New system latency

Cubase
#1

Happy Holidays to all!!!
I just put together a new system after the crash of the previous system. New motherboard, new processor, new windows, new cables, new power supply, new RAM, new video card, new SSD’s. Also new audio interface - thunderbolt 3 (uad apollo x4). Everything works beautifully. However, there is one thing that worries me. Latency. With such processor performance (the whole system is detailed below) with such ssd memory and a new audio interface, I should not have any problems with this. Unfortunately, I have to work at 18.662 ms (512) so that the audio performance does not start to go crazy. But even such a large latency is not ideal because they also appear to be distorted. I do not understand this situation. Do you have any suggestions?
Here is my system:

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Gigabyte Z390 Designare-CF
Intel® Core™ i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor
BIOS Version American Megatrends Inc. F7,
SMBIOS Version 3.1
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
RAM DDR4 64 GB
System HD - Samsung SSD 970 EVO 500GB
Radeon RX 570
Universal Audio Apollo X4
Cubase Pro 10.5.0

#2

Is memory XMP profile engaged in the BIOS ?
Windows power settings set to full power ?

#3

What type of distortion?
My computer issues have usually centered around PCI latency, where a fast video card hogs the PCI bus, usually due to a self serving fast video driver. That causes audio skipping because the audio driver never gets enough time on the PCI bus to unload its buffer.
Note that audio latency and PCI latency are two different entities.
I usually set my audio latency quite high, so I never accidentally
play against a delayed track. With the Apollo, you should be able to monitor
with no latency anyway, using it like an analog console.

#4

Sounds like you have chosen the wrong driver for your soundcard (Apollo). Do you use the dedicated Apollo driver, or a generic one?

#5

If you’ve got an i9 why do you need the Radeon RX 570 ?
I have an i7 and use the onboard graphics, i have no problems with latency.
Sometimes you use resources to drive additional cards.
Take the Radeon RX 570 out of the machine and try using the i9 onboard graphics.
The only thing i don’t know about is the Universal Audio Apollo X4 have you been in touch with the manufacturer ?

#6

i assume you build your own pc? then you must now, download the chipset drivers, and other drivers for your motherboard, even if there dates seem to be outdated.

i big system isn’t a garantue for smooth operation. i see a lot of people with specs that are great, and have big problems. i am still on a i7 6700k, and it is stable. with a 1060 6gb by the way, that is helpfull for graphics, it can interfere, but that is a driver thing, it is stable, in my system,

and yes powerplan, overclocking, c states in bios off, etc. the usual suspects.

ony one SSD? that souldn’t be a problem, you mention it is your system drive, i asume you have more drivers.

there is a lot going around when handling real-time audio and the way a pc handles data.

your virus scanner can also be a problem (once it was a problem on my system, the last thing i tried, now it is first thing i will try, deinstall it… and if that is the case use another one, if you don’t have one, windows defender will automatically run, by the way).

try LatencyMon. sometimes you can pinpoint the problem.