Will adding RAM or running reaktor/maschine/reaper on an external SSD improve performance?

Moonbot7000
Moonbot7000 Member Posts: 60 Member
in Reaktor

I'm running into audio drop outs / clicks faster and faster (even tho reaktor and maschine show less than 30% usage..my buffer settings are quite reasonable as well). Can't upgrade the whole rig, so does anyone know if adding 8gb of ram or running them off an external SSD would improve performance and help me get some more mileage? Or do I strictly need a better CPU ( I have an i5 rn)

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  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,515 mod

    Hello,

    download CPU-Z and send us the pics from cpu, mainboard and memory tabs, then we can maybe help.

  • Moonbot7000
    Moonbot7000 Member Posts: 60 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/22960#Comment_22960
    CPU clip.png
    Mainboard clip.png
    memory clip.png

    Hey thanks for responding, here they are.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,515 mod

    I would say it's worth to add extra ram, not necessarily the size is the issue but you now run in single channel mode, with two ram bars you have dual channel, if set correctly. if you don't have an internal SSD i would definitely change the HDD against one. I have done it with my old laptop and it was a huge difference.

  • Seoman303
    Seoman303 Member Posts: 5 Newcomer
    edited July 2022

    Depending on what you are doing, RAM is probably not your issue. There is probably running something in the background. A lot of companies providing Audio Software also provide performance tips. Look for performance:

    https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/de/articles/4413943747985-Wie-behebe-ich-Performance-Probleme-mit-GUITAR-RIG-

    I would try

    - disabling WiFi as an initial step

    - disable energy saving mode

    - check anti-virus software

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor

    Try increasing the core clock multiplier in BIOS.

    You have it set at 31 and it can easily go to 40 or higher if you have good silicon lottery.

    That will take you from 3 Ghz to 4 GHz.

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,515 mod
    edited July 2022
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/23611#Comment_23611

    You can see in the picture that the multiplier goes from 8 to 40 "on its own", but you are right in the sense of setting the power plan to max power, then it's set fix to 40 as far as I know.

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor
    edited July 2022
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/23643#Comment_23643


    I don't understand your comment. 8-40 is just an indicator of the typical range allowed for that parameter. The actual value at the moment is also displayed.

    The power plan may well change these, but you can probably go even higher if you set the max in BIOS. If your power plan allows you to reach 4 GHz as needed fine, if you can't get to 4 GHz you can do something about it.

    For example, my BIOS allows a multiplier up to 50, but I use 51. That allows me to run my 3.6 GHz processor at 5.1 GHz. I could set it up to 53 but that sometimes causes crashes with AVX processing, so I back it down to a conservative value. The overclocking I do tests fine without stress using every benchmark I can find. AVX tests, I find, are the most stressful (besides Prime95 small FFTs in-cache tests).


    Clipboard-1.png

    Also, you mention power plans, so I suppose you are on a PC.

    There are some hidden plans, like 'Ultimate Performance', that can be activated that open up a huge amount of processor power granular settings:

    pp.png


    You can really screw things up by changing these without knowing what they mean. So be very careful and save a backup setting.

    I would show you mine, but they probably need to be adjusted in a particular machine configuration, and it could just mess you up.

    These may be accessed by setting Registry values to unlock things, but I don't remember where they are, I did this several years ago. You'll need to search around for how to do it.

    CPU utilization:

    cpu.png


    Above shows my disks: Disk 3 is the C drive - an Optane SSD (not Flash)

    Disk 2 is the D drive - a Samsung Evo pro SSD

    The other two (A and B) are my SATA drives (Floppy Disks!)

    .

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,515 mod

    The 8 to 40 shows the range that the processor actually, potentially can use, i know that the current value shown in the pic is not on max. But that's all normal and depending on the power plan. You can if course go higher with some bios versions, but that's another story. You said the op has set the factor to 31, but that's wrong, the computer itself has set it there, according to the power plan. That's why I was answering. As you know the factor goes up and down all the time, again, according to the power plan, or you can set it to a fixed value.

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor
    edited July 2022

    I did not mean to imply a user set it, I merely meant the setting one has. The most important point is that one can set it higher, if one takes the responsibility to adjust many other things with overclocking. The range shown, whatever it is, is a suggestion. The power plan can manage it, the user can manage it, there are many possibilities.

    Now there may be some bioses that won't allow this, I suppose, but I know of none. And there are many more hidden power plans if one want to go the pre-programmed route.

    I wouldn't leave my machine running at 4 GHz.

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor
    edited July 2022

    Also - no need to have every core running at that multiplier, one could make it so that each core can be independent. One could have, for example, one core at 5.3, two cores at 5.2, and the rest at 5.1 or however your motherboard allows such things. A motherboard designed for overclocking will have a much more flexible BIOS than a simple laptop might have.

    Here are some of the settings exposed when the 'Ultimate' (sic) power plan is enabled:

    pp.png


    This is for Windows 10 Pro and may vary depending on your OS and motherboard.

    I erased my settings in the picture, they may not be relevant to your needs. They require a lot of stress testing and analysis to do properly.

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor

    A good tool to use for the sort of tests you might need to make is the free tool HWINFO64 which is essential to overclocking in my opinion.

    Here's a small fraction of the data display (done during Cinebench R23 stress testing to give some spice)

    Clipboard-2.png


  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 2,515 mod
    edited July 2022

    yeah i know all that but thanks - it´s useful info also for other users

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor

    My comments were mostly aimed at Intel PC desktop users. AMD systems have similarities and differences, but I have used none in a long time.

    Laptop owners have my sympathy!

  • arachnaut
    arachnaut Member Posts: 79 Advisor
    edited July 2022

    Another thing that occurs to me is the original system is not running out of CPU.

    It may be hyperthreading, or the equivalent on AMD processors, causing the glitches.

    Try turning it off.

    That can have a huge impact when running multiple copies of something like Reaktor in a DAW.

    That's because hyperthreading assigned two processes to the same physical core and these two processes have to share the CPU resources. Most tasks hyperthread well because they might use dissimilar resources of the CPU, but two copies of one process will probably thrash waiting for shared resources to be available.

  • Paule
    Paule Member Posts: 1,328 Expert
    edited July 2022

    Windows tuning tips for audio processing by NI

    https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/209571729-Windows-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing

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