This has come up a lot here over the years, so I know this is not exactly news. But I figured my experience and “solution” was worth mentioning. First, I’m on Windows 11 23H2 with an intel 13900k, 32 GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 4070ti. I’m using an RME Digiface USB with a Babyface Pro.
The issue I was having with Cubase 13 (and now 14) is that I would get spikes on the performance meter, my project would freeze during playback (no controls would work - could not pause or stop playback), audio would then distort and then drop out entirely, one of my monitors would go black, and then it would all come back after about 10-20 seconds or so. That, or I’d have to terminate the process to get back to my desktop. I don’t recall when this started happening, but it was at least a few months ago.
My monitor going black is what clued me into the graphics driver being the culprit. Having seen Nvidia mentioned here countless times also helped.
My solution was to force Cubase to use the iGPU. This can be done in the windows graphics settings if you have a compatible processor. The reason I’m bringing this up now is that I had to do it again with Cubase 14 and I figured it was worth sharing in case anyone else had this problem.
Additionally, Nvidia released their official “app” yesterday, which is the successor to Geforce experience. It had been in beta and I noticed it was hooking into Cubase. There’s no reason for this app to interface with Cubase in any way whatsoever. I posted about this in the Nvidia subreddit and one of the Nvidia reps offered to help fix this issue in the next release. I’m hoping this gets them to take a look at what’s going on over there. While I never had a problem until somewhat recently, I’ve seen posts here warning about Nvidia for several years.
That only works when there aren’t a lot of visually motion intensive plugins, which can overwhelm the CPU resident GPU.
Arguably the better solution is to uninstall NVIDIA Gameforce and/or whatever their new app is called and just use the bare Studio drivers for NVIDIA cards. This has been mentioned numerous times in this forum and appears to have been the perfectly great solution for many users.
I had specifically avoided the Geforce Experience app for several years. Had no need for it, but the new app does some things I like. Rumor is the new app is not only set to replace Geforce Experience, but also the Nvidia control panel. In other words, uninstalling that app may not be optional in the near future for people with Nvidia cards.
I’ve been chatting with the Nvidia rep and will be doing some troubleshooting with and without the app, as well as with and without the studio drivers. I’m not holding my breath for a major breakthrough, but I appreciate someone over there taking an interest in this.
If that gets me nowhere, I don’t have any visually motion intensive plugins, so if the iGPU gets me where I need to be, then I’m content. I am not a professional in the audio space and I expect there are other Cubase users who also use their PC to play games.
You’re right and I’m sure I have more of them. But I’m not using them. It’s been over a decade since I recorded and mixed my old band. I tinker a lot still, but most of the time I’m just playing guitar over simple drums, bass, and the occasional synth/piano parts after the kids go to bed. I could probably get by with something simpler, but Cubase is what I know and that’s enough to stick with it.
I just posted on the VI Control forum that I had to do this very thing today, only I had to do it because Kontakt 7 flickers when the Nvidia GPU is used.
UPDATE: The latest Studio driver that just got released (Nov 2024 update - 566.14) has resolved the flicker issue in Kontakt 7 in Windows! Now I can revert back to normal.
Also, to the OP, open the new Nvidia App, then go to the settings tab on the bottom left, then uncheck “Nvidia Overlay” if you don’t use it. Then it won’t load and interfere when you launch Cubase.
Nvidia drivers seem to be a crap-shoot. I updated to 566.14 as you did. the latency as reported by LatencyMon becomes WAY worse - I reverted back to the 555.99 driver which works best for me, and is quite acceptable. All newer drivers 56* are all a bit worse than 555.99 on my PC but 566.14 is a lot worse.
I don’t have Kontakt so cannot comment on flicker - I certainly have not got that elsewhere that I have noticed.
Of course YMMV on different machines than mine
Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 22631 (x64)
XPS 8960, Dell Inc.
BIOS 2.12.0
GenuineIntel 13th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-13700
Logical processors: 24
I’ve only recently added an NVIDA card but so far so good – no audio issues. I’m still on the 565.90 Studio driver and have no flickering in Kontakt 7.
A utility I found critically useful is DDU. Disconnect from the internet, boot into safe mode, run DDU, reboot and install only the graphics driver.
