Severe FPS Drops in Cubase 14 When Playing Audio (No Issues in Cubase 12)

Hi everyone,

I recently upgraded from Cubase 12 to Cubase 14, and I’m experiencing major frame rate drops whenever I play audio. The UI becomes sluggish, and the FPS drops significantly. This never happened in Cubase 12, which was extremely stable on my system.

System Specs:
• CPU: Intel i7-10700K
• RAM: 32GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB
• OS: Windows 10
• Cubase Version: Cubase 14 Pro (latest update)

Troubleshooting Steps I’ve Tried:

:white_check_mark: Increased buffer size
:white_check_mark: Enabled/disabled ASIO Guard
:white_check_mark: Forced Cubase to use GPU in Windows graphics settings
:white_check_mark: Updated GPU drivers
:white_check_mark: Set Cubase to “High Performance” in Windows graphics settings
:white_check_mark: Disabled Windows Game Mode & background recording
:white_check_mark: Tried running Cubase on a single monitor
:white_check_mark: Disabled HiDPI in Cubase preferences
:white_check_mark: Tested with different audio drivers (ASIO4ALL, built-in interface, etc.)
:white_check_mark: Tested multiple projects, both with and without 3rd-party plugins

Despite these steps, the FPS drops continue whenever audio is playing. CPU usage remains low, so this doesn’t seem to be a performance bottleneck.

Questions:
• Is there a way to force GPU acceleration in Cubase 14?
• Has anyone else experienced UI lag when playing audio?
• Any additional troubleshooting tips?

Since Cubase 12 was rock solid for me, I’m wondering if this is a Cubase 14-specific issue. Any help would be appreciated!