New Mac Mini 2014 Low Buffer Rate Maxes CPU

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angopop
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New Mac Mini 2014 Low Buffer Rate Maxes CPU

Post by angopop » Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:14 am

New Mac Mini 2014 Low Buffer Rate Maxes CPU



Recently bought a new Mac Mini (late 2014 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 w 16 GB RAM) to run PT 12 with Apollo 8, as I needed to upgrade from 2011 Mac Mini Server (mid 2011, 2 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 GB RAM) running Digi 002. That old Mac couldn?t run the Apollo unless I upgraded the Mac OS, but I didn?t want to lose that system, so I bought the new Mac Mini with the idea of keeping the old one as a back up and to access old sessions.

I?m finding now on the new Mac with using guitar software like Amplitube 4 and Scuffham, that I am quickly maxing out my CPU usage unless I set buffer size to 128, which is too much latency. I was able to run Amplitube 3 on the old Mac at 32 samples buffer, and I could switch to 64 if I needed to.

I?ve tried setting both software to Economy mode. I?ve tried not viewing gain reduction in track meters and changed from waveform view to blocks, I?ve tried setting PT 12 memory to high and low cache size? and still maxing out CPU usage, even though the PT system usage bars show 4 processors.

Perhaps this Mac Mini is just not powerful enough. Since my old Mac Mini server has two internal hard drives, I will try Carbon Copy clone my new Mac to the second drive of my old one, just a thought.

Is there anything I?m missing out on setting my Mac or PTools? Any ideas?

kslight
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Post by kslight » Sat Mar 19, 2016 12:02 pm

I'm kind of surprised that with a buffer set at 128 you are getting too much latency?
What sample rate are you running at?


I don't have Amplitube 4, but I have version 3 (refuse to send IK any more money however). I noticed that Amplitube 4's system requirements jumped quite a bit so that may be part of the problem.

Also best I can tell your new Mac Mini is a dual core i5, and the i5 to my knowledge does not support hyperthreading as the i7 does, so that could also account for a significant performance difference.


Have you disabled all other CPU hogs, such as WiFi?

angopop
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Post by angopop » Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:55 am

Thanks,

I'm running sessions at 44.1k/24 bit.

I find that if I have run any other software, when I restart my mac, I can just about run a simple session, or a complicated session if I freeze any tracks that have inserts. That is one workaround, but doesn't necessarily make me feel good about my rig.

I do have wifi disabled, but any suggestions for other software that may be hogging CPU power (I haven't found anything obvious in Activity Monitor....

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Mon Apr 11, 2016 1:27 pm

Question:

How many CPUs is this machine?

Whatever number they are, in Pro Tools preferences,
you MUST set it to one LESS than what you have.

This way you have ONE CPU not being hogged by the Pro Tools DAE engine.

Try this and see if it helps any.

Also, if possible, turn off BLUETOOTH. And most if not all network sharing things, except maybe for "files". That is how I have both my macs set up. they run fine.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

angopop
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Post by angopop » Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:45 pm

It is a dual core MacMini, the middle version currently available, which is a 2.6Ghz i5.

I'm running PT12, so there is now no way to set the number of CPU's used by PTools, it is set automatically.

I will turn off BlueTooth, see if that helps....Thanks.

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