Windows 10 DAW Tweak Guide (Unofficial)

[cclarry 25,445]

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/unofficial-windows-10-audio-workstation-build-and-tweak-guide-part-1/

[cclarry 25,445]

Part 2 is now up

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/unofficial-windows-10-audio-workstation-build-and-tweak-guide-part-2/

[Per Westin 29]

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/unofficial-windows-10-and-11-audio-workstation-build-and-tweak-guide-part-3/

[mcmd 102]

good timing ...I have a new PC that I need to optimize after I install new SSD's and RAM upgrades... 

[TheSteven 2,335]

29 minutes ago, mcmd said:

good timing ...I have a new PC that I need to optimize after I install new SSD's and RAM upgrades... 

or not...
As the 3rd article explains many optimization tweaks are based on XP era hardware.

Edited April 18 by TheSteven

[craigb 4,920]

Just in time for Windows 11!  LOL.  😆

[Paul Young 1,946]

1 hour ago, craigb said:

Just in time for Windows 11!  LOL.  😆

The best way to tweak W11 is install W10 over it.

[Paul Young 1,946]

2 hours ago, TheSteven said:

or not...
As the 3rd article explains many optimization tweaks are based on XP era hardware.

I don't even bother with these "tweaks" anymore.  Most of them are already done.  Most machines don't need this anymore.

[craigb 4,920]

I know I won't be going to Windows 11 for at least a couple of years.  My friend's company decided to make the upgrade last week and now he's lost 1.5 years worth of data!

[Yan Filiatrault 1,127]

9 hours ago, craigb said:

I know I won't be going to Windows 11 for at least a couple of years.  My friend's company decided to make the upgrade last week and now he's lost 1.5 years worth of data!

Not my experience. I upgraded without any kind of problem whatsoever 

[Carl Ewing 168]

10 hours ago, Paul Young said:

I don't even bother with these "tweaks" anymore.  Most of them are already done.  Most machines don't need this anymore.

Yep. Do lots of mobile work on laptop. The only thing I tweaked were power settings - eg. to stop the CPU from throttling or cycling through power states, and a couple USB power settings. Battery / AC power switching is really the only problem I've found. Run 150 track projects no problem now. On my desktop it's maybe 2 tweaks to power settings and it runs 100% without issue. Actually, the Steinberg Power Profile is probably just fine, but I like to customize a little bit because I max overclock my CPU 24/7. Windows 10 is very efficient in my experience.

Edited April 18 by Carl Ewing

[fret_man 305]

1 hour ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

Not my experience. I upgraded without any kind of problem whatsoever 

Same here. It's been a very clean upgrade.

[tom 192]

Any AMD specific tweaks out there? I bought a Dell Aurora with AMD Ryzen 5950x and projects are way more glitchy than my 5 year old Aurora with Intel 8700k. Both overclocked. Really frustrating!

[Carl Ewing 168]

1 hour ago, tom said:

Any AMD specific tweaks out there? I bought a Dell Aurora with AMD Ryzen 5950x and projects are way more glitchy than my 5 year old Aurora with Intel 8700k. Both overclocked. Really frustrating!

Definitely check power settings. Any sort of power switching (i.e. throttling, minimum / maximum power states) will cause tons clicky weirdness as the computer tries follow power states. It's the source of many many problems with both Intel and AMD processors. Even if you're OC'd from the motherboard, the OS still has lots of control over the CPU (and CPU, GPU, etc. power).

Go to Power & Sleep Settings, then to "Related Settings / Additional Power Settings". Switch to "High Performance" and then "Change Plan Settings". Then go to "Change Advanced Power Settings"  and see what's available. You should see a setting for "Processor Power Management", and under that "Minimum" and "Maximum" processor state. Set both to 100% and see if that fixes anything.  (Consumes more power, but ensures CPU is rock steady.)

In the same window you'll see "USB Settings / USB selective suspend". Disable that. Also grab all updates from your MOBO manufacturer. Especially chipsets, BIOS, hard drive controllers, and USB controller drivers.

Also check for power options in your BIOS. Not sure about AMD, but Intel geared motherboards often have a lot of weird power settings. Intel Speed Step, Intel C-States, and other crap that mess with CPU throttling / speed. AMD may have the same. Try to get rid of anything that's messing with CPU speed / power. And check temperatures regularly when doing all this.

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann 653]

For Pro Tools, if you have one of the officially supported machines you can get recommended BIOS settings from the list at https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/compatibility/Pro-Tools-System-Requirements. For other machines you would need to read through the recommended settings for supported machines and translate them to your machine. The TLDR is pretty much what @Carl Ewing mentioned - disable the settings that can mess up the timing (the machine's gaming and overall performance will suffer after turning off all the tweaky boosts that cpu makers use, but your audio will be more stable)

[tom 192]

5 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

Definitely check power settings. Any sort of power switching (i.e. throttling, minimum / maximum power states) will cause tons clicky weirdness as the computer tries follow power states. It's the source of many many problems with both Intel and AMD processors. Even if you're OC'd from the motherboard, the OS still has lots of control over the CPU (and CPU, GPU, etc. power).

Go to Power & Sleep Settings, then to "Related Settings / Additional Power Settings". Switch to "High Performance" and then "Change Plan Settings". Then go to "Change Advanced Power Settings"  and see what's available. You should see a setting for "Processor Power Management", and under that "Minimum" and "Maximum" processor state. Set both to 100% and see if that fixes anything.  (Consumes more power, but ensures CPU is rock steady.)

In the same window you'll see "USB Settings / USB selective suspend". Disable that. Also grab all updates from your MOBO manufacturer. Especially chipsets, BIOS, hard drive controllers, and USB controller drivers.

Also check for power options in your BIOS. Not sure about AMD, but Intel geared motherboards often have a lot of weird power settings. Intel Speed Step, Intel C-States, and other crap that mess with CPU throttling / speed. AMD may have the same. Try to get rid of anything that's messing with CPU speed / power. And check temperatures regularly when doing all this.

Many thanks for all that. Thats actually the tweaks I do, theres a very good list that Acustica put out which I follow:

 

https://confluence.merging.com/display/PUBLICDOC/Windows+10+Configuration

 

I have done these tweaks to both my machines but the AMD is performing worse. I reckon there must be something AMD specific I need to do

[Carl Ewing 168]

9 hours ago, tom said:

Many thanks for all that. Thats actually the tweaks I do, theres a very good list that Acustica put out which I follow:

 

https://confluence.merging.com/display/PUBLICDOC/Windows+10+Configuration

 

I have done these tweaks to both my machines but the AMD is performing worse. I reckon there must be something AMD specific I need to do

Okay - checked some forums on overclocked 5950x and audio problems and most of the discussion was over RAM speed / timings. Specifically when using DCOP to auto overclock. Many needed to set their RAM back to default speed, or manually adjust timings (FCLCK) until they got stability. Seems the auto overclock was creating timing or voltage issues for both the CPU and memory. Do you get the same audio problems when not overclocking? If not, this might help narrow the problem down to overclock settings.

Edited April 19 by Carl Ewing

[abacab 5,488]

17 hours ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

the machine's gaming and overall performance will suffer after turning off all the tweaky boosts that cpu makers use, but your audio will be more stable

I think that may be a key point that many folks do not realize. A good gaming machine does not automatically mean a good DAW machine. But it can likely be wrangled into proper DAW form with a bit of care.

Stable real time audio processing is a bit more tricky than FPS in games, or even video editing.

Edited April 19 by abacab

[tom 192]

12 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

Okay - checked some forums on overclocked 5950x and audio problems and most of the discussion was over RAM speed / timings. Specifically when using DCOP to auto overclock. Many needed to set their RAM back to default speed, or manually adjust timings (FCLCK) until they got stability. Seems the auto overclock was creating timing or voltage issues for both the CPU and memory. Do you get the same audio problems when not overclocking? If not, this might help narrow the problem down to overclock settings.

Wow thank you so much for the further research, when back in studio will look into this. I have the stock RAM (2666mhz) and I think upgrading RAM will improve things too