i9 9900k and Nuendo - any troubles?

Nuendo
1

Hey guys,

Im considering a CPU for my new studio PC. at the point Im trying to figure out what is better for me between i7 9700k or the i9 9900k.
I wanted to know if anyone here uses the i9 (16 logical cores) and had any hyperthreading issues in any way?
any other problems with Nuendo?

I know multi-logical cores were a big issue with spikes and bad performance. What is the situation at the moment?

thnx :wink:

2

I’ve got a 9900k and it works incredibly well with Cubase 10, certainly in part due to the improved multi-thread handling introduced with Cubase 10. Unfortunately, Nuendo does not YET have those engine improvements, so some tweaks will likely need to be applied to make it run better. I suggest you reach out to Fabio (from Steinberg) for specific tips. He’s very helpful.

For now, I don’t bother running Nuendo on this 9900k machine yet, since Nuendo 8 is running okay on my previous 10-core (20-thread) Xeon, which has some tweaks applied based on recommendations from Fabio. I don’t need to rock the boat in my workflow, so when I need Nuendo, I can fire it up on that machine. I decided that for now, I’ll wait for Nuendo 9 to run it on the 9900k, since Nuendo 9 will include the engine improvements from Cubase 10, from what I understand, and these issues can finally fade into the past (hopefully). Nuendo 9 should theoretically be in here in the next few months, cross fingers.

BTW, the 9900k is easily more powerful than my older 10-core. I think the 9900k hits the sweet spot right now between single- and multi-thread workloads. Sort of magical at its price point TBH. However, like I mentioned, Nuendo 8 does NOT have the improved engine yet, and I just did a clean install and I have no desire to play around with Nuendo 8 yet on this system (and/or apply any tweaks) since Cubase 10 is so buttery smooth right now, plus I also use other DAWs which are working beautifully as well.

Good luck! I think the 9900k is the no-brainer superbly balanced DAW system right now. I think anything more pushes the point of diminishing returns, where you can more wisely invest your resources into other system components (more RAM, SSDs, etc.) and studio gear IMO. At least for now, early 2019.

3

Working brilliantly here

4

good news. but can you elaborate about what could/should happened with i9 9900 and the Nuendo 8? Is this about the hyperthreading thing?

Robin, are you using the hyperthreading and all works well?

thnx!

5

I’m running nuendo and cubase 10

I’m finding at low buffer sizes (32 samples) cubase 10 still runs better with lower ASIO load with hyperthreading off (8086k)

6

So with Windows and Cubase 9.5 and Nuendo 8, there is a problem with 14+ logical cores with MMCSS management, and it can cause dropouts in certain conditions. That means any machine with an Intel 8-core CPU or better (Intel 8-core CPUs such as the 9900k obviously have 16 logical cores with hyperthreading enabled), you will have these potential problems. So in order for Cubase 9.5 (and earlier) and Nuendo 8 (and earlier) to run well on those machines, there are some specific tweaks that you can get from Fabio (of Steinberg). There are actually a few other approaches that I don’t personally recommend from my own testing… I have found Fabio’s tweaks to be the best… but you could, for example, not use Fabio’s tweaks and just disable hyperthreading, or disable cores, etc., etc… but Fabio has another method that has been better in my testing.

Now with Cubase 10, they introduced a NEW MMCSS thread management system that has been quite good in my testing and it does NOT require any of the old tweaks (and it does NOT require disabling any of your cores, it does NOT require disabling hyperthreading, etc…). In my experience, the new Cubase 10 engine runs noticeably better on both my 10-core (20 logical) and 8-core (16 logical) systems. Even at really low latencies. I’ve tested Cubase 10 with RME at lowest settings with all cores enabled, hyperthreading enabled on my 9900k for example, and it works buttery smooth, with VERY heavy load and massive projects.

So if someone is getting great performance with Nuendo 8 on a 9900k, then:

  1. they are NOT using Nuendo 8 on projects that create the conditions where the MMCSS thread problems will cause dropouts, for some reason… but I believe they will eventually run into the problem under high load. I’ve tested this extensively with my 10-core system and definitely needed help from Fabio to get Nuendo running optimally…

OR

  1. they have disabled hyperthreading

OR

  1. they have disabled one or more cores

OR

  1. they have applied some tweaks (preferably from Fabio!)

OR

  1. they have not noticed dropouts yet (see reason #1)

OR

  1. there is some other mystery going on and who knows, they might have found a magic unicorn configuration and that would be wonderful for all of us

In any case, Nuendo 9 will have the updated MMCSS thread management of Cubase 10, and this problem will hopefully be put to rest. I understand that the engine improvements are a work in progress, so we’ll see continued improvements with thread management in future updates… but Cubase 10/Nuendo 9 are a good step forward.

Hope that helps.

For more info, check out this thread and reach out to Fabio, who seems to be the gateway at Steinberg for this info: