Plugin CPU use widely different across hosts (with screenshots)

[stk]

Hi,
Hoping someone can please explain to me what's going on here.
I am currently trialing a couple of new plugins, and noticing drastic CPU use differences across hosts.

My computer is not the newest, but still reasonably well specced. I am running an RME Fireface 800 at 44100. Buffer size is usually between 96 and 512spls.

The plugins in question are IK Tascam 388 and Lifeline Console.
The Hosts are FLStudio 20 (latest version), Reaper (latest version), Bitwig (latest version) and Live (version 9) - all 64 bit.

I've noticed that in FL, Live and Bitwig, a single instance of one of these plugins measures a whopping 20% CPU use in the DAW's own CPU meter, but only ~5-6% in Task Manager.
However in Reaper, the DAW meter measures ~2.6%, while Task Manager reports the same ~5-6%.

My naive guess would be that this is due to differences in how each DAW handles multithreading, but I've love if someone could elaborate on that.

Thank you. Screenshots below.

Computer Specs


FL Studio


Live


Reaper

[Scotty]

A lot of variables need to be controlled to assess this. You can set the buffer settings differently for each application. In cubase there are settings for buffers and something called ASIO guard which is another layer of buffer protection on top of the interface settings. You may have controlled for this but I thought I'd mention it as you didn't indicate that you had. Keep us posted. I am very interested in this topic.

[DNnX]

The definition of [CPU Usage] can be different between DAWs and Task Manager.
Measurement method should be different too.
Trust the value of Task Manager for comparing the performance.

[stk]

Thanks for your suggestions. To clarify I had the buffer settings the same for the purposes of the tests above (IIRC 512 samples).

I actually found it smoother (as in less CPU crunch, fewer dropouts) to run the IK Tascam 388 in Reaper, then pipe the audio into Reaper from FLStudio using Rearoute (thus treating Reaper as an end of chain FX rack). Which I guess says a bit about Reaper's CPU efficiency.

It's interesting that it's only these two (relatively new) plugins that are causing issues. I can normally run a metric shedload of plugins without too much trouble (BX, Valhalla, Waves, NI, Soundtoys). Which leads me to also speculate that there's maybe something different with the framework (Juce?) that these plugs are using.

When I have a moment I'll do some more thorough tests and post the results.

Cheers