Windows VS MacOS performance issues

Hey all, so this post might get long so I apologize in advanced. For my studio I use two Windows machines (and a couple macs for pro tools/logic), the specs are as follows:

Computer 1:
Intel i7 5829k 4.2ghz OC
32gb memory
Nvidia GTX 650
Windows 10
Cubase 8.5.2
Interfaces: Avid Eleven Rack
Steinberg UR22


Computer 2:
Intel i7 6700k 4.8ghz OC
64gb memory
Nvidia GTX 750ti
Windows 10
Cubase 8.5.2
Interfaces: Avid Eleven Rack
Steinberg UR22
Roland Fantom G


Computer 1 works flawlessly and is absolutely rock solid. None of my projects ever crack 15% cpu and the real time peak meter stays at around 3-5% with almost no spikes (only when I open another program).

Computer 2 is the problem and it’s unusable. The CPU meter is unstable and generally ranges from 10-50%, the real time peak meter is completely all over the map and peaks constantly. I cannot record audio on this since it drops out, and Cubase is just really unstable. I also use Pro Tools, Studio One and Reaper, and all three of those are solid and stable on this machine, they work great. This is ONLY an issue with Cubase.

The first thing I did was load optimized defaults in my motherboard and undid the overclock which did not help. I then tried changing sample buffer settings which did not help. Then I installed Cubase 7.5.4 and the performance was even worse than Cubase 8. I tried this with all of my audio interfaces at varying sample buffer settings, nothing helps. Again only an issue with Cubase.

The next thing I did was assume that this motherboard is not good for audio production because it might have bad DPC latency, so I ran latency mon and the results were pretty standard with some peaks but my machine came up stable for audio production.

The next thing I did (after going insane) was going all out and turning this into a Hackintosh computer and installing OSX El Capitan on it. That went really well and in OSX Cubase works perfectly. No reasonable project gets the CPU over 15%, the real time peak meter is barely moving between 3-5% and this is at 32samples with all my interfaces. Completely rock solid performance from Cubase. The only issue with OSX (on all my Macs, not just this Hackintosh) is that in Cubase the graphics performance is laggy and choppy compared to Windows, and with the way I work I really need to have fast and smooth graphics for editing (the meters and plugins UIs are all smooth and fast, but the main Cubase edit window is sluggish, as well as the MIDI/drum editors being sluggish).

My only guess at this point is that something about Windows+this PC+Cubase = instability which does not at all affect MacOS+this PC+Cubase. I switched to the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver and performance improves a tiny bit, but that is far from optimal.

So my question is does anyone here have similar issues or can anyone give me some suggestions for things to try on the Windows side to get things running smoothing or on the Mac side to get the graphics moving well? Cubase is by far my favorite DAW and I really dislike working in anything else if I have the choice, so I really would like to keep it on this computer since it’s intended to be my main machine for composing. Thanks for reading and any help is appreciated. :slight_smile:

Try disabling Hyper Threading, I think for most people this isn’t necessary but it seems to help in a few cases. If that doesn’t help you can also disable graphics acceleration for Cubase using a simple registry modification.

I forgot to mention, disabling hyperthreading did not help, and disabling graphics acceleration did not help. I tested the GTX750ti that’s in here, I swapped it out for a GTX650 from my other machine, a GTX970 from another one and I also used the Intel HD530 onboard graphics, all with the same results.