Reaper: Massive rise in CPU usage, why?

[ghostwhistler]

What soundcard do you have? and do you have the option to run ASIO instead of WASAPi ?

The sound is 'realtek Audio'.

I have ASIO, but i'm reluctant to start fiddling with that. It's always been WASAPI so i don't know why that would suddenly be a problem. If it is, then surely that can be better addressed elsewhere

[BertKoor]

Ow, I was still at post #1 when it was solely about rendering.

I don't think these kind of "why" questions cannot be answered. Surely not remote.

For my job (computer programmer) I sometimes measure performance of the software I write. Just to know whether the new iteration is faster or slower than the previous one. That is one of the hardest things to do. Everything needs to remain exactly the same, and even then, running the same test job the next day without having changed anything can give vastly different results.

Have you taken notes of the performance readouts and of all the things that have changed on your system, including those you cannot have knowledge about? If not, you won't ever find an answer. And even if you did have all the data, it would be hard to find.

For instance, having a web browser or email client open (minimised) can make a difference. Power from batteries instead of mains can cause the DAW to use efficiency cores instead of performance cores. Little things, like having an external disk drive plugged in, can have these side effects.

[mirDR]

On the main page of Diva is render quality set to highest or divine, i forget what it's called? That would cause a higher CPU usage.

[lfm]

Why is this happening? Why is Reaper now suddenly telling me my vst's are using 4x as much CPU as before? Do you know?

#1. there are options for which render quality to use for
a) playback
b) offline rendering

10 yrs ago I ran Reaper it said 128 something for playback and 192 for offline rendering.

An update of something on Reaper could possibly updated quality of some drivers used that make it take more cpu.
- I doubt they would change settings, unless you did yourself

Offline rendering cpu is seldom a problem at all, unless it takes 4x longer or something.

If better taking care of cpu cores, or a setting allowing less cores for a synth or similar, cpu can go this or that way.

#2. update of OS of some sort?
- anything happend there?

On windows there has been reports that 24H2 update suddenly cause issues with usb audio, as I read in forum "computers....".

#3. something could be updated on efficiency of Reaper rendering overall?
- there are quite frequent updates on Reaper

Are you running anti-virus or anti-something software at all?
- update of this is usually frequent

So is rendering now going faster maybe?

Unless playback for mixing is affected I would not worry about it.
- like suddenly getting crackles and pops in audio and similar

That everything is the same, and suddenly something changed anyway, is not likely.

Just a bunch of ideas...

[ghostwhistler]

On the main page of Diva is render quality set to highest or divine, i forget what it's called? That would cause a higher CPU usage.

No. I have not changed the settings.

[ghostwhistler]

Why is this happening? Why is Reaper now suddenly telling me my vst's are using 4x as much CPU as before? Do you know?

#1. there are options for which render quality to use for
a) playback
b) offline rendering

10 yrs ago I ran Reaper it said 128 something for playback and 192 for offline rendering.

An update of something on Reaper could possibly updated quality of some drivers used that make it take more cpu.
- I doubt they would change settings, unless you did yourself

Offline rendering cpu is seldom a problem at all, unless it takes 4x longer or something.

If better taking care of cpu cores, or a setting allowing less cores for a synth or similar, cpu can go this or that way.

#2. update of OS of some sort?
- anything happend there?

On windows there has been reports that 24H2 update suddenly cause issues with usb audio, as I read in forum "computers....".

#3. something could be updated on efficiency of Reaper rendering overall?
- there are quite frequent updates on Reaper

Are you running anti-virus or anti-something software at all?
- update of this is usually frequent

So is rendering now going faster maybe?

Unless playback for mixing is affected I would not worry about it.
- like suddenly getting crackles and pops in audio and similar

That everything is the same, and suddenly something changed anyway, is not likely.

Just a bunch of ideas...

Ok, this is not just a rendering issue, as I have said.

It wasn't happening before either. Not in respect of windows updates and i haven't updated to 24h2 as it is huge and I have neither the interest nor the time nor the bandwidth to download it.

[DoktorTenma]

Install the version of Reaper where you didn't have the performance issues and compare the performance behaviour between the versions.

You can download the old Reaper versions from here: https://www.reaper.fm/download-old.php

During the installation of the previous version, select "Portable install" on the second installation screen and let it install to the shown path. (C:\REAPER) This is so that the old version will not overwrite your current version and you can easily compare the performance of both versions without re-installing each version when you run your comparisons.

If you observe that the new version is performing significantly worse, report this on the Reaper forums with screenshots showing the differences between the Reaper versions. This will hopefully catch the eyes of the Reaper developers so they can have a look at the cause of your performance issues.

[Kr3eM]

I have ASIO, but i'm reluctant to start fiddling with that. It's always been WASAPI so i don't know why that would suddenly be a problem. If it is, then surely that can be better addressed elsewhere

A buggy WASAPI update is enough, not saying it is, however when stuff starts missbehaving it's usually something that's been updated or added to the system...

If you always have other apps running like Firefox or anything else that uses the WASAPI an update of any of those applications can also introduce bugs that can impact other apps when they share WASAPI. If running Reaper by itself gives back the performance then it's likely one of the other apps that's the cause.

I would run Reaper in WASAPI exclusive mode and see if that makes a difference. If it's only CPU spikes and not constant increased CPU usage then https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
should be able to tell you the cause.

Also, DoktorTenma's suggestion is something to check as well.

If you have had any BIOS update make sure your RAM has not reverted to default settings if you are using an overclock or XMP/EXPO profile. If you are using any automatic update app provided by the motherboard manufactor or let Windows take care of your systems hardware updates I would take a look in BIOS...and also make sure no drivers have been updated by windows that shouldn't be, it's not uncommon for windows to install wrong or subpar drivers.

[ghostwhistler]

Ok thanks for the reply. I have no idea of any of this tech stuff and find it all extremely complicated. I just make music. I have updated the bios and set battery to best performance. I tried the latency monitor app and it gave me this

"Conclusion: Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. "

I don't know what a DPC routine even is.

Not really sure this result means much. There are no audible issues with my latency or audio. Everything plays fine. I just get weird cpu reports in the performance meter. I'm not even sure they show up in task manager. I don't know why there's a discrepeancy between the two CPU readings in performanec meter either.

I might try installing an older version of Reaper, but I don't feel good having two copies of it sitting side by side. That's bound to cause issues. Can either be removed without affecting the other?

[lfm]

I might try installing an older version of Reaper, but I don't feel good having two copies of it sitting side by side. That's bound to cause issues. Can either be removed without affecting the other?

You can make a portable version on an usb stick, works fine.
- just start the exe-file on usb stick
- you can even have a shortcut in desktop when working when you have usb stick in place.

It says somewhere in installer about portable, as I recall.

[ghostwhistler]

I tried a portable install from an earler version but it wasn't any different. I've no idea what's going on. I did a render of a file and the CPU went to over 90%. You cannot be telling me that's healthy.

The render options are not what they used to be either. Prior, it used to render faster than real time, but never as fast as this. I conclude from this that something has happened in Reaper. How or what I've no idea, but rendering never EVER required almost 100% of CPU. Not even a third of that. If it's windows then god only knows because I haven't altered anything in Windows. If one of its tedious and unavoidable updates has done this, well that's too bad I guess. I have no way of knowing. The audio plays fine, there are no latency issues using WASAPI. If I choose ASIO it doesn't play properly at all and I'm not tinkering with that.

[Brother Charles]

Like the DPC report told you, the obvious culprit is your network drivers, which is very often the case. Nvidia 3D cards are often skallywags too, where RT audio is concerned — especially if you haven’t taken steps to eliminate, or at least minimize, nVidia’s telemetry routines. If you’re using a laptop, turn on ‘Airplane’ mode while running LatencyMon. See if the test results are improved. Personally, I recommend trying Airplane mode first, rather than completely disabling your network drivers. It really does sound to me like you’ll need to optimize your system for DAW/audio usage. There are some excellent online guides to aid you. Do a search for “optimize PC for audio”.

If it is indeed DPC issues directly related to your network drivers, an easy way to disable your network adapters on-the-fly, is with a handy little freeware app by Sordum called, “Net Disabler”

https://www.sordum.org/9660/net-disabler-v1-1/

[lfm]

The render options are not what they used to be either. Prior, it used to render faster than real time, but never as fast as this. I conclude from this that something has happened in Reaper. How or what I've no idea, but rendering never EVER required almost 100% of CPU.

So, it runs offline rendering faster and use more cpu, which is natural.
- what is the problem?

You even recognized that render options has been updated.

So as stated earlier, Cockos team has optimized something for speed at the cost of cpu.
- but rendering process is done quicker

As long your mixing in realtime is not affected, why even worry about it?

Most probably you can change render options to go slower and use less cpu!!!!

[ghostwhistler]

Like the DPC report told you, the obvious culprit is your network drivers, which is very often the case. Nvidia 3D cards are often skallywags too, where RT audio is concerned — especially if you haven’t taken steps to eliminate, or at least minimize, nVidia’s telemetry routines. If you’re using a laptop, turn on ‘Airplane’ mode while running LatencyMon. See if the test results are improved. Personally, I recommend trying Airplane mode first, rather than completely disabling your network drivers. It really does sound to me like you’ll need to optimize your system for DAW/audio usage. There are some excellent online guides to aid you. Do a search for “optimize PC for audio”.

If it is indeed DPC issues directly related to your network drivers, an easy way to disable your network adapters on-the-fly, is with a handy little freeware app by Sordum called, “Net Disabler”

https://www.sordum.org/9660/net-disabler-v1-1/

I don't really understand any of this. Why is this happening now? Why is my DAW rendering at 100% cpu now? It has never done this before? Reaper must be responsible, Airplane mode made no difference to performance.

I have no Nvidia hardware. Just the basic video adaptar that came with the laptop. I don't play games for example.

[ghostwhistler]

The render options are not what they used to be either. Prior, it used to render faster than real time, but never as fast as this. I conclude from this that something has happened in Reaper. How or what I've no idea, but rendering never EVER required almost 100% of CPU.

So, it runs offline rendering faster and use more cpu, which is natural.
- what is the problem?

You even recognized that render options has been updated.

So as stated earlier, Cockos team has optimized something for speed at the cost of cpu.
- but rendering process is done quicker

As long your mixing in realtime is not affected, why even worry about it?

Most probably you can change render options to go slower and use less cpu!!!!

Genuinely not sure if you actually read what i posted.

I'll try to explain again: for some reason, unknown to me, Reaper is now demanding 100% of my cpu. Not just a little bit, not just 'use more cpu'. It's using ALL the CPU and the core temperatures are at 100% whiel it's doing this.

Now maybe you're Mr Hewlett Packard and you can personally assure me that my laptop can run like that with no problem. I'm afraid I doubt that.

I don't find this misrepresenation of what I'm trying to say to be helpful nor productive. Not trying to be rude, nor ungrateful. But please address the substance of the issue and not traduce it this way. I have never had Reaper run like this before. Ever.