System Performance reading 51% w/out project loaded

[Bob Grieco]

Friends,

Can anyone help me to lower the CPU strain - playback has glitches 

New install on New Computer - CbB performance meter says running 8Gb of 16Gb w out even picking a project to work on.

My computer start up is only running 3 or 4 essential processes -

I seem to remember reading ASIO buffer  settings affect performance 

Please advise correct settings in general - running Windows 11 on a Dell 8950  i7 12th gen w 16 Gb Ram 

Bob G

Edited May 23, 2023 by Bob Grieco
more info

[azslow3]

Start investigation with Windows Resource monitor (resmon). Windows computer starts with several hundreds processes, some of them are "heavy". Many are starting "on there own" later (updates, telemetry, etc.).

Don't forget to set "Ultimate" (or at least "High performance") power plan when running DAWs.

ASIO buffer affect performance, but in different domain (once you are approaching tiny buffers, the effect is plug-in dependent). Start with 512. Size under 128 may require audio optimization (on system and BIOS level).  Sizes under 64 normally require special computer, audio interface and optimization to be useful (for anything except marketing).

[OutrageProductions]

4 hours ago, Bob Grieco said:

Please advise correct settings in general - running Windows 11 on a Dell 8950  i7 12th gen w 16 Gb Ram 

I would be willing to bet that 30% of that is Dell bloatware. Go to <Services> and disable what is not necessary. 

[bitflipper]

1 hour ago, OutrageProductions said:

I would be willing to bet that 30% of that is Dell bloatware. Go to <Services> and disable what is not necessary. 

This is probably true, or at least a good place to start.

Unfortunately, the advice to "disable what is not necessary" is a deep dark hole that most users are unprepared to enter. Is "Device Association Framework Provider Host" necessary? How about "Microsoft Network Realtime Inspection Service"? It says Microsoft, must be important. If you look at a list of your computer's running processes, it will be full of mysterious names that even after googling may remain just as mysterious. And to make matters worse, Task Manager doesn't even list all of them. Sometimes, the worst offenders are hidden from you (e.g. interrupt servicing overhead).

Which is not to say a performance analysis is so daunting that you shouldn't embark on it. Just do it cautiously, making notes as you go about any processes you've disabled that might turn out to actually be necessary.

It's worth downloading a few helpful tools to make your investigation easier. In particular, Process Explorer and Autoruns are two free utilities that I always start with when running down performance issues. Another indispensable tool is LatencyMon. 

Process Explorer is a souped-up version of Task Manager that gives more detailed information and includes processes that Task Manager does not show you. It's a good place to start your googling adventure to simply identify what they are and to start building a potential "not necessary" list. Pay attention to the "Working Set" column, which shows how much RAM each process has allocated for itself, in addition to the CPU usage.

Autoruns shows what processes are kicked off at boot time, and gives you an easy way to disable them. Again, run down the list and google them to figure out what they are and if they're truly necessary.

LatencyMon shows you DPC latency, and I know of no other way to get this information. DPCs (Deferred Procedure Calls) are usually run in response to a hardware interrupt. They can be CPU-suckers, and they are normally hidden from view. LatencyMon will show which drivers are generating the most DPCs and how much overhead they're incurring. Often, the most egregious offenders are unnecessary or may even represent a broken I/O interface or failing disk drive.

P.S. Yes, the size of your ASIO buffers is important, but research that 51% number first. And yes, kill that Dell crap.