Jude,
 
Update your OP with the word SOLVED please. I had to read 9 posts to see what others offered only to find that there is no longer a problem and your OP (to the noob) would seem negative.
 
And maybe edit the bodo of the with a bold "SOLVED: SEE POST # 10"
 
Just a thought.

jude77
Hey Guys:
An update: I ran latency monitor and it advised me to change my power settings (I increased them) and to update my BIOS (which I did).  I'm now running a 10 track audio project LOADED with plugins at a buffer of 512!!  Sweeeeeeeeeet!!!
Thanks to each of you who responded to my cry and threw me a lifeline.  I appreciate EVERYONE of you!!!! 

 Sorry but that's not RME performance.  There is still something wrong.  A Focusrite 212 could match that.

bapu
Just a thought.

I thought I smelled smoke.

:-P

512 is high for RME. You probably have a number of little tweaks you could do... like disabling USB suspension.

Does latency monitor say you can handle real time audio for hours on end?

Hi Guys:
I dropped the buffer size to 128 and all went well.  I haven't tried any less than that, because I'm able to work with that fine, but I'll still give it a check.
 
And can somebody tell me how to mark this thread "solved"?  I'll be glad to update.

Edit the original post to update.

Just as a closing note I opened a project with 14 audio tracks (with plugins) and 3 softsynths.  Dropped the buffer to 64 samples: no pops.  48 samples: a few pops, but only occasionally.  Feels a bit like a miracle.

Welcome to the party.

Just updated the firmware and drivers for my Behringer UFX1204 which was a bit buggy in Windows 10, set the buffers all the way down to 48/1.0 ms in the Control Panel but Sonar reports it as 96/2.0 ms. Latency is 10.8 roundtrip - 3.4 IN & 7.4 OUT under ASIO.
@48K/24b effective latency is 2ms.... So far, so good.
 
Latency monitor says I may have difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks and may experience drop outs. So far, not happening.
 
Highest measured interupt @6 min.: 929.5
Highest reported ISR time: 152.3
Highest reported DPC time: 1122.9
Don't know what all that means.
 
My old(er) MOTU wouldn't go anywhere that low without serious trouoble in Windows 7. Haven't tried it with Windows 10 yet.

wait....
does that mean you now feel love?
 

batsbrew
wait....
does that mean you now feel love?

Isn't that a Donna Summer tune?  
Glad the OP has the Babyface now working well...
 
FWIW, If the machine can keep up with the load (and has low/consistent DPC Latency), you can effectively work at a 48-sample ASIO buffer size.  I rarely bump my RME Fireface UFX off the 48-sample ASIO buffer size.
At higher sample-rates, this buffer size is doubled to 96-samples (still provides low round-trip latency)... and it's completely glitch-free.