Hi. I’ve been using a fairly old dell laptop, i5 8gb ram 512 ssd 1.5 ghz chip and a 1st gen focusrite 18i20 in my 80s band with often quite a lot of VSTs at the same time and it hasn’t put a foot wrong, always running at about 50-75% cpu. I’m setting up a backup laptop that has 16gb ram 512gb ssd and 2.4ghz chip and the cpu is maxing out. I’ve followed the optimisation manual for both laptops and stripped them back to basically just synth engines and I can’t for the life of me work out why the CPU is worse on the better spec laptop. It’s cracking and popping all over. I’m not computer savvy (like operating systems etc) so I’m baffled. Any ideas folks?
Are:
- The same versions of plugins on both computers?
- The same version of OS on both computers?
Absolutely. Apart from slightly different USB port locations it’s more or less a clone. I’ve opened the same for file with no issues except for the CPU
Could you please check for the exact CPU Model Nr. and/or the exact model name of the two laptops? I suspect two potential causes for the issue..
maybe the newer CPU has a much lower base frequency and the 2.4GHz is just available for peak load, or the mainboard shows some (probably known) issues for real time multimedia processing.
But those assumptions can only be verified if we know exactly which hardware we talking about.
My original laptop, which performs flawlessly is:
Dell vostro 5590
Intel i5 10210U CPU 1.6Ghz
Newer laptop
Dell latitude 3520
11th gen i5 1135G7 2.4Ghz
Thanks… i actually couldn’t find any proof for my suspicions.
What tells your task manager about overall memory consumption?
Maybe try to compare the apps that are running in background of both machines?
Something must be responsible for eating up the ressources on your newer machine.
I did find a statement of a guy on reddit who had speed issues on WIN11 (vs. WIN10) and could locate the source for it in an app called “Smart App Control”…
Maybe something to try…
Thanks for that. Smart app control was actually ruin the background so I’ll see what happened I fire it all up. I also found a few other things running that I’m sure I disabled so I’m going to do and sweep and see what other little gremlins are causing mischief.
A little tool i always use on my PCs, which gets rid of many unwanted bloat services and settings is O&O shutup (create a system restore point and it should be safe to use, at least if you only use the recommended settings) :
Another tool which might help you locate the culprit is LatencyMon (not as easy to use as O&O but should be doable):
Thank you
Is the audio interface on the same buffer size and sample rate for both systems?
It is
Do you have the Ultimate Power Plan in place in the new laptop?
Does the Task Manager show high CPU? Or is it crackling even though CPU is not that high?
Jeff
I’ve optimised the laptop as per the guide and yes I have the ultimate power plan in place. I’m not near my rig at the moment but I’ll check the task manager tomorrow while running GP and see what’s what.
I’ve run both laptops side by side and monitored the cpu on each task manager. My original laptop fluctuates between its base speed and about 3.9Ghz but the newly acquired laptop is stuck on its base rate, no matter what is running. It’ll be going back tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your help.
What about the bios? Intel SpeedStep and C-States? Turn SpeedStep on and C-States off.
You could also try Throttlestop. (If you search the forum, you’ll find a thread about how it fixed my issue (thanks to Frank1119)).
Thanks for that. Intel speedstep was off. I’ve turned it on and bingo! Running at 3.75Ghz and fluctuating on load. I’ll test this with GP when I get back to my rig but that’s huge step forward. Thank you all so much for your help.
Thanks for this. I think the message about speedstep might have solved it but if not I’ll have a look at that.
Hi all. Tried the new (to me) laptop out with all the changes you guys suggested, particularly the speedstep and it’s working beautifully. Thank you all so much for your input, it really is very much appreciated.