low latency RAM

[Ricardo]

hi again,
Just wondering if there is any benefit in using CL9, or 7 RAM? I'm thinking of upgrading from 8 to 16GB of RAM due to large sample library use in my DAW. Any info would be great.
Thanks

[garyb]

lower latency is better, but i doubt you'd notice a lot of difference.

[Ricardo]

That's what I suspected. And it's way more expensive! I'll just get 8Gig more.
Thanx again.

[jksuperstar]

Agreed, having multiple memory lanes helps FAR more than latency..CL13 is still really fast at DDR3 rates!

[garyb]

actually, it's doubtful that you're even maxing out the ram that you have.

[Ricardo]

It's not maxing out, up to 50% though with a couple of sample programs in use, and noticeable graphics slowing. I have two 4GB chps at the moment, was going to make it x4 x 4GB. May be I'm barking up the wrong tree. I'm not sure quite what's happening, but Sam X does freeze occasionally. But then Scope isn't coping with many effects loaded either. I wonder if I some inefficiency happening or something. I'm no IT geek but I can't see how to improve the scope thing,(not RAM related i know) I've done all the tweaks suggested.
If you guys have any thoughts please share.
Thanks.

[garyb]

well, many effects might be different depending on WHICH effects you are loading. if it's reverbs which use thousands and thousands of delay lines that all use the PCI bus, then yeah, you won't be able to load many of those without a PCI overflow message....

if you're using 50% of memory, adding more probably won't do a darned thing. the slowdown could very well be the cpu maxing out. if you're seeing cpu loads of 50% or more, i'd say it's definitely the cpu maxing out.

[Ricardo]

CPU is rarely over 12 per cent. So no problem there. I'll have to give it some more thought.

[garyb]

maybe your video card is broken.
when a video card dies, it doesn't always stop working. often, it passes signal, it just ceases to do any calculations, leaving the rest of the system to generate the display.

also, cpu meters aren't all that accurate....

[jksuperstar]

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Best tool to find out what you're computer is wasting time on.

[Ricardo]

maybe your video card is broken.
when a video card dies, it doesn't always stop working. often, it passes signal, it just ceases to do any calculations, leaving the rest of the system to generate the display.

also, cpu meters aren't all that accurate....

Gary, did you see my other post? My display is also doing a few strange things. One is a strange shadow on the Scope GUI when changing from large projects to another new project , and often I get the PCI capacity message when a heavily loaded DAW project is closed. It's also doing that 'pack of cards' thing when moving a window on screen. I run dual monitors but it only happens in one monitor though, so it could be the VGA side of the video card. The monitor itself seems fine.
It doesn't show anything in the device manager however. According to that it's all working fine.
??

[Ricardo]

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Best tool to find out what you're computer is wasting time on.

Thanks jk I'll give the free version a whirl and see what it turns up.

[garyb]

the device manager doesn't do any real diagnostic other than acknowlege that the card identifies itself as being there.

[jksuperstar]

Also try updating to latest video card drivers. Not that you need the new drivers necessarily, but the update might refresh something that went amiss (like GPU firmware), so getting the latest won't hurt.

[garyb]

that's good advice.

[Ricardo]

Also try updating to latest video card drivers. Not that you need the new drivers necessarily, but the update might refresh something that went amiss (like GPU firmware), so getting the latest won't hurt.

Hi JK. I actually did just that just after my last post and things seem to run a lot quicker and smoothly. Even though the graphics card is just over a year old I wondered if the drivers were being utilised properly or bypassed somehow. I run a dual OS and I know sometimes there's 'cross talk' between the two installations and things can go awry. Anyway the latest driver was released in Dec 13 so I tried that. Didn't get any drawing issues as before and scope loaded a lot quicker. Fingers crossed we've found the problem. I'll do some more experimenting with larger projects tonight.
Thanks +++ for yours and Gary's help. Really appreciated.

The latency tests seemed fine BTW.

[Ricardo]

So, some further feedback:
Although Scope and Sam x load more quickly, I have noticed a couple of things. Firstly the CPU usage has gone up to 35-40%! I have also had Sam X stop working several times, and have had jittering buffer issues (something I never had before) Once I adjusted the buffer, it all functions OK but I'm a bit concerned about the CPU. I set the graphics to bypass the graphics display properties which helped control the CPU usage only mildly. May be the card is faulty after all but there are no signs of the previous symptoms. Scope seems happy. May be a DAW reinstall? Any thoughts?

[Eanna]

What process (in Task Manager) is consuming that 35-40% of your total CPU resource?

Windows comes with "Resource Monitor" - have a look at what this tool says about your system...

If you're not getting the level of detail to help diagnose your issues from Windows default tooling, have a look at the Sysinternal tools from Microsoft, e.g. Process Explorer, here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 96653.aspx
These are powerful tools, so be sure to Read The Manual - RTFM

Make sure Windows is creating Restore Points for you. You can create Restore Points too, give them meaningful names. Indeed, Windows most-likely created a Restore Point of your system before you upgraded your Graphics Card driver.

And, as always, Backup your system now! You may improve matters, or you may worsen them. Nothing hurts the head more than the latter when you've not taken a Backup (altho, for the most part, Restore Points solve all manner of system screw-ups).

You may wish to look at your BIOS Firmware version too. Don't jump into BIOS updates without full System Backups! A botched BIOS Update can also brick a motherboard, so check the BIOS firmware release notes and check if there's anything that later BIOS revisions have fixed that may help solve your issues....

Good luck..

[garyb]

if you get better performance with the graphic card's accelleration turned off, that sounds like a bad card.

[Ricardo]

Thanks Eanna for your post. I'll check the resources again tonight and see if anything shows up. I'll also look at the sysinternal tools.
I don't actually have system restore turned on, as numerous 'tweak tips' recommend this. All my audio is backed up regularly to an external drive and current projects are stored on a separate drive to the OS.
As for the BIOS, the PC is only a year and a half old, so don't know if there is much benefit to that, may be as an extreme measure.

I think, because of recent changes in the CPU usage and graphics display that I might roll back the Graphics drivers and see what difference that makes. The graphics are faultless and the CPU usage very low on the second installed OS. But that's just your usual office, email kinda stuff. In fact I might take the card out and completely re install. It's a passive ASUS GT520.
Also I might uninstall kontakt 5 and reinstall as things seems worse when I'm running sample programs such as Embertone Blakus Cello etc(very large) and latency from my MIDI keyboard seems a tad longer than I have previously experienced.
Anyway, I'll post back with any findings. Gary I wish I had a spare graphics card to try and test your hunch.

Thanks again.