Why Cubase 7 is aprox 20% more hungry than Cubase 6.5?

Hello, i want to ask why Cubase 7 is aprox 20% more CPU hungry than Cubase 6.5?. I have some projects that have been made with Cubase 6.5 with 80% CPU load. But when i open the same projects, on the same computer, in Cubase 7, i can’t play them, because CPU load goes to 100% ! This is ridiculous. Steinberg, please, provide better CPU usage optimisations for Cubase 7. I don’t want to buy new CPU every time i upgrade my Cubase.

The performance from 6.5 to 7 is about the same for me.

Mac or PC?

PC. win 7 64bit, RME HDSPe audiointerface. Cubase 6.5.4 x64 and Cub 7.01 x64

The fact it was hungrier for CPU power was stated in some information you should have read before purchase.
I did…I knew what Problems I was potentially letting myself in for and decided the gains were worth it…
I have to say I kinda prefer 6.5
The mixer in 7 looks out of place, the whole thi looks a little messy.

I can’t confirm this. I tested this in very detail. Cubase 7 does not generally use more cpu power.

Sounds like I was wise to stay where I am (6.5.3) until things improve.

nope im finding c7 is using less cpu , in 6.5 if i was using 60 % of the cpu i’ll open up the same project in c7 and im using 40% which is a remarkable difference and this is with every project with the same buffer sizes so i can’t reproduce your issues either sorry

These problems are normally associated with windows services, and if an internet is involved, the network.

What services and/or programs are starting with the Operating System?

Are Background Services enabled in Advanced System Settings?

I am on Mac (10.8.2).

Would like to know from other mac users how they experience any cpu performance difference between C6 and C7.

The tests I have done on PC (see specs below) with same project. 15 instances of a VSTi. With ASIO Gaurd ON in Cubase7.

Cubase 6.5
CPU = 15%
ASIO Performance meter = 12% (approx)


Cubase 7
CPU = 18%
ASIO Performance meter = <20% (approx)



I made a little test. Just running the same song in 7.01 and 6.5. ASIO Guard on. Started the song in C7.

In C6 the cpu usage went up from 255% to 265%
The numper of threads used went down from 121 to 96.
The RAM usage went down from 1.25 gig to 1.0.

So C7 uses a little less CPU. Is better at hyper threading. And uses a little more RAM.

I read the result as good news for Mac users. And C 7.01 is rock solid.

I’m not sure if Cubase 7 actually uses more CPU or is just better at reporting the actual usage (now that it has an average and a peak bar) but I felt this was the case too. It feels like my system has a little less headroom than it did before. That said, it is pretty solid.

Also I was forced to do a complete reinstall today as my setup had some other issues so I took the opportunity to go all out 64-bit. Will be interesting to see how it performs on a fresh install :slight_smile:

I love Cubase 7 and would never go back to an earlier version but I have to say it is more CPU hungry, certainly projects on the edge in 6.5 are now over the edge in 7

My experience on a Mac is similar to Pete from Sweden CB7 is less CPU hungry and slightly more memory hungry. Perhaps it is the Scandinavian climate.

I can confirm the observation that ASIO Performance with C7 is clearly worse than with C6.5.

We are running 2 different systems for live Performance mixing “on edge”, as Keith99 would put it… both Windows 64 bit, rme HDSPe Hardware. The Projects are huge, lowest latency (64 samples / 5.4ms measured roundtrip latency) is critical for us, so bottom line is a hell of a cpu load.

With C 6.5, those machines run at their limit but rock solid. Never a crack (and we can’t afford any).

WIth 7.0 and 7.0.1, we cannot run those Projects anymore. It is not so much about what the cpu meter reads. Actually, cpu usage in Windows task manager is even a bit lower somweimes with C7 - but ASIO Performance is definitely worse. We get cracks immediately with C7.

These findings are Independent of ASIO Guard on/off, and are the same under W7 and W8 on our machines. We tested both.

Regards, Mikael

I’m running 7.01 here and it is running more stable for me than 6.5 did. A few songs that were pushing the limit on 6.5 are now running below 50% with asio guard on. One thing to make sure of is that you have asio guard enabled in the plug in information. I noticed some plugins were not automatically check marked for asio guard enabled.

confirm: cubase 7.0.1 has a worse performance of cubase 6.5! Steinberg engineers should work on this very important point! I have a powerful computer! What should I use for cubase 7.0.1??

Do you have background services configured for the workstation?

I don’t think backround services are important since performance reduce happens only during changing daw version. Here is clear example of what i’m talking about:


This are screenshots of the same project opened in Cubase 6.5.4 x64 and then in cubase 7.0.1 x64

This project was made one week ago in Cubase 6.5.4.

My system: Windows 7 Pro x64, Intel Core i7 2700K 16 gb RAM, 512 Intel SSD drive, RME HDSPe audiointerface.
Plugins used in the project: Waves Mercury r9.8, T-Racks CS Grand 4.0, Izotope Stutter, Lexicon Total Bundle, Voxengo Gliss EQ, DMGAudio Equality and Compassion (all plugins are x64 bit version).

I definitly want steinberg to comment this. I want to know if they are going to change this situation with CPU overload. Looks like MAC users have different experinece, so this performance drop may be only PC specific. So, waiting for answers.

As said before Steinberg already stated that C7 uses more resources than C6…