Subject:AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Posted by: Zacchino

Date:9/18/2002 8:54:20 AM

Whereas Cubase on the same machine, with the same parameters and tracks just use 20% max of the same processor !

wow that's so weird...

Subject:RE: AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Reply by: SonyNateM

Date:9/18/2002 11:39:27 AM

Fandengo,

If you are just watching the Task Manager, it's probably not a very good test for processor usage. ACID is designed to use lots of your CPU's idle cycles to update its meters, VST instrument GUI's, etc without "demanding" this CPU time from the system, allowing them to get in the way of its own audio processing threads, or stealing them from other apps that may need them.

HTH,
Nate

Subject:RE: AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Reply by: Jacose

Date:9/18/2002 12:43:16 PM

If you are just watching the Task Manager, it's probably not a very good test for processor usage. ACID is designed to use lots of your CPU's idle cycles to update its meters, VST instrument GUI's, etc without "demanding" this CPU time from the system, allowing them to get in the way of its own audio processing threads, or stealing them from other apps that may need them.

really?

ok...

so, if you have a project that normally would be 20%, it uses the other 80 for luxury features? or does it capp off at 80%...

also, what if your song has a more comples part where envelopes and such fly in at a moments notice.... the luxury features have to suddenly turn off and CPU is used for the main program? I hope it can switch fast enough.

This is a good idea, I wish I had known it earlier tho, as all my projects are skyrocketing....

were all previous ACIDs like this????

Subject:RE: AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Reply by: SonyNateM

Date:9/18/2002 1:47:11 PM

so, if you have a project that normally would be 20%, it uses the other 80 for luxury features? or does it capp off at 80%...

It don't think that it specifically caps off anywhere, but it's unlikely that ACID would need all of your CPU's idle cycles to keep your meters accurate and update portions of its UI.

also, what if your song has a more comples part where envelopes and such fly in at a moments notice.... the luxury features have to suddenly turn off and CPU is used for the main program? I hope it can switch fast enough.

ACID is rendering all of this in other threads, which are higher priority, so it's not a question of the UI threads "turning off" in time, they simple don't get CPU time until there are extra idle cycles on the processor for them to use.

This is a good idea, I wish I had known it earlier tho, as all my projects are skyrocketing....

were all previous ACIDs like this????

No, all previous versions were not like this. ACID 3.0 may have used some of this, but I don't think it was as refined as it is in our current apps.

NOTE: This is a rather simplified explanation of the way this works. I do not fully understand all of the low-level specifics, and so my explanations, while fairly accurate, may not be perfect. :)

Nate

Subject:RE: AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Reply by: Jacose

Date:9/18/2002 1:55:42 PM

NOTE: This is a rather simplified explanation of the way this works. I do not fully understand all of the low-level specifics, and so my explanations, while fairly accurate, may not be perfect. :)

I appreciate the explination you gave... now get on to the thread about KONTAKT!!!!!! lol jk jk jk

Subject:RE: AP4 : 5 Tracks + 1 VSTi + 2 Effects = 80% of a Pentium 2.0Ghz... WTF ?

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:9/18/2002 1:59:33 PM

I have a PIII 800EB MHz with 384 MB of PC133 SDRAM. Using ACID Pro 4.0 with Windows XP Home.

With a moderate number of tracks (~29), two of them long One-shot tracks and a few effects (a couple track level, one assignable), my CPU caps out at 77%. (Note that I also have a browser window open.) Is that a lot? Not really, considering this is digital audio we're dealing with here. (I'm also using 24-bit audio.)

A small project (~9 tracks) with a couple of track level FX caps out at 19%.

Ultimately, as Nate said, that's not really indicative of anything.

Iacobus