ampfixer
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X2a Core balancing
Core 1 has always shown more load than the other cores. I tweaked this setting for X1 and it wasn't too bad. In X2 it seemed to get worse and with X2a it's horrible. Core 1 is 50% or more all the time while some of the other cores show almost no activity.
Has anyone else experienced this? Something about those new C++ libraries has changed the way things are running here. At least that's my suspicion.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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noynekker
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/28 22:50:12
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Same for me here, Core 1 runs hotter, but from X2 to X2a there has not been a change I've noticed.
What tweak did you do ?
Isn't Core 1 running higher just the Operating System, not Sonar ?
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ampfixer
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 00:07:53
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I went into the system and disabled core parking. That did something in X1 but seems to have little effect in X2.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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John
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 00:28:43
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Guys there is a ini setting dealing with core scheduling that for the life of me I can't find on the forum via search. It is ThreadSchedulingModel. It will take 0 through 2 as data. I believe it can help in smoothing out core usage. I have mine set to 2.
You should find it in the Preferences Audio Configuration File.
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Resonant Order
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 00:31:41
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I'm not seeing anything weird. X1->X2->X2a all showed the same, which is relatively even.
If I run something like Omnisphere, and not much else, the first core shows a bit of spiking, but never peaks. The more tracks/plugs/synths I add, the more balanced it becomes. Overall, it's much better than 8.5.3 when it comes to balance.
On AMD here.
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Resonant Order
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 00:33:37
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Just checked, and my ThreadSchedulingModel is set to 2.
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ampfixer
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 11:36:40
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I never thought about that setting John, I'll check it out. I know I had it set to 2 previously but perhaps it changed.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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TS
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 12:08:56
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Page 1307 of the Sonar X2 Reference Guide ("Initialization File Format") : "This variable goes in the [Wave] section and controls the interaction of the main audio thread and worker threads on multiprocessor systems when the Use Multiprocessing Engine option is enabled. Depending on the system, a particular model may result in less glitching and better overall performance. The values are as follows: 0 = Same as previous versions of SONAR. 1 = (default) Better thread balance. Model is more efficient and can provide cycles for other tasks. 2 = Additional worker thread is created. This may result in improvement with Quad processor systems or higher. Not recommended for Dual processor systems."
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TS
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 12:13:20
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I think it is better not to change any setting (like this one) if there is no REAL problem.
In my system, the 1st core works more than the others, but there is no problem with it, so i did not change anything.
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ampfixer
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 12:45:51
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Sounds like more good advice. I checked the config file and found everything set as it should be. I think my solution will be to simply turn off the performance monitoring widget in the control bar. Small things like that really bug me so perhaps it's best if I don't know.
Regards, John I want to make it clear that I am an Eedjit. I have no direct, or indirect, knowledge of business, the music industry, forum threads or the meaning of life. I know about amps. WIN 10 Pro X64, I7-3770k 16 gigs, ASUS Z77 pro, AMD 7950 3 gig, Steinberg UR44, A-Pro 500, Sonar Platinum, KRK Rokit 6
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sharke
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 14:06:01
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I don't think that you can get around the first core spiking to be honest. It's never going to be even. I'm guessing that OS activity is one of the main reasons why the first core gets so much more use.
However, I do wish Sonar would give you the option of choosing how many cores to utilize. Pro Tools gives you this option and indeed many people get better CPU performance out of it by reducing the number of cores the DAW uses, I'm thinking because this allows the OS to use the remaining cores.
Has anyone looked into some of the other options in the config file, like MixThreadCount?
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Danny Danzi
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 14:29:28
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Yeah I've messed around with all that stuff, sharke. The best bet in my opinion is to stay away from MixThreadCount and if someone decides to mess with thread scheduling....the best bet is to leave it at 1, or revert to 0 for the old way Sonar processed. I get the best results with 1. I get better results with 0 than I do with 2 and I'm a quad....so I guess it will be different per system.
-Danny
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panup
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 15:39:03
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Danny Danzi
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 15:45:02
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You have that for X2a yet Panu?
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panup
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 15:49:55
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X2a is supported. There's a minor graphics issue in some of the mods with interleave button (update coming asap) but otherwise Duckbar works great with X2a.
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arachnaut
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 16:46:39
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If you run LatencyMon and look at the CPU tab you will see that all the interrupts are handled by Core 1.
I suppose that is by (Intel/Microsoft) design and not changeable, so I don't think any Thread Model setting will make a difference to Core 1.
If I understand the Thread Model, Model 2 is producer/consumer model which creates a new worker thread which runs in a core to spread the load to other cores. If that is accurate, the more cores you have the more you may benefit from model 2.
I use model 2.
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Splat 
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 18:06:16
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Turn off Intel speedstep or equivalent (AMD powernow, core parking in Windows)... etc... Apart from those of you who have a chip that supports it, and a motherboard that doesn't, in which case engage phantom pregnancy mode.
Sell by date at 9000 posts. Do not feed. @48/24 & 128 buffers latency is 367 with offset of 38. Sonar Platinum(64 bit),Win 8.1(64 bit),Saffire Pro 40(Firewire),Mix Control = 3.4,Firewire=VIA,Dell Studio XPS 8100(Intel Core i7 CPU 2.93 Ghz/16 Gb),4 x Seagate ST31500341AS (mirrored),GeForce GTX 460,Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard,Roland A-300PRO,Roland SPD-30 V2,FD-8,Triggera Krigg,Shure SM7B,Yamaha HS5.Maschine Studio+Komplete 9 Ultimate+Kontrol Z1.Addictive Keys,Izotope Nectar elements,Overloud Bundle,Geist.Acronis True Image 2014.
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STinGA
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 18:09:09
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Win 8 x64 Sonar X3b Producer X64 Edirol UA-101 BCF2000 A-Pro 500 Roland TD-6KV
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Splat
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 18:11:05
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Sell by date at 9000 posts. Do not feed. @48/24 & 128 buffers latency is 367 with offset of 38. Sonar Platinum(64 bit),Win 8.1(64 bit),Saffire Pro 40(Firewire),Mix Control = 3.4,Firewire=VIA,Dell Studio XPS 8100(Intel Core i7 CPU 2.93 Ghz/16 Gb),4 x Seagate ST31500341AS (mirrored),GeForce GTX 460,Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard,Roland A-300PRO,Roland SPD-30 V2,FD-8,Triggera Krigg,Shure SM7B,Yamaha HS5.Maschine Studio+Komplete 9 Ultimate+Kontrol Z1.Addictive Keys,Izotope Nectar elements,Overloud Bundle,Geist.Acronis True Image 2014.
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Silicon Audio
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 18:39:46
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sharke
I don't think that you can get around the first core spiking to be honest. It's never going to be even. I'm guessing that OS activity is one of the main reasons why the first core gets so much more use.
However, I do wish Sonar would give you the option of choosing how many cores to utilize. Pro Tools gives you this option and indeed many people get better CPU performance out of it by reducing the number of cores the DAW uses, I'm thinking because this allows the OS to use the remaining cores.
Has anyone looked into some of the other options in the config file, like MixThreadCount?
Go to task manager, click the on the processes tab, right click on the Sonar executable and choose "Set Affinity...". To be honest, if reducing the number of cores in ProTools helps performance, it's probably because their multi-threading is not up to scratch.
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Splat
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 18:43:16
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Sell by date at 9000 posts. Do not feed. @48/24 & 128 buffers latency is 367 with offset of 38. Sonar Platinum(64 bit),Win 8.1(64 bit),Saffire Pro 40(Firewire),Mix Control = 3.4,Firewire=VIA,Dell Studio XPS 8100(Intel Core i7 CPU 2.93 Ghz/16 Gb),4 x Seagate ST31500341AS (mirrored),GeForce GTX 460,Yamaha DGX-505 keyboard,Roland A-300PRO,Roland SPD-30 V2,FD-8,Triggera Krigg,Shure SM7B,Yamaha HS5.Maschine Studio+Komplete 9 Ultimate+Kontrol Z1.Addictive Keys,Izotope Nectar elements,Overloud Bundle,Geist.Acronis True Image 2014.
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noynekker
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 19:31:14
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Silicon Audio
Go to task manager, click the on the processes tab, right click on the Sonar executable and choose "Set Affinity...".
To be honest, if reducing the number of cores in ProTools helps performance, it's probably because their multi-threading is not up to scratch.
Hi Silicon Audio . . . great tip, didn't know this existed, but I wonder have you (or anyone else) used this to adjust core usage in Sonar ? I'm feeling reluctant to try it out, with out knowing more about it.
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Resonant Order
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 21:10:43
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I tried to use duckbar the other night because I'm seriously interested in changing colors. But, while using Sonar in full screen mode and after switching to regular mode, my windows toolbar disappears, and I can't get it back without rebooting the computer. Has anyone else reported this problem? (Sorry for the hijack)
panup
X2a is supported. There's a minor graphics issue in some of the mods with interleave button (update coming asap) but otherwise Duckbar works great with X2a.
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Music at Night, 1931- Aldous Huxley
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panup
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 21:41:45
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(Sorry OT hijack, too) Did you use X2's or Duckbar's full screen mode?
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Resonant Order
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 21:45:56
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I think it was the X2 full screen mode. I'll try it again.
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panup
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 21:50:00
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If you lose Windows start bar, go to Duckbar and press F11.
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Resonant Order
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/29 22:19:55
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Thank you. It works! Customizing colors as we speak. :)
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synkrotron
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/30 05:22:56
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So, with respect to the Processor Affinity options, if you were getting a large Core 0 usage and wanted to prevent it from spiking (I am suffering the same "issue" on some projects), would you deselect <All Processors> and then select all processors except Core 0?
I am assuming then you would prevent Sonar from using Core 0 at all thereby reducing the hit on that processor from Sonar?
I might experiment myself to gain a better understanding if this is a worthwhile procedure. And then again, I might just go make music...
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synkrotron
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/30 06:55:07
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Well, doing what I explained above made no difference whatsoever. Furthermore, even though, in my very small test project, the CPU meter shows Core 0 to be running at around 45~50% and the remaining seven cores to be running at less than 10%, Task Manager shows CPU Core Usage to be equally spread and running at around 7%
That, for me, raises the question of the accuracy of Sonar's CPU meter. And regardless of what Task Manager is telling me, I wouldn't be surprised if Sonar still tripped out when one of the cores reached the 70% mark, although I've not reached that point yet.
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Swiller
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Re:X2a Core balancing
2012/12/30 07:00:10
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Been messing with the affinity settings and yes, it does appear to work. you still see the spike, but that is processor1 doing non sonar stuff.
So on my i3700k i have thread 1 and 2 disabled and threads 3-8 enabled. You can do this for other processes such as bit bridge and your soundacrd mixer.
Also there is a set priority setting which maybe of some use as well. However, all this is forgotten once sonar is closed and you have to do this every time you open up sonar.
If anyone else has been messing around with any settings in wondows, do post up.
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