Brand new PC (Core i7 4Ghz) with Focusrite Scarlett 6i6: Too slow!?

[cyberco]

I just bought myself a state of the art PC to handle every possible Reason song:

Intel Core i7 4Ghz
32Gb RAM (DDR4, 2100 mhz)
M.2 disk
Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 external USB 2 soundcard
Windows 10

In theory this is about as good as it gets. Still I get the "computer too slow to play song" warning with even relatively simple songs. I have tried different buffersizes (and thus different latencies), and now I"m at 133 samples and 8 ms input latency (10 ms output). Nothing seems to help, I keep getting the warning. Am I expecting too much from my PC or is something amiss? I have tried similar settings on my old PC (quad core, 8 years old) and that ran fine.

[Pinkbox]

Is it a desktop or a laptop computer?
I have an i7 laptop that can get stuck with a few etch red while my i5 desktop is doing fine.

[The_G]

Weird. I have a macbook pro with core i7 but only 16gb ram and never have any issues.

[Pinkbox]

Macbooks cooling system is ace. You can get serious cpu frequency drops when it is getting hot.

[stp2015]

Exactly which i7 CPU do you have?

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[stp2015]

You should be able to get this information by typing system or cpu in the windows 10 search bar.

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[Loque]

Energie options set to balance instead of performance?

[Skullture]

Exactly which i7 CPU do you have?

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This is indeed really important.

[Gorgon]

Exactly which i7 CPU do you have?

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This is indeed really important.

4Ghz with 32Gb RAM, I'd say that he has a 6700K. Must be some kind of configuration error, faulty driver, or maybe a bug in Reason itself.

*edit* Or bad cooling of the CPU.

[stp2015]

If he does have the 6700k he should be more than fine, so something must be wrong.

Have you checked if multicore is switched on inside Reason? Do you have a ton of other things running? Maybe a virus scanner doing a full scan?

With a 6700k you should in principle be able to open and play about 20 antidotes (with effects on) simultaneously.

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[Sinistereo]

Another thing to check, especially if you built this system yourself: LGA 1151 sockets are somewhat notorious for bent pins. If software and OS troubleshooting fails, take the CPU off of the motherboard and carefully inspect the pins on the motherboard socket using a magnifying glass, loupe, or microscope. Carefully reinstall and take the opportunity to re-apply a thin layer of high quality thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink.

One or two bent pins can result in a system that boots but has power, clock, or memory issues that affect speed or stability.

You've probably already done this, but ensuring that you have installed the latest chipset drivers from Intel and the latest motherboard drivers and BIOS from the manufacturer's site can make a world of difference.

Good luck! My i7-4770k system can still be brought to its knees by DSP-hungry rack extensions. On a recent song, two instances of FM4 and effects were using 50% of my CPU.

[Gorgon]

Good luck! My i7-4770k system can still be brought to its knees by DSP-hungry rack extensions. On a recent song, two instances of FM4 and effects were using 50% of my CPU.

That has to be some A-grade inefficient multicore programming then.

[Sinistereo]

Good luck! My i7-4770k system can still be brought to its knees by DSP-hungry rack extensions. On a recent song, two instances of FM4 and effects were using 50% of my CPU.

That has to be some A-grade inefficient multicore programming then.

I love FM4... but it is a CPU hog!

[Skullture]

Exactly which i7 CPU do you have?

Enviado desde mi Nexus 5 mediante Tapatalk

This is indeed really important.

4Ghz with 32Gb RAM, I'd say that he has a 6700K. Must be some kind of configuration error, faulty driver, or maybe a bug in Reason itself.

*edit* Or bad cooling of the CPU.

A top of the line Skylake processor would have to handle R8 with ease in theory I think it's an older chipset.

[cyberco]

The CPU is an Intel Core i7-6700K indeed. Settings:

- Windows: Power options to 'high performance'
- Reason: 'use multi-core audio rendering'
- Reason: 'CPU usage limit' set to 95%
- Reason: 'Buffer size' set to 133
- System: CPU cooling: Scythe Mugen 4 PCGH

My song has 19 instruments, which otherwise could be heavy but not really problematic. On my new system it is.

[Gorgon]

The CPU is an Intel Core i7-6700K indeed. Settings:

- Windows: Power options to 'high performance'
- Reason: 'use multi-core audio rendering'
- Reason: 'CPU usage limit' set to 95%
- Reason: 'Buffer size' set to 133
- System: CPU cooling: Scythe Mugen 4 PCGH

My song has 19 instruments, which otherwise could be heavy but not really problematic. On my new system it is.

Set the CPU usage limit to no limit and see if that helps.

[cyberco]

Setting the CPU limit to 'None' indeed solves the problem. Which is weird because I can't imagine this song putting this machine's load above 95%
Windows' performance monitor shows that the load almost never gets above 30.

[Gorgon]

Setting the CPU limit to 'None' indeed solves the problem. Which is weird because I can't imagine this song putting this machine's load above 95%
Windows' performance monitor shows that the load almost never gets above 30.

Probably has something to do with how Reason handles multiple CPU code and the difference with how Windows handles multiple CPU code.

Glad it helped.

[Gorgon]

Double post

[kuhliloach]

Interesting that changing from 95% to 100% fixed it! Thanks for that. I was going to suggest maybe insufficient power to the USB audio device (your 6i6) but glad its working.

[cyberco]

Probably has something to do with how Reason handles multiple CPU code and the difference with how Windows handles multiple CPU code.

It must be something like that. It works for now, until Propellerhead fixes this. Thans for your great help Gorgon!

[Gorgon]

I've always thought that Propellerhead multiple cpu code was sloppy

[Gorgon]

Probably has something to do with how Reason handles multiple CPU code and the difference with how Windows handles multiple CPU code.

It must be something like that. It works for now, until Propellerhead fixes this. Thans for your great help Gorgon!

Happy to help

[Redster]

OP, please can you do me a favor and set cpu cap to 80% and then play your song and just see what happens to the dsp meter. Does it appear settled and then spikes? When you get the message press stop to reset then press play again does it spike in the same place in the song or is it random? Make sure you are fully up to date with windows update. I have a hunch that w10 skylake and ASIO are not playing ball at the moment.

[Gorgon]

Can you do me a favor and set cpu cap to 80% and then play your song and just see what happens to the dsp meter. Does it appear settled and then spikes? When you get the message press stop to reset then press play again does it spike in the same place in the song or is it random? Make sure you are fully up to date with windows update. I have a hunch that w10 skylake and ASIO are not playing ball at the moment.

I think you mean that Reason isn't playing ball with Skylake.