images, try zip; An error occurred: Sorry, new users can only put one embedded media item in a post.
Just in case, some answers:
I am qualified user. Win10x64, Same project, no plugins, just recording, AsioGuard - Disabled, last drivers, engine 32/64 bits change nothing, project bits 32/64 also influence. ultra power plan+custom one is used.
I found the reason/“solution”, but it still need some fix!
Problem:
in the nvidia panel settings there is a choice for a specific program to choose:
integrated graphics or nvidia. if nvidia is selected, there is also option to limit fps, which cannot be done for integrated graphics.
so I reduce the load by lock fps to 24.
or selecting integrated graphics only.
the result is almost the same, but for nvidia+24FPS the peaks jump a little less than iGPU, but not too much difference, just little bit stable.
But in nvidia only case, we get another problem that the plugins do not use any GPU, and begin to draw the interface on the CPU, which loads it as hell ..
the problem is it seems that cubase ignores the IDID display FPS settings, and tries to draw as much as possible…in my case, if it takes info from the hardware report, it is 144hz…which is a huge number for NOT games…
if only integrated graphics is selected, the CPU/GPU load drops, but the fps is still high, so the peaks are not very stable, but it is already much better. So since fps limitation is only available for nvidia, please add to the Cubase settings choice MaxFrameRate: 24/48/50/60/OFF
this will help solve the problem of system overload!
P.S. please don’t think that the 24 setting is too small!!!
it’s more than enough for a DAW, we don’t play counter-strike here. in the end, everyone will choose the value they like.
VST has a bad OpenGL implementation and it’s been like that for ages…
I think it will never be fixed, otherwise this would have been fixed long ago.
The problem is that OpenGL for VST has been implemented to run on the CPU only, and not the GPU, which is a bit shocking in my opinion since OpenGL has been mainly designed for GPUs, in order to relax the CPU. But again this is the choice of the VST developers, and there is probably a reason behind this choice.
It is another proof of maintaining ancient code and ancient technologies in an era where even iGPUs are able to render video games at 60 fps without the need of a dedicated GPU. But rendering everything on the CPU? Looks like a formidable idea, straight out of the early 2000’s.
I’ve talked about the subject a while ago in another topic but I can’t find it anymore, maybe it has been deleted. Basically I have suggested to implement OpenGL on the GPU the proper way, with an additional framerate settings in Cubase such as “30, 60, 75, 120, 144, 165 fps”, so people can keep their GPU temperature and power consumption a bit lower. There is no need for keeping an option to toggle between CPU and GPU.
However, your observation with the iGPU is intriguing, it means that when Cubase is set to run on the iGPU, it actually properly uses the iGPU and doesn’t render on the CPU anymore. Which then brings this question : why wouldn’t that work with my fancy RTX 5080? Sometimes I can’t sleep at night because of that.
Nowadays all iGPUs are fast enough for this task. This is not Cyberpunk 2077, this is Cubase with flat and fixed colors and a few animated elements and plugin interfaces. This should not take up to 20% of CPU usage just for rendering the graphics. Any entry-level graphics card would use 1% of their processing power for this same task if OpenGL was properly implemented, while completely freeing up the CPU so that it isn’t loaded with stuff it should not have to deal with. (well, it would still, but with a much lower impact)
@Louis_R hey bro, did you at least open my screenshots from the first post? Or read last paragraph? it looks like - not because you are talking about completely different things here.
we are NOT talking about VST here, I am NOT using any VST in this test.
I also do not use VST in Reaper, but even if i use, Reaper stay silent, it not that problem what you talking about. this is a topic about how the Cubase UI engine works with the GPU/monitor refresh-rate/EDID. NOT VST!
this is an empty project with a start recording. I think you should study the topic again, and from a new angle reconsider what I wrote.
It looks so that no one even tried to open screenshots here because I UPL it in zip… it’s terrible..
As soon as the restriction is removed, I will change the post and UPL it without an archive.
You mention Reaper, so I’m assuming Windows. But what GPU? CPU?
YMMV, as always, and I’m not denying your issues. However…
Never in 33 years have I had issues with Cubase graphics, except:
Cubase 13’s initial release. Majority of users had one issue or another with this release (white windows, mixer channels missing, etc).
And that’s it. From Atari, Windows 95 until now, various PCs, desktops and laptops.
Hardly anyone else has reported general gpu issues.
As an aside, I don’t understand the FPS business. Unless it doesn’t mean frames per second. Other than video games and video players, windows are not redrawn in frames, but pixel by pixel, usually from the bottom up.
It’s easy enough to get the required number of posts, just post “I agree” in half a dozen topics.
No one likes unzipping files from strangers.
So, after I limit 24 FPS for cubase or set only iGPU
in the NVIDIA panel, I get cpu/gpu load bit little more, but approximately equal to versions as 8.0-9.0 in screenshots.
This is better, but not very stable peaks, and still much more load than Reaper.
The reaper does silent as hell, and it does not cares which GPU is chosen.
Have you set the Power Management Mode in Nvidia´s control panel to prefer maximum performance? That took away my problems with GPU (Win11 Pro latest, AMD 7900x, RTX3050)
Have you set the power scheme in high performance (or ultimate performance) in windows control panel?
Nvidia drivers from older gpu (1050 ti, 1650) dont go well with cubase 12 and on. i had to switch to an intel arc gpu (you can also change to a radeon one) to get better results, check latencymon software to test if your system is having interrupts from the gpu driver, if so, install a debloated nvidia studio driver, there are more tweaks but this is the most important i believe. i hope this helps!
Take it down a notch “bro”. I apologize if my post sounded like if I was a bit angry, but it was nothing against you. The whole Cubase program is literally based on VST code, it’s like a giant modular plugin where every component like volume faders, panners, etc, is a VST module. So is the graphical aspect.
For example I have a project which takes around 2% CPU at idle. When I open SuperVision and set it to Spectrogram, Cubase.exe CPU usage goes up to 10%, and this is even with the transport on Stop position, SuperVision being the only plugin in the session. As soon as I close the SuperVision window, CPU goes down to 2% again. And in both cases, GPU load does not change, because everything is drawn by the CPU anyway.
Same test with the Performance Meter : from the 2% CPU at idle; when the Performance Meter is open, the CPU for Cubase goes to 4%, so what the Performance Meter shows is already biased by the fact that CPU usage increases when it is open…
So to summarize all of this, the more animated assets are displayed by Cubase, the more CPU it will take, because it does not use the GPU. The GPU only refreshes the final frame, and its usage may increase a little when there is more happening on the screen because there is more pixels to change, otherwise when the image is static there is nothing to change and it reuses the data. In any case, Cubase, or VST (this is the same to me, yes), is in no way GPU accelerated and this is the issue.
As of limiting the FPS in the driver will reduce the peaks on the CPU, yes it will, because the graphics counterpart tells the CPU to only pre-render this amount of frames per second.
15~20% GPU usage may only be 15~20% of a very low clock (150 MHz for example), so if your GPU was running at max clock it will be only 1% or less. This alone proves that Cubase isn’t GPU accelerated on Windows. (however it is on Mac) (this linked topic also tells that Cubase on Windows is locked to 60 FPS, which is also what I have noticed. Cubase is not even using the Desktop’s refresh rate, nor is VRR aware (VRR= variable refresh rate). Instead it is locked to 60, that’s why is looks all stuttery when the screen has a different refresh rate than that.)
(@Googly_Smythe@Norbury_Brook The OP is talking about CPU peaks, as interpreted by Cubase’s Performance Meter, not about GPU usage.)
I have downloaded your screenshots, and indeed we can clearly see that starting from Cubase 12, the CPU usage increases noticeably. Not only that, but it runs on Core 0 and 1, as opposed to Core 0 and 5 prior to version 12. This is problematic because Core 0 and 1 is where most of the system runs, and in this case there is less headroom for Cubase on that core. This explains why the CPU graphs are a bit higher.
Moreover, your screenshots from Cubase 14 show that ASIO-Guard is disabled, which explains why the CPU load is tremendously higher on these two cores compared to Cubase 12. I bet that if you enable it, it will be similar to Cubase 12.
sorry, my CPU meter is consistent and stable, no peaks. The screen shot was a mix I’d finished with some heavy CPU hitting Acustica plugins across the busses etc and it was running at 128 sample buffer as well.
If the OP is NOT using ASIO guard then it’s pointless discussion TBH.
The Title says GPU, there’s a lot of talk about nvidia drivers, and - FPS? My AMD utility only displays FPS figures when I play video games. And I never heard of a GPU telling the CPU what to draw. This whole thread makes no sense.
Just like in video games, all programs work the same way. It’s the CPU that prepares what the GPU has to render, then sends it to the GPU for rendering, and this obviously requires some CPU usage because all of this is executed by the graphics API which runs on the CPU. Basically, when you set an FPS limit in the GPU driver, it just tells the API to only prepare this set amount of frames per second, so the CPU has to work less harder.
In case of Nvidia, it is known that in some cases the driver interferes with real-time audio because it interrupts the CPU too often. Also, when using a dedicated graphics card, the route it takes is more complex because it has to use PCI, whereas an iGPU is directly inside the CPU chip and can communicate directly with it, which explains why the OP has better CPU performance when using the iGPU.
This makes total sense to me.
Indeed.
But regardless, both of you are using an AMD graphics card which is more stable than Nvidia when it comes to real-time audio performance. I personally have an Nvidia GPU and I am also experiencing CPU peaks just like the OP describes. The only way to get rid of that is to not use an Nvidia GPU.
FOR ALL PLEASE STOP OFFTOP! @steve@Armand
this topic is NOT about AMD gpu, so dont post your amd screenshot and say “ah im never have problems again and again”, im happy for you but it simply rude denial of the problem and prevents from getting real answers and solutions! + I just get lost in tons of text and can’t answer those who answer on the real topic!
P/S. don’t forget to compare and recalculate your GPU performance before posting. If you see 40% on my screenshots but you have a high-end GPU like 4080/5090, of course you will have less %.
I exactly have this debloated drivers installed. But It doesn’t matter, as for version too. during the test I updated to the latest version - and it didn’t change anything.
sorry, I use a translator, I didn’t study english, so don’t pay attention to how it looks from an emotional point of view. we dont use “bro” as something bad, it good meaning.
thank you. this is interesting information, but is there any confirmation? are you a professional programmer or have you do reverse source code?
although, even this is interesting, it is not important, because it does not matter how something is written if we users cannot change it, so this topic is aimed at developers to ask for a fix.
if this is true, then it is disgusting…my monitor physically outputs 144Hz, but EDID - it is set to 48Hz. if we set 60 or 144Hz - it’s even worse. useless extra load as if we are trying to win a professional match in counter strike…idiocy
you are wrong because ALL tests were done with GUARD disabled. this is stated in my first message and last paragraph.
The main problem here is the GPU load, not the CPU, cpu is second. .since we are talking about recording here, I turn it off because I don’t want any additional latency, but the guard has no impact on the main(GPU) problem..
