AMAZING! WHY Does Sonar X1a treat 35% CPU Usage like 100% CPU Usage On My Intel i7-980X?

Here is the Sonar X1a processor readout of my doing a VERY simple activity.
 
I am playing four notes (via MIDI) on EastWest's QL Pianos Bosendorfer (Virtual Instrument VST) at 64-sample ASIO latency on my RME FireFace 800 and 44.1 khz sample rate.
 
This causes the software instrument sound to distort/drop out with that typical "Your ASIO latency is too low for your CPU" crinkly sound. (FYI, this instrument does NOT drop out at higher ASIO sample latencies like 1024, but who wants that high of a latency?)
 
ANybody who uses sofware instruments knows that when SOnar's CPU usage meter turns RED, that means you hear distortion.
 
HERE'S WHAT IS INTERESTING:
 
Even with EVERYTHING multi-threaded enabled in Sonar X1a (including the config file tweak of having it spawn two "work" threads) -- the meter on the far left shows ONE core peaking, causing the distortion.
 

 
HOWEVER, if I look at WINDOWS TASK MANAGER doing the same thing, none of the cores (real or hyperthreaded) are close to peaking according to Windows, and overall CPU usage is at 35%.
 

 
I don't generally swear, but can I have a WTF?
 
Windows is showing that 35% of my CPU (still the fastest single die on the market) is being used but Sonar treats this like 100%? Can a brutha get some multi-threading?

If you want an informed response, you really should give your system specs (Look at mine for an example) and what you've tried as far as system tweaks.  DAWs - especially those built on the newest i3/i5/i7 series - are not generally plug and play or optimized for audio right out of the box.  Have you looked into any of the numerous threads on DAW/Win7/core parking tweaks?

A little background would help...

I still occasionally stick my head in here after baling on Sonar 8.5.3 which had dropout and snap crackl.e pop issues with very basic projects on my 6 core.

Nothing suggested by forum members of Cake fixed this, so I eventually and reluctantly jumped ship.
Samw system is running perfectly with my current system and all the same plugs, etc.

So sad to see the same old problems have indeed apparently remained unresolved in X1. 

I`ll keep sticking my head round the door on regular occasions, hoping that one of these days an explanation is found for this seemingly random multiple core behaviour.
Still don`t understand why some folks have zero problems even with pretty much the same setup as me...

Good luck, guys.

JonD


Here's a thread on a core parking "fix".  (Just to show you're not the first to experience a problem in this area):

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1861804

Thanks for the heads up! I edited my registry and eliminated parked cores this morning.

It seems like maybe there's a 10% or so boost in efficiency in some situations -- not minor but not revolutionary.

I still get snap-crackle-pop at low ASIO latencies with it saying my CPU utilization is 1/3 or less.

ivanSC


And now an interesting one.
I took 8.5.3 of my regular music computer and reinstalled it on my old dual core AMD machine and am getting the same sort of performance I used to get before I moved to the new machine, even with exactly the same project.

Lower cpu usage as well.

Plus the old machine only has 2gb of ram.

None of this seems to make any sense but at least I am now getting SOME use out of Sonar. Second machine is running vstis for the main machine, to save cpu cycles....

Mad.....
 
Now THAT is interesting and disquieting at the same time.  I just bought a grand worth of new motherboard, cpu, cooler, 16 gig ram, and twin terrabyte drives.  Maybe I should just hold onto that and load x1 into my old amd athlon with 4 gig ram, duel core and see if it works .
 
Man oh man

wintaper

 Super-heavy synths and plugins typically don't like low-latencies and are intended for mixing rather than tracking. 



-Dan
 
 

What gave you THAT idea, dan?
 
I have never read anywhere that I am not supposed to use my VSTi`s anytime but when I am mixing?
 
Sort of defeats the object of having a powerful computer and good plugs, doesn`t it?
 
Oh and in my onw case, I was running just ONE plugin isntrument when I first got the problems.  And the kjarehaus compression and  reverb plugs on my vocals.
Absurdly, I STILL had the same problem when I swapped to a couple of UAD plugs to reduce cpu hit.
 
Like I said, neither I nor anyone else seems to have hit on the solution to this.

wintaper

That means his either his machine is not powerful enough or it is mis-configured.

As far as "heavy synths" - it is quite common, for example, to record V-Drums by recording the midi data while listening to the built-in sounds. On playback you can fly in the gigabytes of Ocean Way drums. A lot of people do this.

-Dan

Hahaha - I guess he's needs more than 12 cores to run a "heavy synth" yea?

Will 16 cores do it? Maybe 32 just in case... but one core will still max's out causing glitches - d'oh!
Better bust out the liquid nitrogen... aim high 'coz 4.5GHz still doesn't cut it.

Corling: what tweeks did you do to your bios .. and whats the motherboard make and model