Dual Monitors

ORIGINAL: JohnnyPhilko

Hi all,

I have most of my issues worked out on my DAW, but noticed that using dual monitors, I get a big hit on my cpu.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I am using a AGP Geforce FX5200 graphics card. Anyone know of a way to reduce the strain on my cpu from the graphics card?

Any help or suggestions welcomed!!!!!!!

Not here, I use a Matrox P650 dual DVI. I think some game cards use the CPU to cheat at benchmark scores to that may be it. In some cases there is a hack to keep the driver from doing that you might search the web... or just get a Matrox.

I use a a nVidia 5200 based card and don't have any problems. I made sure to disable any of the fancy graphics and 3D functions in the driver's display program especially all the extra menus's and animations. Don't know if that would actually effect the CPU or the GPU. But I odn't use the fancy bits at all.

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions.

One thing I am basing this from is that if I open up the Windows Task Manager and click on the performance tab, I can watch the cpu usage go up to 50% on both cpus while I take and move a scroll bar quickly up and down in Sonar.

Can anyone confirm that thiers does this or doesn't?

I did a search on google looking for hacks, but didn't find anything except overclocking the card.

Thanks in advance!

ORIGINAL: jaldridge6

try disabling write combing.

Hi Jaldridge6,

I'll try that, I might have tried it once before though. I'll let you know. :-)

Could it really be that no one has this same problem? I found a couple of people on here that have found the same thing, but no solution. I also found a few other people on google searches that have this problem, but they didn't find a resolution either (That I found online, they may have fixed it and went away though)

ORIGINAL: Duojet

ORIGINAL: JohnnyPhilko

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions.

One thing I am basing this from is that if I open up the Windows Task Manager and click on the performance tab, I can watch the cpu usage go up to 50% on both cpus while I take and move a scroll bar quickly up and down in Sonar.

Can anyone confirm that thiers does this or doesn't?

I did a search on google looking for hacks, but didn't find anything except overclocking the card.

Thanks in advance!

doing that uses CPU regardless of whether you are using dual or single monitors. mine does this too.

Hi Doujet,

I wouldn't expect to use 50% cpu to scroll a simple 2D window up and down with a AGP card. That's a little extreme isn't it?

I wouldn't put much faith in what Task Manager says. There are numerous functions that will cause TM to show heavy CPU usage, regardless of the available horsepower. Try running SONAR and moving windows around while checking CPU usage in SONAR. I'll bet the actual load will hardly flinch, especially with a rig like yours. FWIW, I seem to recall that Task Manager isn't really showing you actual 'load'...rather, allocated or 'available' CPU for a given task. If your apps are running smoothly, don't worry about Task Manager. It isn't worth the stress...about as usefull as a horrorsope, IMHO :-) Enjoy your dual monitors!

ORIGINAL: overdub

I wouldn't put much faith in what Task Manager says. There are numerous functions that will cause TM to show heavy CPU usage, regardless of the available horsepower. Try running SONAR and moving windows around while checking CPU usage in SONAR. I'll bet the actual load will hardly flinch, especially with a rig like yours. FWIW, I seem to recall that Task Manager isn't really showing you actual 'load'...rather, allocated or 'available' CPU for a given task. If your apps are running smoothly, don't worry about Task Manager. It isn't worth the stress...about as usefull as a horrorsope, IMHO :-) Enjoy your dual monitors!

I guess the problem is if I'm pushing the cpu with Sonar, say at %75 ~ %85 then moving anything on the screen would push my cpu usage into overload and cause a drop out. On smaller projects, it's not that big of a problem.

It's sort of like I have a ferrari but I can't use half of the power of the engine because of the power windows in it.

When I drag a window around there is a cpu hit but it doesn't go over 28%, and dragging a scroll bar up and down doesn't cause more than a 19% hit. I do have show windows contents while dragging checked. I am running a core2duo - 6400 witn 2 gigs of ram.

I only have one monitor by the way.

ORIGINAL: Duojet

ORIGINAL: JohnnyPhilko

ORIGINAL: Duojet

ORIGINAL: JohnnyPhilko

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions.

One thing I am basing this from is that if I open up the Windows Task Manager and click on the performance tab, I can watch the cpu usage go up to 50% on both cpus while I take and move a scroll bar quickly up and down in Sonar.

Can anyone confirm that thiers does this or doesn't?

I did a search on google looking for hacks, but didn't find anything except overclocking the card.

Thanks in advance!

doing that uses CPU regardless of whether you are using dual or single monitors. mine does this too.

Hi Doujet,

I wouldn't expect to use 50% cpu to scroll a simple 2D window up and down with a AGP card. That's a little extreme isn't it?

i dont know why, but it does happen. its happened with other pc's i've had and other video cards. i dont really think it has anything to do with the video card. try dragging a window around really fast, same type of cpu hit (if you have show window contents while dragging checked.)

It's a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE. What results are you getting?

ORIGINAL: JohnnyPhilko

Hi Mick,

What kind of video card do you have, if I may ask. :-) You're getting better results than I am!

I can't help but wonder if you're pushing 'low latency' to it's limits with your buffer settings. If you're just editing or mixing, the latency doesn't need to be extremely low, so, you can increase the buffers in your Delta 1010 and get much lower CPU usage. If you're recording with a soft-synth and need low latency, archive some of your least needed tracks while you record. How many tracks do you have going? How many plugins running?

P.S. I just noticed the amount of RAM you've listed for your system. You might want to edit your signature

ORIGINAL: Mick

It's a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE. What results are you getting?

Hi Mick,

I'm getting 50% Cpu usage with a GeForce XF5200. With Sonar or Internet Explorer, just sliding a window or page up and down.

ORIGINAL: overdub

I can't help but wonder if you're pushing 'low latency' to it's limits with your buffer settings. If you're just editing or mixing, the latency doesn't need to be extremely low, so, you can increase the buffers in your Delta 1010 and get much lower CPU usage. If you're recording with a soft-synth and need low latency, archive some of your least needed tracks while you record. How many tracks do you have going? How many plugins running?

P.S. I just noticed the amount of RAM you've listed for your system. You might want to edit your signature

Hi Overdub,

Even if I do this in Internet Explorer I get the same results without Sonar even loaded.


Oh, yeah that should be 1 gig of ram! LOL!