Cubase 10, Buffer Size and Real Time Performance Issue Ryzen Threadripper 1950X

[chk071]

Of course I agree that it is where we are today in gaming and that there might be scenarios where a more little single core speed makes a difference also in DAW usage, but would argue that it is so rare that 98% (?!) of DAW users should not even have to take it into account.

You're right that it may not be very relevant, as well as talking about absolute high end components here may not be very relevant for the typical end consumer.

Didn't know that you can freely download and use DawBench, by the way, I'll check that out on my Xeon system. Won't have a good score though, it's pretty old, and wasn't really high end at the time I bought it...

[Freaqpeak]

Only the latest Cubase update (10.5.10) fixed this VST3 bug. It's not in the release notes but confirmed by Steinberg employees that its fixed. So its highly recommend to update to the latest Cubase version and test this again. The other things have already been mentioned, Steinberg has this own energy saving mode in the settings (this mode optimized for audio...) I would enable this and of course Asio Guard at "standard" (I would not use the highest settings because there are some known problems with some midi plugins).

I just reinstalled and upgraded to the 10.5.10 version and it definitely gave an improvement although I am not sure whether it could be better. I have attached a screenshot of the real time load and average load on the current project which has 24 VST all are Kontakt Instances each one is a seperate one with a single MIDI Track. All of them have a Fab Filter EQ and 8 of them have Fab Filter R on them. This is with a Buffer Size of 512 which is an improvement. Also this is with Asio Guard on Low.

I think I need to download DAWBench and test with it but the clean install with the update definitely did something.

Nice to hear that it got better after clean install.
Keep in mind that Cubase own Performance meter is not working correctly. It doesn't show correct values, this is very obvious on a system with many (14+) cores. And the 1950x has 16 cores.
Check Windows' own performance CPU meters to see how much you have left or how much you are using. You can have Cubase meter at 98% and still have a lot of more power left and no glitches.
1950x is more sensitive to ASIO latency changes than latest Ryzens for instance. I do suspect that the faster memory you get the better result you should get. A few percent increase atleast, when going from 3200 to 3600 Mhz for instance. It may be worth a try.

- What graphics card do you use? If it's Geforce, install their "Studio Drivers". You can also try to set the graphics cards PCIE speed in BIOS to something lower (1x or 2x). Disable all real-time antivirus stuff, it will scan all files that you access. So using a sample player like Kontakt will make the real-time scanner start working as soon as you open up a library (I think... not sure. Maybe Windows real-time defender isn't scanning Kontakt-files). It's worth a test.
- Check BIOS if it's actually running your memory in correct speed (you should use atleast minimum 3200 Mhz memory.

[Sh4d0wStrider]

Nice to hear that it got better after clean install.
Keep in mind that Cubase own Performance meter is not working correctly. It doesn't show correct values, this is very obvious on a system with many (14+) cores. And the 1950x has 16 cores.
Check Windows' own performance CPU meters to see how much you have left or how much you are using. You can have Cubase meter at 98% and still have a lot of more power left and no glitches.
1950x is more sensitive to ASIO latency changes than latest Ryzens for instance. I do suspect that the faster memory you get the better result you should get. A few percent increase atleast, when going from 3200 to 3600 Mhz for instance. It may be worth a try.

- What graphics card do you use? If it's Geforce, install their "Studio Drivers". You can also try to set the graphics cards PCIE speed in BIOS to something lower (1x or 2x). Disable all real-time antivirus stuff, it will scan all files that you access. So using a sample player like Kontakt will make the real-time scanner start working as soon as you open up a library (I think... not sure. Maybe Windows real-time defender isn't scanning Kontakt-files). It's worth a test.
- Check BIOS if it's actually running your memory in correct speed (you should use atleast minimum 3200 Mhz memory.

Thanks a lot for the tips I will work on those now. My memory should be at 2999 Mhz at the moment I think I tried pushing it to 3200 Mhz but could not stabilize it and I did not bother fine tuning voltages for it to be stable. During the weekend I might try to do that since mine was 3600 rated if not mistaken, need to double check that too but it was defo above 3000 Mhz.

I have been using Nvidia Studio drivers since they started releasing them seperately. I will try lowering the graphics speed in the BIOS it might affect the results since I do use 1 x Ultrawide and 2 x 27 inch monitors. I always turn off my Bitdefender completely before I start Cubase and I sometimes disable my wireless and ethernet connections too because I have noticed them affecting it slightly from time to time.