Brand new computer gives audio drop outs, old computer didn't

[Barry de Roode]

I recently bought a new computer to boost loading times. However, the new computer gives constant Audio Drop Outs and hickups sounds.  Both computers have (as far as I can see) identical Cakewalk setups (I checked all settings one-for-one) and I use the same Focusrite Scarlett 20i18 3rd gen audio interface. On both systems I have updated evertything to the latest drivers. All my projects are at 44.100 Hz and 16bit. 

I cannot think of any reason why a 6 year old  computer performs better than a brand new 'beast'. Much appreciated if someone has some thoughts on this or some directions to solve this.

 

OLD COMPUTER

Dell XPS All in One 2720 (april 2015)

Processor: Intel Core i7-4770S CPU@3.10Ghz

Memory: 16 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz

Harddisk: LITEONIT LMT-32L3M mSATA 32Gb + ST2000DM001-1ER164 2000Gb

USB: 3.0

Windows 10 Enterprise

NEW COMPUTER

HP Pavilion All-in-One 27-d0010nd

Processor: Intel® CoreTM i7-10700T (2,0 GHz basisfrequentie, tot 4,4 GHz met Intel® Turbo Boost-
technologie, 16 MB L3-cache, 8 cores)

Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM (1 x 16 GB)

Harddisk: 512 GB PCIe® NVMeTM M.2 SSD

USB: SuperSpeed USB Type-A poort 5 Gb/s

Windows 10 Home

 

SETTINGS

ASIO

Buffer Size 9.1 msec 400 samples

File System Buffer Size: 256kb

 

 

[Promidi]

A couple of things to try.

Try disabling C-states and Intel Speedsteep (This is done in the PC's BIOS and the method varies between PCs). 

Try Start + run "control powercfg.cpl,,1" (without quotes) and set CPU Min and Max to 100%. 

In preferences | Audio | Configuration File try adjusting the following:
EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False
MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}

You might like to exit Cakewalk by Bandlab, go to the following folder and make a copy of the AUD.INI file before doing this:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

As it's customary with Intel 10th gen cpus, check your thermals. These SKUs are known to run quite hot and enter throttling very often. If that's the case, consider undervolting them.

[Barry de Roode]

I do not know how to undervolt the CPU, but I changed the power plan to "High Performance power plan" and I removed McAfee as well. It looks like there are some improvements, but the Audio Engine Dropouts keep coming.

What bothers me is that I didn't have to do any tricks with the old computer, but now I have to...

[scook]

If using the internal sound chip do not use the RealTek ASIO driver. It is not suitable for DAW use.

[John Vere]

Run latency monitor  try it on both machines 

ohttps://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Try a USB 2 port as some older interfaces were reported to act up on USB 3 

There’s a thread in the main forum about optimization 

 

also Focusrite new drivers use normal settings now like 128/ 256  and not ms like 9   So check the web site  for a driver update 

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by John Vere

[Justin Broad]

+1  for disabling Intel Speedsteep

[Barry de Roode]

Thanks for the responses, it helped a lot!

This is what I did (I copy pasted from the answers):

• Location of Cakewalk Projects. The new computer has 2 HD's: a SSD with the operating system & programs and a SATA for data. I experimented with the location of the Cakewalk projects and it turned out that putting them on the SATA drive performed better (counter intuitive, I know)
• Boost the CPU. There are several ways that achieve the same result: 
  • Start + run "control powercfg.cpl,,1" (without quotes) and set CPU Min and Max to 100%. 
  • Set the power plan to "High Performance power plan"
  • Note: I did not have any settings in the BIOS to alter
• Tune Cakewalk.  In preferences | Audio | Configuration File adjusted the following:
  • EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False 
  • MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}  (This really made the system run smoother)

All together it makes my new system as good as my old. Still wondering why it isn't much better, but I can live with the result so far.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

51 minutes ago, Barry de Roode said:

Thanks for the responses, it helped a lot!

This is what I did (I copy pasted from the answers):

• Location of Cakewalk Projects. The new computer has 2 HD's: a SSD with the operating system & programs and a SATA for data. I experimented with the location of the Cakewalk projects and it turned out that putting them on the SATA drive performed better (counter intuitive, I know)
• Boost the CPU. There are several ways that achieve the same result: 
  • Start + run "control powercfg.cpl,,1" (without quotes) and set CPU Min and Max to 100%. 
  • Set the power plan to "High Performance power plan"
  • Note: I did not have any settings in the BIOS to alter
• Tune Cakewalk.  In preferences | Audio | Configuration File adjusted the following:
  • EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False 
  • MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}  (This really made the system run smoother)

All together it makes my new system as good as my old. Still wondering why it isn't much better, but I can live with the result so far.

I wouldn't count much on boost clocks. The advertised boost is only for a single core out of the 8 you have. The 4770S boosts lower, but his base frequency is higher. 1 GHz higher.