Also try turning off load balancing. It's not always needed; refer to the documentation about when using it indicated and when it's not.

I have had the same problem since I updated to Splat the other day. It only effects one project which is mostly audio but uses prochannel modules on several tracks. The first thread is maxing and the others are fairly high. Getting lots of pops, clicks, dropouts and crashes - running slow and unstable.
 
A new project I am working on now uses more plugins but no prochannels and the threads are all at minimum and it's all nice and astable. I was thinking this may be prochannel related because I haven't tended to use prochannel much  before and I haven't encountered this problem before.

bitflipper: Thanks for the link, this tool looks just like what I need for power management.
Anderton: Without load balancing, the first thread goes into red and then I have drop outs. With balancing, all threads stay rather low, but the drop outs happen nonetheless. So, at least it looks better with balancing ;)
35mm: On my last computer, I also had the problem of pops and clicks when CPU load became too high. If all threads go high, you probably have to reduce the number of effects. Or find plugins with high CPU load and replace them by similar with less power consumption.

Load balancing in certain cases can actually increase the overall CPU load.
You don't mention your setup.
Do the dropouts go away if you disable the FX ? (the 'E' key toggles the FX on/off).
Are you using any LP plugs? (linear phase).
Try increasing your audio buffer size.
You could also try running Latency Monitor (free)  http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
This may show something in your system is taking up too much CPU time (e.g. wifi, video, disk, etc.).
Even with a fast system, if something like the video driver is taking too much time, the CPU cannot keep the output buffer full so you get a dropout.
Increasing the buffer size allows the CPU more time to fill the buffer so it reduces the required load on the system but also increases the audio latency. Some projects may need a larger buffer.

The overall CPU load of the project is 20%, so it's far from a general overload. I have drop outs with and without load balancing. Without balancing, the first thread in the Performance module sometimes goes to red indicating an overload. With balancing, all threads stay nicely below 50%. Hence, my main concern is, why load ballancing doesn't help against the drop outs.
 
My audio buffer is at maximum of 10ms, it's not possible to increase it further in ASIO mode. In other modes, I have to increase it way beyond 50ms, which is impractical to work with.
 
As I mentioned, the problem is caused by the overall plugin load, so yes, turning off all FX reduces the load enough to prevent drop outs. Even turning off rather few plugins helps to keep the load below the critical point.
 
The main problem with the project seems to be that it requires CPU power in an irregular (meaning not enough constant) manner. So, power management reduces CPU frequency and can't catch up quick enough, when more power is needed. Hence, increasing minimum CPU frequency solves the problem.

Turn that pc to 11, and be happy.
 

ralf
I guess it's the combination of VST-plugins. If I disable enough plugins, the load is low enough to prevent drop outs. But no particular plugin seems to be the one that makes the difference....

Any linear-phase plugins? 
 
Also, disable 64-bit double precision if enabled.