Pigments and CPU use
-
- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 690 posts since 31 May, 2002 from chez moi
A program like "Frozana" playing three notes takes my cpu to 35%, but it drops 5% when I close the GUI. My computer is about 1 year old, it's a laptop I got through work. I'm not in a financial position to get a new computer, but maybe I can in a year or year and a half.
- KVRAF
- 7691 posts since 11 Jun, 2006
switch to synths like Synth1 and Charlatan with outboard effects. get "close" to the same sounds, way less CPU tax. FK all new VSTi's
HW SYNTHS [KORG T2EX - AKAI AX80 - YAMAHA SY77 - ENSONIQ VFX]
HW MODULES [OBi M1000 - ROLAND MKS-50 - ROLAND JV880 - KURZ 1000PX]
SW [CHARLATAN - OBXD - OXE - ELEKTRO - MICROTERA - M1 - SURGE - RMiV]
DAW [ENERGY XT2/1U RACK WINXP / MAUDIO 1010LT PCI]
HW MODULES [OBi M1000 - ROLAND MKS-50 - ROLAND JV880 - KURZ 1000PX]
SW [CHARLATAN - OBXD - OXE - ELEKTRO - MICROTERA - M1 - SURGE - RMiV]
DAW [ENERGY XT2/1U RACK WINXP / MAUDIO 1010LT PCI]
- Banned
- 3564 posts since 22 Aug, 2019
I think it would take way too much effort to get close to those sounds with simple synths like those and effects, in many cases you just can't:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0g83Aqd7Fs
-
- KVRAF
- 4465 posts since 27 Jul, 2004
I have to quote myself as I wrote without having it tested myself...Trancit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:41 pmNo, imho that´s why developers should start to use more the GPU rendering for intense animated GUIs instead of letting the CPU do all of the work!!!tony10000 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:36 pmInteresting...that is why some plugins allow you to adjust the graphics refresh rate.ENV1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:11 pm+100
Ive lost count of how many plugins ive encountered which would take an insane amout of CPU (50% and more) while the UI was open whereas the same plugin with the same settings and same everything would use almost nothing (maybe 2-3%) when the UI was closed.
Its the first thing i always check when a plugin constantly has inexplicably high CPU usage because in so many cases its really just the UI that is consuming all the CPU.
1. Pigments is not as hungry as some wrote here and I got a weak i5-7600...
2. Pigments GUI is mainly rendered on the GPU and not on the CPU... with only Reaper GUI shown my GPU shows a load of 3%... with Pigments GUI open the GPU load goes up to 20%...
If I hold 3 notes on the bespoke "5ths Sweep" with the GUI open, Windows shows a CPU load of 9-10%...
With Pigments GUI closed the CPU load goes down to 6-7%... not that much of a difference...
What I dislike on Pigments is that it take quite long to load... I hate when plugins doing this... everything more than 3 seconds is imho inacceptable or at least needs heavily to be improved
-
- Banned
- 1646 posts since 4 Aug, 2017
The 7th Gen i5 is not that bad in terms of specs:Trancit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 10:18 pmI have to quote myself as I wrote without having it tested myself...Trancit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:41 pmNo, imho that´s why developers should start to use more the GPU rendering for intense animated GUIs instead of letting the CPU do all of the work!!!tony10000 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:36 pmInteresting...that is why some plugins allow you to adjust the graphics refresh rate.ENV1 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:11 pm+100
Ive lost count of how many plugins ive encountered which would take an insane amout of CPU (50% and more) while the UI was open whereas the same plugin with the same settings and same everything would use almost nothing (maybe 2-3%) when the UI was closed.
Its the first thing i always check when a plugin constantly has inexplicably high CPU usage because in so many cases its really just the UI that is consuming all the CPU.
1. Pigments is not as hungry as some wrote here and I got a weak i5-7600...
2. Pigments GUI is mainly rendered on the GPU and not on the CPU... with only Reaper GUI shown my GPU shows a load of 3%... with Pigments GUI open the GPU load goes up to 20%...
If I hold 3 notes on the bespoke "5ths Sweep" with the GUI open, Windows shows a CPU load of 9-10%...
With Pigments GUI closed the CPU load goes down to 6-7%... not that much of a difference...
What I dislike on Pigments is that it take quite long to load... I hate when plugins doing this... everything more than 3 seconds is imho inacceptable or at least needs heavily to be improved
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cp ... Hz&id=2920
It also depends on the DAW. I get lower CPU %ages in FLS than Ableton. I also heard Reaper is even more efficent.
-
- KVRian
- 680 posts since 18 Sep, 2010
Things to also check on any laptop is whether power-saving modes might be enabled, reducing performance.
Also, since integrated GPUs (which might or might not be the case here) share memory, what other background processes might be competing for that (as well as CPU).
Also, since integrated GPUs (which might or might not be the case here) share memory, what other background processes might be competing for that (as well as CPU).
-
- KVRian
- 537 posts since 23 Jan, 2008 from Hamburg, Germany
Another hint: If you have both internal and dedicated GPUs (like found in may laptops) make sure that the DAW is set to use the dedicated GPU in the control panel of your graphics card (NVIDIA control panel or the AMD equivalent).
-
- KVRAF
- 4465 posts since 27 Jul, 2004
-
- KVRian
- 680 posts since 18 Sep, 2010
Much like a dedicated GPU, a non-integrated (for laptops, probably USB) sound card (if you are not already using one) might also help offload CPU usage (plus, of course, improve sound quality).
- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
That is a myth, the sound card does not do any processing, whereas the GPU does that heavily. Only badly written drivers can tax the CPU...
The only sound cards that do processing are UAD or specialized signal processors, but hey do that only for their own plugins...
There are attempts to load some audio processing into GPUs though...
As a side note, some external sound interfaces do have internal signal processing, but that is only available inside the card itself for mixdown. My UltraLite mk3 has some internal effects, but nobody would use those in a DAW setting ever...
-
- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 690 posts since 31 May, 2002 from chez moi
I checked our CPU and mine looks pretty bad. Comparing the 7600 vs my 8250 on CPU Benchmark rates the 7600 55 out of 1206 and the 8250 is 275 out of 1206. I don't have any audio benchmarks but it looks like long-term I should get a better computer.Trancit wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2020 10:18 pm
I have to quote myself as I wrote without having it tested myself...
1. Pigments is not as hungry as some wrote here and I got a weak i5-7600...
2. Pigments GUI is mainly rendered on the GPU and not on the CPU... with only Reaper GUI shown my GPU shows a load of 3%... with Pigments GUI open the GPU load goes up to 20%...
If I hold 3 notes on the bespoke "5ths Sweep" with the GUI open, Windows shows a CPU load of 9-10%...
With Pigments GUI closed the CPU load goes down to 6-7%... not that much of a difference...
What I dislike on Pigments is that it take quite long to load... I hate when plugins doing this... everything more than 3 seconds is imho inacceptable or at least needs heavily to be improved
-
- KVRer
- 23 posts since 27 Apr, 2015
Excuse me for asking, not behind my laptop right now, but should I then be looking for general software settings, or can I target the DAW specifically in the NVIDIA control panel?Benutzername wrote: ↑Wed Jan 29, 2020 11:02 am Another hint: If you have both internal and dedicated GPUs (like found in may laptops) make sure that the DAW is set to use the dedicated GPU in the control panel of your graphics card (NVIDIA control panel or the AMD equivalent).
Kind regards, Psync