The Spikes & Dropouts question of the day...

Hi,
I’ve this problem since I’ve updated my PC…
I’ve read a lot about the question of real time performance. So I’ve disabled networks, motherboard audio and several background softwares.

I’ve checked the latency with LatencyMon which tells me that my PC is suitable for audio… (despite some hard page faults sometimes).

But if I set my audio buffer to 128 or even 256 it’s a nightmare of spikes… So I’ve put it to 2048 since above 256 the delay between hitting a note and hearing the sound is too noticeable for my taste…
I’ve noticed that I get more spikes when I open the Mixer Window or when I use my mouse to move a plugins from a place to another of my screen. As I use the motherboard onboard graphics with 4K resolution I wonder if it’s not the reason of my troubles. I know that a 2D soft as C8 doesn’t need that much graphic power but is the graphics capabilities of my motherboard enough for 4K resolution through a display port??

Thanks.

Windows 10 - Asus pro gamming Z170 - I7 6700k - 32Go Ram - SSD for the OS and soft & HDD for sound banks - RME FireFace - C8.5 Pro

Cubase does make use of your GPU, so you’re very likely to benefit a bit from buying a graphics card. Most recent 2GB cards should be enough for 4k if you don’t do gaming. AMD cards seem to have better DPC latency.

In the meanwhile you can try disabling graphics acceleration for Cubase using a little registry modification someone posted here. That may help.

Hmm, I find this quite strange though and would like to know the reason your having dropouts.

I have almost the same specs as you - apart from using Win 7 pro 64 and an ancient RME hammerfall card - and I get no dropouts down to 64 or 32 buffer sizes. I normally run at 256 or 128 for CPU’s sake though but have not had dropouts even with lower sizes. I do notice some increase on the Cubase ASIO meter when mousing around but again nothing substantial enough to cause dropouts. I’m intrigued to know more.

Thanks for your answers.

Indeed, I think part of the problem could be the lack of graphics card. So, I’ll consider buying an AMD one suitable for a 4K monitor… have you any suggestion?

To be more specific, with a 128 buffer the sound is unbearable. But it’s even worse when I move stuff on screen or if I’m on a busy window like the mixer for instance.

Here is my exact configuration : UAD Quad Core PCIe / TC PowerCore / RME fireface 802 USB / MOTU 828 mk2 (ADAT through RME), I’ve disabled the FW Card on my PC /


PC ACPI avec processeur x64
Système d’exploitation
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Internet Explorer
11.306.10586.0
Edge
25.10586.0.0

DirectX
DirectX 12.0

Nom du système
STUDIO

Nom de l’utilisateur
Florent

Domaine de connexion
STUDIO

Date / Heure
2016-08-02 / 08:44

Carte mère:
Type de processeur
QuadCore Intel Core i7-6700K, 4533 MHz (44 x 103)
Nom de la carte mère
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming (3 PCI-E x1, 3 PCI-E x16, 1 M.2, 4 DDR4 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN)
Chipset de la carte mère
Intel Sunrise Point Z170, Intel Skylake-S
Mémoire système
32645 Mo (DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM)

DIMM1: Corsair CMK32GX4M4A2400C16
8 Go DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM (16-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (15-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (14-14-14-35 @ 1037 MHz) (13-13-13-32 @ 962 MHz) (12-12-12-30 @ 888 MHz) (11-11-11-27 @ 814 MHz) (10-10-10-25 @ 740 MHz) (9-9-9-22 @ 666 MHz)
DIMM2: Corsair CMK32GX4M4A2400C16
8 Go DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM (16-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (15-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (14-14-14-35 @ 1037 MHz) (13-13-13-32 @ 962 MHz) (12-12-12-30 @ 888 MHz) (11-11-11-27 @ 814 MHz) (10-10-10-25 @ 740 MHz) (9-9-9-22 @ 666 MHz)
DIMM3: Corsair CMK32GX4M4A2400C16
8 Go DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM (16-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (15-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (14-14-14-35 @ 1037 MHz) (13-13-13-32 @ 962 MHz) (12-12-12-30 @ 888 MHz) (11-11-11-27 @ 814 MHz) (10-10-10-25 @ 740 MHz) (9-9-9-22 @ 666 MHz)
DIMM4: Corsair CMK32GX4M4A2400C16
8 Go DDR4-2133 DDR4 SDRAM (16-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (15-15-15-36 @ 1066 MHz) (14-14-14-35 @ 1037 MHz) (13-13-13-32 @ 962 MHz) (12-12-12-30 @ 888 MHz) (11-11-11-27 @ 814 MHz) (10-10-10-25 @ 740 MHz) (9-9-9-22 @ 666 MHz)

Type de Bios
AMI (11/16/2015)
Port de communication
Port de communication (COM1)

Moniteur:
Carte vidéo
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 Go)
Carte vidéo
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 Go)
Carte vidéo
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 (1 Go)
Accélérateur 3D
Intel HD Graphics 530
Moniteur
Philips BDM4065 [40" LCD] (260180)

Multimédia:
Carte audio
Intel Skylake HDMI @ Intel Sunrise Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
Carte audio
Realtek ALC1150 @ Intel Sunrise Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller

Stockage:
Contrôleur IDE
Intel(R) 100 Series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
Contrôleur de stockage
Contrôleur des espaces de stockage Microsoft
Contrôleur de stockage
Contrôleur NVM Express standard
Contrôleur de stockage
DAEMON Tools Ultra Virtual SCSI Bus
Disque dur
Generic Storage Device USB Device
Disque dur
HGST HDS724040ALE640 (4 Mo, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)
Disque dur
Kingston DT 101 G2 USB Device (14 Go, USB)
Disque dur
NVMe Samsung SSD 950 (476 Go)
Disque dur
ST31000524AS (1 Mo, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)
Lecteur optique
HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH12LS38 (12x/2x/10x BD-RE)
État des disques durs SMART
OK

Entrée:
Clavier
Périphérique clavier PIH
Souris
Souris HID
Souris
Souris HID


Périphériques:
Imprimante
Fax
Imprimante
Microsoft Print to PDF
imprimante
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Imprimante
Send To OneNote 2016

Contrôleur FireWire
VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Contrôleur USB1
ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 xHCI Controller
Contrôleur USB3
Intel Sunrise Point PCH - USB 3.0 xHCI Controller

Périphérique USB
Concentrateur USB générique

Périphérique USB
Concentrateur USB générique

Périphérique USB
Concentrateur USB générique

Périphérique USB
Concentrateur USB générique

Périphérique USB
Dispositif de stockage de masse USB

Périphérique USB
Dispositif de stockage de masse USB

Périphérique USB
eLicenser

Périphérique USB
iLok

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique d’entrée USB

Périphérique USB
Périphérique USB composite

Périphérique USB
Périphérique USB composite

Périphérique USB
Périphérique USB composite

Périphérique USB
ProdipeMIDIlilo

Périphérique USB
ProdipeMIDIlilo

Périphérique USB
RME Fireface 802

And here is the Latmon report :


CONCLUSION


Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:10:02 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES


The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 869,940675
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 1,977656

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 868,663229
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0,918342

\


REPORTED ISRs


Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 12,106287
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Runtime de l’infrastructure de pilotes en mode noyau, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,000860
Driver with highest ISR total time: HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,001653

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 359252
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

\


REPORTED DPCs


DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 80,413174
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Runtime de l’infrastructure de pilotes en mode noyau, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,013735
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Runtime de l’infrastructure de pilotes en mode noyau, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,030038

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 2020031
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

\


REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS


Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 4312
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 1883
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 383492,626497
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0,077317
Number of processes hit: 27