Is there a CPU threshold percentage that should not be crossed? Both pianoteq and Korg Triton are heavier CPU users. If I combine the plugins in a layered sound my CPU can climb as high as 55 to 60 percent but thankfully my laptop and sound is still fine.
I’ve had sound issues crossing 80% with multiple Triton instances so I don’t use multiple instances of that plugin anymore.
I’m replacing NI Grandeur with pianoteq and get nervous when I see CPU getting higher than 50%. But thus far no issues with audio. I run 128 buffer with sample 44100.
Without layers, pianoteq is 26% cpu but I’m also running it through BReverb2 in the global rackspace. I need to see how much pianoteq contributes on its own. 26% is when I’m playing a lot of fancy runs with many sustained notes.
Well, this is interesting. On my Dell Precision Tower 3620 in my studio pianoteq peaks at about 8% CPU usage. Stats in the pianoteq plugin:
Intel i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20 GHz, M14/S9/F6, x8
CPU frequency: 4200 MHz
On my Levovo ThinkPad X1 which is use with Gig Performer pianoteq peaks at about 26%. Stats in the pianoteq plugin:
Intel i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHZ, M14/S10/F6, x12
CPU frequency: 2208 MHz
I’m not experiencing any problems but perhaps the laptop CPU is not as good as the Dell Tower.
Sorry - just trying to wrap my head around the frequency, number of cores, and other CPU statistics. On the laptop (with Gig Performer) in Task Manager the CPU speed hovers around 4.05 GHz and the base speed is 2.21 GHz. Maybe I should plan for a new laptop but thankfully I don’t have audio processing issues.
The Dell Tower is from 2017 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is from 2019.
Newer CPU specifications are confusing to me and I need help in understanding those specifications in order to choose a better performing CPU.
For example, take this CPU model from a new ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12:
Intel Core Ultra 7 155U Processor (E-Core Max 3.80 GHz, P-Core Max 4.80 GHz with Turbo Boost, 12 Cores, 14 Threads, 12 MB Cache)
The actual p-core base frequency of this CPU is 1.7 GHz which is even less than the base frequency of the CPU I have now (2.20 GHz). CPUs now have e-core and p-core speeds along with a max turbo-boost frequency. Apparently, e-core is for “background” processes and p-core is for application processes. In Task Manager the “base speed” for this processor would be 1.7 GHz but the actual CPU speed can be higher - up to 4.80 GHz.
Gig Performer laptop: Intel i7-8750H
cores: 6, threads: 12
base frequency: 2.20 GHz, Max turbo frequency: 4.10 GHz
Dell Tower: Intel i7-7700K
cores: 4, threads: 8
base frequency: 4.20 GHz, Max turbo frequency: 4.50 GHz
ThinkPad Carbon X1 12th Generation:
p-cores: 2, e-cores: 8, low-power e-cores: 2, threads: 14
Max turbo frequency: 4.80 GHz
p-core Max turbo frequency: 4.80 GHz
e-core Max turbo frequency: 3.80 GHz
p-core base frequency: 1.7 GHz
e-core base frequency: 1.2 GHz
For Gig Performer, is the “base frequency” the most important specification for determining the percentage of CPU consumed?
My laptop can turbo boost to 4.10 GHz but the percentage of CPU consumed for pianoteq, 26%, is still higher than the Dell Tower at 8%. However, the Dell Tower has a higher base frequency at 4.20 GHz but it still has a comparable max turbo frequency of 4.50 GHz.
The older CPUs do not sub-divide into p-cores and e-cores. The ThinkPad Carbon X1 has a much lower base frequency at 1.7 GHz which concerns me. Would it perform worse (i.e. exhibit a higher CPU percentage) than the Gig Performer laptop?
Yeah, Intel confuses me too. They use overclocking to boost speed but if the temperature gets too high they back it down so if the system is running at a lower temperature, the speed can go up (overclocking). I think the days are gone that you can measure solely on processor clock speed. They also have different internal architectures depending which confuses things more. This makes it really difficult to figure what to buy. The actual performance will largely depend on what kind of processing it is doing. Very confusing!
When you benchmark the various processors, you’re looking for good single-core scores since GP isn’t a multicore app. Multi-core score core is important too, but you primarily want a processor that has a good single-core score with a decent base frequency. I’d stay away from that machine with 1.7GHz base frequency—that’s too low.
There are apps such as QuickCPU and Process Lasso that can assist with assigning p-cores and e-cores to various apps and functions.
It looks like all the new Intel CPUs have lower base frequency ratings and scale to meet demand. Are AMD CPUs are a better choice for use with Gig Performer or do they follow the same model with having a low base frequency?
Thanks for the tip about QuickCPU and Process Lasso applications. Has anybody used these applications to optimize the performance of Gig Performer?
Does someone have an Intel CPU with a lower base frequency rating where pianoteq only consumes around 8%?
