UR242 Audio Performance degrading

Steinberg Hardware UR Series
1

This is probably related to my Windows 11 upgraded to 25H2 OR Cubase upgraded to version 15 (but less likely, I think): audio performance is OK when I start Windows (I use 384 samples, Standard with ASIO Guard) but then gradually degrades with system runtime and is typically unusable after one day. It does not matter if I use Cubase or any other application, when Windows is just started I can see the audio performance peak moving between 0 and 25% about every second, when the system has been running, even idle, for 20 hours the peak is moving between 75 and 100%.

I think 8 years is a good lifetime for the UR242 and it is still USB-2 so probably time to spend about 200€ for something new. However, AI tells me that my USB configuration is the problem, that the Windows upgrade revealed a problem that was already there, that my Dell monitor KVM probably is the culprit. Sounds wise as always but I am unsure if any of this is worth digging deeper. AI advises to buy a cheap USB-2 hub and connect the UR242, sounds good but may be just AI chat.

So if anyone has seen similar effects and has any clue I would be most thankful.

2

I found out that the latest (automatically installed) NVIDIA driver for my older graphic card - maybe in connection with a Windows 11 25H2 update - is the culprit. I used Resplendence Software - LatencyMon: suitability checker for real-time audio and other tasks to diagnose. The tool produces a crash window per second on my system, but the results are still usable after stopping the run.

I installed version 537.58 NVIDIA drivers from 2023 (and switched to Studio Drivers) and have far less audio performance problems now. Still, the NVIDIA driver is producing the highest DPC latency, so I think about getting a new graphics card instead of a new audio interface.

I guess NVIDIA is using AI all over now and I fear we are facing enormous software quality problems in the coming years. This will go on until AI is actually smarter than people or people have become so dumb that they don’t notice anyway.