I still cannot pin a mastering plugin and open a second mastering plugin without crashing sonar. It seems to work on a Win 10 system but not a Win 7 system.

timp410
I still cannot pin a mastering plugin and open a second mastering plugin without crashing sonar. It seems to work on a Win 10 system but not a Win 7 system.

I just tried it on my system and it worked fine. 

What version are your Nvidia graphics drivers on your Windows 7 system? - the latest being Version 365.19 as of 23 May, 2016

I had to switch to the onboard video because my GeForce GT 730 failed on me. The onboard video uses an intel HD 4600: driver version is 3.4.0. I have been planning to order a new video card but there hasn’t been an urgency to do so since everything has been working fine. However, maybe it’s time to order one. I was always told that DAW’s do not require a fire breathing video card.  

I would borrow one if you can, just to make sure that is the issue. The intel HD 4600 supports OpenGL4.3 (The new LP EQ and MB plugs need 3.2) , so I would not have thought that would be an issue.
 
Mind you, there are some plugins that can use the hardware graphics acceleration capabilities on most modern graphics cards to free the motherboard CPU for audio related tasks .  Meldaproduction plugins is an example that offers this functionality - though hardware acceleration on these plugins can be disabled if the hardware acceleration causes issues. 

The new LP EQ and MB plugs do indeed use the GPU on my GTX560ti card at about 7% utilisation while playing a track in Sonar Platinum and watching the spectrum analyser on the LP EQ plug.

So maybe picking a PCIE Geforce Nvidia card might be a good idea.  I would suggest a Geforce 400 series as a minimum.  Just make sure your power supply is up to the task.

I believe the issue with my system has been resolved concerning the new mastering plugins. I remember changing my performance options under Windows system properties to “Adjust for best performance”. I initially made this change when I was trying to resolve an issue with audio crackling when using the Quad curve EQ. After spending many frustrating hours, I discovered a post by Craig Anderson where he advised us to disable the “High Definition Audio Controller” which actually fixed the crackling issue. However, I never went back to changed the performance options back to “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer” I decided to change the setting back this morning after reading promidi's post and this appears to have fixed the issue on my system.  

FWIW, I have my PC audio (Realtek) and the Intel HDMI Audio enabled.  It does not interfere with Sonar or my recording interface units.  I had the generic, basic function, Windows installed High Definition Audio driver installed when I first upgraded to Win 10 and it too did not interfere or cause any problems. 

promidi
...
So maybe picking a PCIE Geforce Nvidia card might be a good idea.  I would suggest a Geforce 400 series as a minimum.  Just make sure your power supply is up to the task.

Agree, with a caveat.
 
NVidia makes the GPU. Other manufacturers make the video adapters. They are not created equal. My old AMD Radeon board never worked well under Win10 (I'm being generous. Daily BSODs and driver resets.).
 
I wound up buying a Gigabyte Windforce Geforce GTX 750 Ti with 4 GB of GDDR5 RAM. The thing's a monster. I can hear the fans, but I expected to. Compared to the new home construction across the street that'll be going on for the next 3 years or so? Not an issue.
 
Amazon has it for $139 with a $20 rebate available until 31 May 2016.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Gig...s-Cards/dp/B013WAL3AU/

Please help me understand, if my integrated video card is working well, what will I gain from purchasing a new video card?  

If your current solution works, there is no reason to change. The reason I purchased a video card was to avoid sharing system memory with video.

I agree on sharing system memory, this was the reason I purchased a video card when I built my system. However, my largest projects are not taxing my system in the least bit. I may end up purchasing a new card here soon just for the heck of it.
 
Thanks