I’m very confused, about my upgraded CPU performance. I had an older laptop I was using on gigs. It is a Lenovo with Ryzen 7 3700U CPU in it with 12GB RAM, running WIN10. I upgraded to a newer Dell Intel i7-1165G7, which I know is NOT the fastest, high end, but still according to every comparison online, it was 40% (or more) better/faster in every test. It also has 16GB RAM. Both machines were optimized using the GP windows optimizations guide.
The same gig file, running the same rackspace is always using LESS CPU in the older, supposedly slower Ryzen, than the new Intel. For example, if a rackspace is using 40% CPU in the old laptop, the same exact RS is 60-70% CPU in the new laptop. Why would this be?
The old CPU at 70% would be popping and crackling, whereas the new CPU is clean as can be, so it seems I can push it harder, but still, why is it using average 20-30% MORE CPU??? The only difference is, the ryzen was on win10, the I7 is on Win11. Could that be it??
I guess you are looking at the cpu usage that GP shows at the top right? I lately bought a NUC13i7 also with a newer cpu and noticed the same. This is because the usage is relative to the currently available clock-speed. When you’re having more load, the OS will crank up the clock frequency and then the usage will drop. It’s like a dynamic ceiling.
You can check this out by using the ultimate power plan (temporarily or definitely). That will (probably) make GP show a lower usage.
Yes, it is the CPU reading in GP. I am using the ultimate power plan in both machines, as mentioned before, both machines were optimized using the GP windows optimizations guide.
Maybe you can check out what load the new setup can actually handle, before crackling kicks in and compare that to what your old setup can handle. I benchmark this by using several copies of a plugin that eats a lot of cpu. I found that some presets of guitar rig 6 are really cpu-hungry: so I created a benchmark - gig where I started with one instance of the vst, then 2, etc. until things broke. (I connected only 1 instance to the input and output, the other instances do eat cpu anyway).
Then I do the same on the other setup (just copy the gig file).
After this you’ve real life figures.
Btw: some presets are also some kind of usable for keyboard (preset datk dust). Furthermore, the free version of guitar rig 6 comes with a demo mode in which all presets are available (20 minutes: after that you have to restart GP). Just in case you’re interested to (ab)use it for this purpose only.
I wanted to give an update! I am a happy man right now, because I got “my speed” back! LOL So in BIOS I had the Intel Speed Step turned off. It sounded like it was going to mess with and adjust CPU speed (which to me meant lowering it) so I had it OFF. In Task manager, all this time I have been at 1.69 GHZ speed. After turning Speed Step on in BIOS, I am now cruising at 4 - 4.4 ghz. What a difference! CPU usage in GP went from 70-80% to 30% even when running 3 pretty CPU heavy plugins at the same time.
When attempting to use this laptop with the low CPU speed, last night GP froze on me after attempting to switch variations and turning a CPU heavy plugin on. Can the lack of CPU power crash a CPU heavy plugin? It was an Arturia plugin.
I think my speed step Is off and anyway my cpu can run at max speed. I use quick cpu to tweek that value. Another bios option i can see is something like maximum performance on the cpu section. If i need to reduce power consumption for any other task i just change the power plan settings in windows
I think it depends on the configured TDP. As far as I understand the oem can choose to make these fixed, or configurable for example in the bios setup, but I’m not sure. So much to learn, so little time…
Thanks for crosslinking/referencing and thereby offering helpful organizational flow to all this info scattered in various threads throughout the forum. Much appreciated!
One interesting thing I have noticed, is even though I have my power settings set to ultimate performance with all the tweaks recommended in the PC guide, battery and AC settings are all set to the same performance focus instead of power saving. Despite of that, when I plug in the laptop, the CPU speed goes from 3 ghz to 4.4 ghz and accordingly, the CPU in GP drops from 40% to 30% for example. So the laptop is still adjusting performance according to wether its plugged in or not. Which setting could this be? Or is it one of those built-in, can’t do anything about it situations? Is this because of the SpeedStepping was turned on perhaps?
You should not try to pin the cpu speed, unless you want to use it to make toast. The cpu can only run at maximum speed for a while. That depends also on the power the cpu uses. When it runs for a certain amount of time using the maximum configured tdp it will drop speed to meet the configured nominal tdp. For example, my system is configured max tdp 65w and nominal tdp 40w. Also configured is a time of 20 seconds for max tdp. When I stress the cpu, the usage will peak to 65w. After 20 seconds will and must throttle and the usage will stabilize at 40w. Reason for this is that the manufacturer of the system guarantees that the cooling is good enough for sustained 40w and intermittent for 65w. Depending on the bios you can or can’t modify these values, but at your own risk.
You better don’t turn off speed step and alike (but you already got that, if I remember correctly). You’ll get a stable speed, but very low. Windows and the cpu together are smart enough to do a decent job.
I’m definitely not turning off speed step and I’m not trying to pin anything. I’m just saying that despite all my power settings set maximum performance whether on battery or plugged in, the CPU speed increases when plugged in and decreases on battery. They are set to behave the same way.
Ah! I didn’t get that. Sorry. I personally never run my laptop without main power, mainly because its battery will run empty rather quickly (< 1 hour).
Maybe the system itself (apart from the OS), throttles automatically if it runs on battery. I noticed the same behavior for Nvidia GPUs, but I can understand that, because on battery the system simply doesn’t have enough power to fully unleash the GPU. Of course this is about the cpu, but the same principle may apply
When I set that to 0 (zero), the cpu performance on battery and main power is more or less the same. This is Speed Shift, not Speed Step. In QuickCpu it is this slider:
