CPU Load More In XP? -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:CPU Load More In XP? Posted by: SonicSounds Date:12/9/2002 9:39:47 AM My current project I've been working on has been giving me a little trouble. Normally in Win 98 this project would play smooth as silk with no slowdown. In XP it bogs down pretty quick. I have to render most of the tracks with FX on them to lessen the load on the CPU so the song will play smoother. My question is: Does XP use more system resources than Win 98? I have a PIII 733 (not the fastest thing but seemed to be adequate with Win 98). Does Acid Pro 4.0 use more system resources than 3.0? If my processor is too slow, what can I expect if I were to upgrade my board and CPU to a P4? What homework will I have to do to ensure that a board and chip upgrade will go smoothly?
Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP? Reply by: merlyn60 Date:12/9/2002 9:50:20 AM Both XP and Acid 4.0 eat more processor. With XP, you can get some of the processing power back by turning off some of the "fluff" in XP (ie the cute graphics, etc). Check out www.musicxp.net for some tweak tips. As far as Acid 4.0 eating up processor, hopefully 4.0b will clean up some of the excess coding that eats up cpu processing. We'll just have to wait and see about that one. If you have the means, its probably a good idea to jump up to a P4 somwhere in the 1GHz area. Pentium just game out with the 3.0GHz processor so, prices on processors in the 1GHz area should be dropping sharply (if they haven't already) within the next few weeks. I'm partial to Asus boards because of the ease of updating their BIOS. I have an Asus P4B motherboard which came with a 1.8GHz processor as a combo and I swear by it. I run XP (without the music tweaks) and Acid 4.0 and don't have any problems (well.....processor related problems). Merlyn
Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP? Reply by: Laurence Date:12/10/2002 8:45:50 AM I know that Windows XP processor scheduling has to be optimized for "background services" in order to get any kind of music software performance at all, but that the default is an optimization for "programs". Go to "control panel / system / advanced / performance settings / advanced" and change the processor scheduling from "programs" to "background services". There are a lot of other tweaks that people talk about but that make minimal difference. This one makes a HUGE difference! Laurence Kingston
Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP? Reply by: spectre1 Date:12/10/2002 12:35:27 PM Here's another link to a pdf from Tascam which I've found very helpful concerning optimizing Windows XP for music. Most of the stuff is contained in merlyn's link to the musicXP site, but this article goes a little more in depth about what each tweak does and why it improves performance. http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf

Subject:CPU Load More In XP?

Posted by: SonicSounds

Date:12/9/2002 9:39:47 AM

My current project I've been working on has been giving me a little trouble. Normally in Win 98 this project would play smooth as silk with no slowdown. In XP it bogs down pretty quick. I have to render most of the tracks with FX on them to lessen the load on the CPU so the song will play smoother.

My question is: Does XP use more system resources than Win 98? I have a PIII 733 (not the fastest thing but seemed to be adequate with Win 98). Does Acid Pro 4.0 use more system resources than 3.0? If my processor is too slow, what can I expect if I were to upgrade my board and CPU to a P4? What homework will I have to do to ensure that a board and chip upgrade will go smoothly?

Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP?

Reply by: merlyn60

Date:12/9/2002 9:50:20 AM

Both XP and Acid 4.0 eat more processor. With XP, you can get some of the processing power back by turning off some of the "fluff" in XP (ie the cute graphics, etc). Check out www.musicxp.net for some tweak tips. As far as Acid 4.0 eating up processor, hopefully 4.0b will clean up some of the excess coding that eats up cpu processing. We'll just have to wait and see about that one. If you have the means, its probably a good idea to jump up to a P4 somwhere in the 1GHz area. Pentium just game out with the 3.0GHz processor so, prices on processors in the 1GHz area should be dropping sharply (if they haven't already) within the next few weeks. I'm partial to Asus boards because of the ease of updating their BIOS. I have an Asus P4B motherboard which came with a 1.8GHz processor as a combo and I swear by it. I run XP (without the music tweaks) and Acid 4.0 and don't have any problems (well.....processor related problems).

Merlyn

Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP?

Reply by: Laurence

Date:12/10/2002 8:45:50 AM

I know that Windows XP processor scheduling has to be optimized for "background services" in order to get any kind of music software performance at all, but that the default is an optimization for "programs".

Go to "control panel / system / advanced / performance settings / advanced" and change the processor scheduling from "programs" to "background services". There are a lot of other tweaks that people talk about but that make minimal difference. This one makes a HUGE difference!

Laurence Kingston

Subject:RE: CPU Load More In XP?

Reply by: spectre1

Date:12/10/2002 12:35:27 PM

Here's another link to a pdf from Tascam which I've found very helpful concerning optimizing Windows XP for music. Most of the stuff is contained in merlyn's link to the musicXP site, but this article goes a little more in depth about what each tweak does and why it improves performance.

http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf