Windows 7 Aero causing problems...

I’ve had Aero turned off since I built this machine.
Nuendo 6.05+Nek 6
i7, 3770k
12gb
Gigabyte z77 motherboard.
Using the on board graphics Intel HD4000.
Unfortunately still running Windows 7 in 32bit.
Performance has been solid.

I read somewhere, maybe even here, that Aero should be turned on.
That Nuendo 6 would be more efficient etc…
That this was just some old hangover from the XP, Vista, days or something.
So today I turned it on and did a session.
Ooops!

The mix console suddenly started behaving erratically.
The Stereo out wouldn’t stay on the right even though I had it set to in the zones.
I had to save and re-save the configuration multiple times to get it to stick.
It still had issues though.
Then the cursor…I zoomed in to cut some coughing out of the vocal track and
the cursor went haywire. Flickering and disappearing.
The whole program seemed to slow down for a fraction of a second.

So, I immediately closed up shop and turned that poop back off.
Back to smooth operation, the mixer behaving and the cursor
is smooth even when zoomed in full with auto scroll on.
Yeah Windows looks like its from the stone age but performance is key.

I’m not sure what to make of this as I haven’t had most of the problems
everyone seems to be complaining about until I turned Aero on.
There is a lot of info out there on this topic, but I think it comes down to
each system(DAW) being different and so while one setting might work for some…
It could easily be the cause of many problems for others.

So there it is…one person’s experience.

The cursor problem is an existing issue on some systems, and (assuming it is the same - likely is), it isn’t related to Aero, or anything specific I and others have been able to narrow down.

I don’t think the mixer problem is related to Aero either as I’ve run Nuendo with both Aero on and off, and there was no difference in performance.

The cursor problem is an existing issue on some systems, and (assuming it is the same - likely is), it isn’t related to Aero, or anything specific I and others have been able to narrow down.

I don’t think the mixer problem is related to Aero either as I’ve run Nuendo with both Aero on and off, and there was no difference in performance.

Well that is great for you, and maybe some others, but that is not the case here.
In one sentence you say that it isn’t related, but then you admit you have no idea what it is.
As I said, it comes down to each system being unique.

Not trying to start a whole thing here…
just wanted to let people know what I experienced first hand earlier today.

What you say applies to some.
Some, but not all.

According to my current tests, Aero or not will not make a big difference for Nuendo/Cubase, however if you’re running some third party plugins (like Waves,…) the embedded graphic chip will be most probably not powerful enough as these plugins require more graphic power that you’ll only find in a specific Open GL card or Cuda compatible graphic card.

My 2 cents.

No, I am saying that Aero has nothing to do with the cursor glitching/flickering, and it is a known issue. Hopefully it will be fixed at some point. It is simply only visible on some systems (there are sound technical reasons why that I won’t go into). I and others did quite a few tests and found no correlation between graphics cards, Aero/Windows settings, 3D/OpenGL settings, monitor refresh rates (though refresh rates can make it appear worse on some systems, which is a distinct clue), etc. The cursor in N6 seems to be using a different/slower redraw approach than N5.x and I can make it “alias” at certain playback speeds/tempi - especially when zoomed in. Restarting Nuendo will often make the problem temporarily go away.

The same is true for changing various graphics settings in the system - and there is no specific pattern to it - just whatever causes Nuendo to reset it’s redraw for the cursor and, as I would describe it, get back in sync so it isn’t aliasing anymore. But it is always temporary here, and the glitching always returns. Some people never or rarely see it, but given the conditions, that isn’t surprising. Nuendo 5.5’s cursor works perfectly fine on my system and every other that sees this glitching cursor in Nuendo 6.

All to say, there is no “system related” fix for this. Steinberg will have to address it. And hopefully they can and will because it is very annoying here.

I am only trying to keep you from heading on a wild goose chase for problems that either you can’t fix on your end (cursor glitching), or do need to be narrowed down further (mixer) as it may also be a known problem, or one that needs to be reported - but neither has anything to do with Aero itself. The mixer problem is likely a coincidence of something else you did when opening that session. There are graphic anomalies with the mixer GUI, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you stumbled on one, but there aren’t any related to Aero that I know of.