robert_e_bone
Please respond with the following info:
 
1.  Sonar Driver Mode
2.  Sonar Sample Rate
3.  Sonar-reported latency values (input/output/total round-trip)
4.  Sonar Record Bit Depth (16/24?)
5.  Audio interface Sample Rate
 
Also, if LatencyMon is indicating an issue with streaming, then something outside of Sonar is going on with at least an initial cause of latency within Sonar.  And, this would be in addition to whatever your settings and usage of GR5 in Sonar are adding to that.
 
I would think addressing performance OUTSIDE of Sonar would be first up.  
 
Generally, any antivirus software is a pretty good performance 'hit', and while running Sonar sessions, I would suggest temporarily suspending it.  I would try suspending it and seeing what the improvement is by running LatencyMon again.
 
I run with the High-Performance Windows Power Plan, and further adjust it to:
 
 Set Minimum and Maximum Processor State values to 100%.  (Under Advanced Options - Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings, then click on Change Advanced Power Settings, then expand Processor Power Management and you should see the Minimum Processor State and Maximum Processor State - expand each of those and make sure to set those to 100%.  Please note that some folks have reported not having those settings show up - though that has never happened on any system I have built.
 
 - I also expand the USB Settings and then go into USB Selective Suspend setting and set that to 'disable'. I do this because by default, Windows will essentially disconnect USB devices after some period of idle time, so since my midi controllers may sit for long periods, disabling the suspend leaves them 'active' and available to Sonar.
 
You may have to end up going through the exercise of changing what Windows Services are running in the background, as these may be pushing you over the edge and causing dropouts.  Things like Printer Spooler, and those wonderful stupid programs that run all the time just to check for updates to Adobe and such, all chew up a little bit of performance, so on a system with limited memory and horsepower, this can be something that must be gone into.
 
I would suggest getting your system outside of Sonar stable and getting LatencyMon to be happy with your system handling streaming audio, then try the following settings:
 
Audio interface - Sample Rate of 44.1 k or 48 k, ASIO Buffer Size of 128.
 
In Sonar - Driver Mode = ASIO, Sample Rate 44.1 k or 48 k, (must match settings of audio interface), you are shooting for a total round trip latency of 10 milliseconds or just a little less, as a reasonable starting point.
 
Bob Bone
 

 
Bob thank you so much. I will run through your 1-5 questions and post the answers. Thanks as well for the other suggestions and settings. (I have seen your posts help many a member here!)

Anderton
This is all good advice. My previous computer was a dual-core and I had to be real careful about how many plug-ins and virtual instruments I used. Also when you do get a new computer, it's well worth getting more than 4GB RAM (sorry). This is especially important with instruments that load their samples into RAM. Just doubling RAM to 8GB can make a big difference. I upgraded to 32GB of RAM a while back...thought it was extravagant at the time, but quickly realized how much it helped performance when using lots of virtual instruments. That's probably more than most people need for audio, but I do a lot of video work and it really helps for that.

Thanks, Anderton! Yes, I was concerned about my low level of RAM. I will upgrade...

Something that I have found when using GR5 is I try to stay away from presets and just use amps and cabs while still in the recording process. When I have what I think I need as far as tracks and it is time to start mixing, I will then open up the latency on my sound card and can then start to add effects from GR5. I have put GR5 on a bus as well and have routed guitar tracks that I am recording to use that buss, just to get the guitar tracks recorded (which will be dry on the track) only using the 1 instance of GR5 (less drain on the CPU) to get the job done until time to mix.

Thatsastrat
Something that I have found when using GR5 is I try to stay away from presets and just use amps and cabs while still in the recording process. When I have what I think I need as far as tracks and it is time to start mixing, I will then open up the latency on my sound card and can then start to add effects from GR5. I have put GR5 on a bus as well and have routed guitar tracks that I am recording to use that buss, just to get the guitar tracks recorded (which will be dry on the track) only using the 1 instance of GR5 (less drain on the CPU) to get the job done until time to mix.

Thanks, strat! Never thought of that, I am always using the presets which have all those effects going on. I'll give it a shot with just the amp & cab for laying down the beds.

In the top right hand corner of Guitar rig there is a little icon that says "HI" (Just to the right of the CPU monitor)... I think by default its on, if its YELLOW then its on, greyed out is OFF.
 
Try un-checking that to put it into Low Processing mode.
 
That may help.

I'm getting the occasional dropout also when using just a couple instances of GR5 with only a couple modules loaded. I have 16 gigs of ram. I think this is a glitch in GR5.
 

soundtweaker
I'm getting the occasional dropout also when using just a couple instances of GR5 with only a couple modules loaded. I have 16 gigs of ram. I think this is a glitch in GR5.
 

Zero issues with Gtr Rig 5 and 16gb of RAM here. Theres no "glitch" in GR5.

The only issue I have come across that Sonar have acknowledged is when you freeze Gtr Rig5 then unfreeze you lose all your settings and if you havent saved your stack then its gone forever (this is an NI issue not Sonars)

Not to mention the amount of RAM has practically nothing to do with it.

markyzno
In the top right hand corner of Guitar rig there is a little icon that says "HI" (Just to the right of the CPU monitor)... I think by default its on, if its YELLOW then its on, greyed out is OFF.
 
Try un-checking that to put it into Low Processing mode.
 
That may help.

Thanks. Schooled me on that one, I had never noticed that icon. I made sure it is OFF.

soundtweaker
I'm getting the occasional dropout also when using just a couple instances of GR5 with only a couple modules loaded. I have 16 gigs of ram. I think this is a glitch in GR5.
 

You, too, huh? You have a ton of RAM, I'm only working with 4 gigs. I know I'm at the minimum...

markyzno
Zero issues with Gtr Rig 5 and 16gb of RAM here. Theres no "glitch" in GR5.

The only issue I have come across that Sonar have acknowledged is when you freeze Gtr Rig5 then unfreeze you lose all your settings and if you havent saved your stack then its gone forever (this is an NI issue not Sonars)

Thanks. I appreciate the heads up. I'll remember to save my stack with all the tweaks...

Sanderxpander
Not to mention the amount of RAM has practically nothing to do with it.

Thanks, that's a bit of a relief for me. I'm still thinking of adding more, though...
 
Every post here has made a difference for me. I'm still working to respond to Bob's queries on my system. In the meantime, I'm trying to shut down all the background processes...
 
Thanks, gang. 

More RAM is nice, but there's a thread going on here right now of a guy going from 3 to 7 GB RAM and noticing zero performance difference on his 44 track project. VST fx and audio tracks in general really don't need much RAM. The CPU speed is usually the bottleneck for FX. I would say 4GB of RAM is enough until you start to load a lot of sample based sounds. Which depends completely on your workflow. If you're 100 percent audio tracking or use only analog modeling synths you still won't need that much RAM.
Start loading a bunch of piano, strings or drums libraries and it can go quickly.