Please, help building some statistics about our systems and

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:10 pm

I would like for us to make a study of how our sequencers and SFP works toguether in terms of efficiency. More exactly, how much RAM and CPU we use to run them both idle. For this I wanted to ask you all, to post here two things please:

FIRST:
Who much RAM does your system tells you, you use, when your sequencer is open idle. To check this with precission, do the following... press Cont Alt and Del toguether, to bring the administrator, go to proceses and check how much RAM does your sequencer uses being open, and how much CPU it wastes.

SECOND:
In the same way, chack how much RAM does SFP uses for you, and specify also how much CPU power you can see, is active, or in use.

For this experiment, it is important to also consider writing down how much RAM you have in your system, and the kind of RAM. Then your CPU and it's speed.

*************************************

FIRST:
Cubase SX uses 29.212 or RAM. I have two 512 Corsair PC400 RAM, so 1GB in total.

SECOND:
SFP, Pulsar I Plus, with 4 sharks, uses 10.212 or RAM.

Both, the sequencer and SFP open uses 7% of CPU, with a Pentium IV 2.4

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:56 am

1. SX3, 32 asio channels 32bit, 178.912 RAM on 4x256Mb Corsair LowLatency RAM no dual mode

2. SFP4.0 Pulsar1 plus SRB 8Sharks 36.540 RAM

CPU Usage varies on Cubase from 1-3 percent,
SFP from 0-1 percent, P IV 2.8 GHz.

What do you want to do with these datas?

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisWerner on 2006-01-05 02:57 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:14 am

I am very curious about it, and of course, I want to learn

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:43 am

I wonder what you want to learn from those numbers ?
imho you're already starting with wrong preconditions:
the amount of memory you talk about is what's allocated, not what's used - you'd need a pretty complex tool to get into reliable details about the latter.

then there are so many different memory architectures, bios versions or drivers that the amount of memory doesn't reflect much of the performance.

I never went really deep into CPU details, but imho (I may be wrong on this) the 'CPU in use value' does not represent the actual 'work' done in the processor, but the allocation of time slices for a certain task.
Within such a task the CPU could run effectively empty, yet it would be marked as 'working - in use'.

cheers, Tom

djmicron · Post by **djmicron** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:23 am

the allocated amount of ram memory depends from what you open in your projects and i think that if the project is the same, the value is the same on every computer....

arela · Post by **arela** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:51 pm

RAM - puh
I remember I bought incredible 4 Mb RAM for my lovly 386 once, trouble was, Windows 95 (and before - realy a DOS matter) could not use more than 640 kb of my beautiful memory for programs.
....so the only thing that matter:
is it:
a) enough
b) not enough:-)

For a) - go back to work
for b) - visit the data shop

Post by **hubird** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:49 pm

when my system (more precisely Cubase) starts to freeze at 'random' moments, I start bouncing to get rid of some plugs.
It hepls immediately to get back to a stable system

The performance meter of Cubase shows (only) 6 or 7 on a scale of ten when troubles start, so Astro must be right.

I wouldn't spend too much time on it

Making music makes more fun

craighuddy · Post by **craighuddy** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:49 pm

Tom is almost right.
In Windows, task manager sees how much time slices are "reserved" by apps and then subtracts from the total to get the "in use" CPU numbers.

Users of Cakewalk products ran into this a while ago as the app asked windows for all non reserved cycles. So , when you opened a blank project in Sonar 1-2, the CPU meter in Sonar read 0-1% while in task manager it showed CPU usage at 100%

ARCADIOS · Post by **ARCADIOS** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:00 pm

these days i face a random freezing problem, working on nuendo and sending 24 asio sends to scope asio2 source.
cpu shows high amounts in task manager and system making these random pauses.
i wonder if there is a false setting i have done.
maybe not.
unfortunately if we have to work on a big project a system like mine seems too week.
abit ic7g
2gigs ram
3.0 prescott
standard pc.
sp1a.
4 hd's
i was wondering if these random freezes are a matter of hd searching because there is a slight sound heard from the discs.
i have turned off indexing service.(wrong?)

bronYaur · Post by **bronYaur** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:25 am

I have P4 2.8 Northwood,1GB of RDRAM pc800 next upgrade to pc1066 Mhz,2x Powerpulsar 1x Scope SRB,I no have swap file on disk(disable)

Test:
Only windows Xp open without scope:
Free memory disponible:872.000
Allocated memory:60.000

Only scope open with 24bit asio source(32 channell open) and asio2 dest ,STM 24/48 16 trak in stereo no other:
Free disponible memory:791.900
Allocated memory:134.300
Max cpu peak 5% when idle
Scope.exe process :97.500

Cubase SX (default proge 24 trak)and Scope open:
Fre memory disponible:640.000
Alocated memory:275.000
Max cpu peak 8% when idle
Cubasesx3.exe process:146.000

I need another one Gb of RDRAM bat is it mach expensive 1GB of RDRAM 1066(rambus) aproximately 400$

[ This Message was edited by: bronYaur on 2006-01-07 02:24 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:02 am

On 2006-01-05 09:43, astroman wrote:

imho you're already starting with wrong preconditions:
the amount of memory you talk about is what's allocated, not what's used - you'd need a pretty complex tool to get into reliable details about the latter.

Well, it seems I have finally learned something, as I wanted…

Now, just experimenting a bit, I have put Cubase with a priority to see what happens. I did this:

Press Cont + Alt + Del, the administrator comes in, I go to “establish priority” (or something like this in English), then go to and choose “real time”, which is in the top of the drop window. I imagine this will give the sequencer some more importance in the way the system uses RAM when I am working with it. Am I wrong?

symbiote · Post by **symbiote** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:34 am

This test is a bit meaningless without 1) ULLI/ASIO buffer size setting (will affect CPU usage quite a bit, higher latency means lower CPU usage), 2) specific number of ASIO channels configured in Scope (same) and 3) specific list of devices loaded and how they are connected (affects memory usage.)

Otherwise there's no way you can actually compare the results of different systems which each other, which kind of defeats the purpose of a test.

I'm not home so I can't test mine.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:04 am

On 2006-01-06 06:02, Nestor wrote:
...I imagine this will give the sequencer some more importance in the way the system uses RAM when I am working with it. Am I wrong?

I really don't qualify to answer that as I have a general aversion against any Windows programming by default.

I must admit that I've been spoilt by some pretty sophisticated cross platform tools in the early nineties - people used these on the Mac and Unix preferably and started the Windows version only for final adjustments right before deployment of the apps - for good reason

Anyway, this sh*t was conceptually lightyears ahead of any Visual-I-dunno-What or even CodeWarrior, let alone GCC & company...
It has become my personal yardstick for tools and the measure is pretty high since then.

Unfortunately the original owners couldn't refuse an offer and now may happily spend a fortune they made from what a lot of Fortune 500 companies used in their IT departments

fortunately I had at least the chance to learn from it, Tom

sorry for the OT, but I didn't want to come over arrogantly about Windoze just because it's by M$ - there is a reason for it

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:46 am

I know you are a practical man Astro, particularly in programing matters

But me, what can I do but trying things out...

and then fix the problems I've created, I am always learning something new... he...

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:50 pm

Nestor, that applies to me as well, it's unavoidable...

Post by **garyb** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:45 pm

setting program priority works to a degree. if you set an app to "realtime", then nothing else will work. try it.

when using samplitude with cusbase sx open, i always change samplitude's priority to "above normal" from "normal". i often lower scope's priority to "below normal" or "low" when i am mixing down in this way.

cubase sx automatically opens in "above normal", well, actually there's a setting for this in there somewhere...

this is kinda old info in this forum, but there are so many little details, it's probably worth mentioning...

arela · Post by **arela** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 6:56 am

There should be a fix-it-button in front of every pc.
...some inventors here?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:32 am

To be able to use your brain, through a little cable connection, as availabe RAM.

maakbow · Post by **maakbow** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:19 pm

The Information You requested

CPU - Pentium 4 northwood 3.0Gig.
RAM - 2 gig Corsair XMS DDR 400 [4x512]
Windows XP Pro
SFP 4.5
Logic Audio 5.5.1

logic idle memory usage 88,184k
SFP memory usage 78,264k with current project
SFP memory usage 48,192k with empty project

when sfp has project loaded, cpu flickers between 00 and 01...the same for logic

Maak

_________________
Luna II ~ Luna Zlink expansion ~ A16 ULTRA ~ SCOPE 4.5 ~ LOGIC 5.5.1 ~ Windows XP pro ~ Intel D875PDZ ~ P4 northwood 3.0 ~ 2 gig Corsair XMS DDR 400 ~ Matrox P650 ~ HDD's - Wave-2X 10000rpm,36Gig raptor,SATA,raid 0 ~ OS-160Gig ATA 7200 ~ Samples 80Gig AT

[ This Message was edited by: maakbow on 2006-01-07 17:20 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:18 pm

Interesting, thank you for your answer.

How many ASIO channels do you have open in Scope?