Hi there…
Recently I’ve been changing my PC setup, going from a Q6600, 8gb ram, integrated VIA firewire chipset, to a i7 6700, 16gb ram, Z170 mobo and PCIe TI firewire chipset (which I struggled to find and get to work properly).
I’m still using my Fireface 400 that gave me no problem so far, but I didn’t saw the improvement I expected by changing CPU using Cubase. I get a high load of VST performance even when my CPU is not pushed hard (with my old configuration I noticed my CPU utilization was pretty full when VST performance was reached maximum) and get random dropouts even at high buffer size.
I’m starting to think that could be due to a bad firewire compatibility or connection, since I had problems to get it to work on this new PC. Could this be the reason? Would I get better performance trying a USB sound card?
Also, try checking for driver and bios updates for your motherboard.
For me…
I could not get my old PreSonus Firebox to work with Windows 10. I purchased and installed a PreSonus recommended SIIG NN E20012-S2 FireWire PCI adapter. Unfortunately it still would not work mostly (I think) because PreSonus stopped supporting the Firebox model years ago (no updated driver for Win 10 was issued).
Bottom line for me… I purchased a new USB 3 capable audio interface. Glad I did. I see much better performance due to the new PC specs I have and the new interface.
I had similar problems usimf a focusrite saffire pro 40 with firewire. The new PC operates at very low CPU load (less than 10%) as it is a i7 at 3.3G and with 64 G of RAM. The audio odropouts are almost random and can even appear when the project is sat doing nothng. I dont think they are anything to do with CPU as running task manager or latency monitor doesnt show anything like overload. I think it is a driver issue with cubase as it doesnt happen even with a free demo version of say reaper or reason. I am waiting for input from steinberg as we speak.
I tried today setting up a folder on my C drive (SSD) which is where my programme and VST data is as opposed to my separate audio drive. Do it in the root directory of C, not in the programmes folder as this will cause you to get drive full messages. I ran a project with two instances of Absynth plus FM8 and with waves channel strips an abbey road reverb running. CPU was very low and disc drive activity also. The audio processing bar settles at about 25% up the scale when playing back and recording 3 guitar channels. I left looping on playback as well and over a period of about an hour not a single spike…!!
I have the problem that cpu on PC shows about 13% but cubase gets maxed out and crashes .
Ive had this problem years and have spent weeks months talking to steinberg , The last thing they told me to do was wipe PC and start over , ive not had time to do this as I always have work recording each week. ver 10 11 12 are all the same if anyone things an upgrade will fix it .
