OC my i7-2600k = preformance gain ??

[Steve_Karl]

Hi there, 
Just wondering if over clocking my i7-2600k  - (32 GB of DDR 3 at 1600)
will give me any noticeable performance gain - i.e. lower latency with no crackles
with projects that are mainly Kontakt 5 and Kontakt 6 and fairly heavy with Spitfire Symphony Orchestra.

Example: 3 instances of Kontakt 5 for SSO.
1 instance of K5 for percussion (old instuments - not very needy )
1 instance of Kontakt 6 running Cremona Quartet.

I'm currently in final mix stage of 3 projects that are using this orchestra layout and SSO is using all 3 mic positions most of the time,
and in the heaviest of the 3 movements I'm running at 1,024 Samples / 23 MS
and usually have to freeze and unfreeze 2 instances of Kontakt, when needing to go back to midi to make changes, to keep things running easily.
So, I'll have usually the K6 instance rendered to audio and 2 K5 instances rendered to audio.
I'm using pro channel EQ and console emulation on all audio tracks and only a few other plugins like 2 reverbs and 2 multi-band compressors.

I generally understand over clocking and the risks and what to watch out for so no need for cautions there.

I guess the question really is,
how much does a higher CPU clock speed contribute to low latency performance in a situation like this?

Thanks!
Steve

 

 

[Jim Roseberry]

Hi Steve,

 

You can typically push the 2600k to 4.5GHz.

If you're already running it there, you can't push it any further (with rock-solid stability).

Clock-speed will certainly help with low-latency audio performance.

[Steve_Karl]

Hi Jim,

Thanks! 

Steve

[Starship Krupa]

On 5/23/2022 at 7:09 AM, Steve_Karl said:

Just wondering if over clocking my i7-2600k  - (32 GB of DDR 3 at 1600)
will give me any noticeable performance gain - i.e. lower latency with no crackles
with projects that are mainly Kontakt 5 and Kontakt 6 and fairly heavy with Spitfire Symphony Orchestra.

Old post, I know, but if you haven't enabled hyperthreading in your system BIOS, that will help a bunch. As an experiment, I tried the same project on my aging laptop with and without hyperthreading enabled, and it played fine with and ground to a halt without.

Good on ya for rockin' that vintage system! I'm all about squeezing the last bit of use out of whatever computer I own. And ever since Sandy Bridge, that's been very possible (I even just built a DAW for a friend around an old Core 2 Quad, and he loves it).

Before you start overclocking, at minimum, get an air duster can and blow the dust off of your CPU cooler. I would also re-do the paste on the CPU cooler. After 11 years, it might not be working as well as it once did. If your case has room for another fan, those are good to have as well. Silent ones are under $10 on Amazon Prime. I've had good experiences with Be Quiet and Noctua.

I like HWINFO for monitoring temperatures and fans. You can watch what's going on with rising temperatures, see if your system is going into thermal throttling under load, etc. It helped me get my antique Dell Latitude laptop running way better.

You don't say what graphics you are using, but despite what some say, I have found that a more powerful (doesn't have to be a rocket sled, just an nVidia that supports OpenGL) card does help with Cakewalk. Especially if you run 2 monitors, the mixer on monitor 2 draws faster if you have more and faster video memory. Some plug-in manufacturers (Newfangled, Meldaproduction) make use of OpenGL in their GUI's, which takes some load off the CPU.

I just installed a used passively-cooled nVidia GT 1030 and am happy with it, even for gaming.

[Steve_Karl]

Yes. HT has been on from the beginning.
I have an air compressor and clean it out about once a yr.

After more research I decided not to bother with  OC.
All is running really fine now.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Steve_Karl

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/8/2022 at 1:39 AM, Steve_Karl said:

All is running really fine now.

There are other optimizations you can do at an OS level that will make things run even more smoothly.

First and foremost, since you're using Kontakt and Spitfire sample libraries, go into the Windows Security settings and exclude your plug-in, Cakewalk Projects, and any folders where your samples libraries are stored from Windows Defender realtime scanning.

I use Windows 10 Pro, so I have disabled realtime scanning globally, but if you want to leave realtime scanning on for the rest of your system, at least exclude whatever folders are going to get heavy reading while you're in projects. That will take a big load off your CPU, as it won't be scanning your Spitfire Orchestra samples for malware every time they're read.

[Steve_Karl]

3 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

There are other optimizations you can do at an OS level that will make things run even more smoothly.

First and foremost, since you're using Kontakt and Spitfire sample libraries, go into the Windows Security settings and exclude your plug-in, Cakewalk Projects, and any folders where your samples libraries are stored from Windows Defender realtime scanning.

I use Windows 10 Pro, so I have disabled realtime scanning globally, but if you want to leave realtime scanning on for the rest of your system, at least exclude whatever folders are going to get heavy reading while you're in projects. That will take a big load off your CPU, as it won't be scanning your Spitfire Orchestra samples for malware every time they're read.

Yes. I did all of that a long time ago.