before spending 2k (!!) on a thunderbolt interface
As long as it’s not an Analog Devices interface – those are not a great match for modern DAWs in my experience.
I ended up spending almost 1k on a RME Babyface, and it’s very good – almost tailor made for my particular need. (It replaced an original, version 1, UR-22) So I can recommend RME, at least if you’re on Windows.
Curious - did you disable cpu p-states, speedstep, etc? The stuff that dynamically clocks the cpu & controls power? I would suggest disabling all of it at first, testing cubase, then adding back individual BIOS-level CPU management features. I cant tell if you disabled more than hyperthreading.
On my system and on dozens of other similar platforms that I have observed, disabling virtual cores alone no longer stops the issue (it did in C10, 10.5, 11, but not 12) and I’ve had to fully disable all virtual cores, all CPU management features. I almost never see the ASIO overload or actually hear a pop/click anymore. I have not changed my hardware or software environment since cubase 10.5 outside critical windows updates, and the issue changed its behavior on 12, leading me to disable ALL CPU management.
Ive done testing on this issue for 3-4 years now, and I find that I can do ridiculous things with my system without seeing any impact on cubase normally.
Ive purposefully decompressed or compressed 5-20GB archives, run windows updates, run java-based minecraft servers hosting 4-5 clients, maxed out my NIC across the LAN, etc, and cubase is never impacted.
But turning on virtual CPU cores (hyperthreading), enabling CPU power and clock management? That brings the ASIO internal overload and the pops/clicks every time. Ive installed and patched huge video games on this system, for fun, just to challenge this issue, and oddly the ONLY thing that triggers it is CPU management. Years ago I followed my own systems admin philosophy and kept this machine clear of everything but cubase and audio apps just to make sure, but over time I realized the ASIO overload issue has very little to do with anything else on my systems.
Edit: apologies, I could have combined those 2 comments. : /
I studied this topic a bit, and the problem seems to be related to Windows itself (ACPI.sys process in particular, if I read the logs correctly). Even talking with experts, I’m not able to push my DPC latency under 1ms in a totally idle scenario (I used Dpc Latency Checker closing every process possible).
Here are some screenshots:
I also tried to disable hyperthreading and all the stuff: it’s a complex topic and this is the main reason why professionals typically use MacOS instead of Windows. I decided to delegate this stuff being sure that a specific assembled DAW PC would have great performance. I decided to stay with Windows in order to build a powerful computer at a lower cost, but no one told me about this kind of problem.
I also tried Process Lasso (what a great idea to configure CPU affinity for specific processes!) but it didn’t work and the performances are the same. I believe that being the system itself there’s no solution.
I’ll try to focus on creativity but a bit sad about these results…
We were a Windows based studio from the time Windows 95 in 1995 was released until 2007 when Apple released the first Mac Pro based on Intel processors. We believed that building our own computers instead of buying Macs would result in less expense and equal or better performance.
To make a long story short, we eventually had to admit to ourselves that we were incorrect. We spent way too much time upgrading PC hardware and components and dealing with incompatibilities and operating system (and sub-systems) issues.
In 2007 we moved to Mac Pros and never looked back. In our experience, we spend very little time dealing with computer issues with Macs…they just work.
I realize that it is possible to build a reliable PC/Windows based workstation but in our experience this usually requires that someone in the studio be a computer jockey who has the knowledge, skill, desire and time to spend on tweaking and optimizing the hardware/software system every time anything changes (OS updates, driver updates, software changes, hardware changes, etc.).
So for our two studios, we are Mac based and having no performance issues with Cubase Pro 12 or any other software that we own.
We all would need a DAOS (Dedicated Audio Operating System) 
Do you absolutely need to be operating at 96Khz? 96Khz at 128 samples is going to put a huge load on any system
Well, that depends. I had too much trouble exactly the way around. Apple is no better than Microsoft, they deploy updates, make massive changes in the underlying OS (e.g. kernel components, etc.) and I had a case where a hardware defect in an iMac caused my hard disk to be corrupted.
So I removed every single Apple device and now everything is PC and Windows based (well, except some NAS and Server systems, running Linux). I do not enthusiastically load each and every update, instead I simply wait until it is more settled.
Since the switch I had no trouble anymore, everything works perfectly fine. So there is no single perfect solution, in the current world of software you can get all kinds of trouble in all systems.
I’ve removed some off-topic posts. Talking about DAW demographics is probably not going to help anyone run Cubase at low latencies. I think.
@mmoreo ACPI relates to motherboard components. It might help to update your BIOS (or downgrade it, please check if there’s any known issues with this motherboard) and disabling unnecessary components. It might also be worth checking how your motherboard performs with default BIOS settings.
I assume that you’ve already downloaded the latest drivers for your motherboard components. Please also make sure to enable the Steinberg Audio Power Scheme in Cubase’s Studio Setup window.
I have also a lot of experience with Macs, I had to switch to a PC quite some time ago as they came up at par in power to Macs and the price of a PC v Mac was a no brainer…
I also worked with various Macs over the years as a sound engineer, and all of them had many issues, like PCs can have.
They are both machines, they both crash, they both have a shelf-life.
However, I must admit, one has to be careful when building a PC. I heard nightmare stories for home build systems which were terrible to build due to incompatibility of motherboards with the CPU, RAM etc.
I always buy a PC from a trusty outlet.
So far, bar the issues that Cubase never seems to shake off, I am all good and super happy with how my PCs have performed.
With all due respect, if it were a Windows issue, why did previous versions of Cubase not have this problem? It’s also non-existent in the 3 other DAWs I’ve tested (hope that’s allowed to say!)
