Slipped buffers...

[Richard Rupert]

Hi all,

I have a used HP Pavillion desktop, model a6112n with Vista OS. I installed my Frontier Designs Dakota and Montana cards and the appropriate Vista drivers. Using ASIO, I can run at 1X64 buffers at about a 50% CPU load with 32 channels using 5 bands of e.q. and compression on every channel. I'm also running 6 monitor mixes. No effects at this point, and no e.q. or compression on monitors, but I feel secure that I could easlily get what I need from this machine EXCEPT for the fact that I'm getting slipped buffers at a pretty good rate... about 8 in 5 minutes without touching the machine. If I change F keys I get about 1 or 2 slipped buffers per change. Switching scenes causes about 3 slipped buffers. Raising the buffer size lowers the CPU useage, but doesn't prevent slipped buffers.

Now, this machine has on-board nVidia graphics, and I'm wondering if that's the biggest contributor to the slipped buffers. Or is it more likely a Vista issue? I ran this same Frontier Design hardware and SAC mix on an old Dell PIV with higher CPU usage, but NO slipped buffers. EVER.

What are your thoughts? Would you advise going back to XP, or getting an AMD PCIe graphics adapter?

TIA

[Dan Fulton]

well vista is know to be a memory hog. So that could be a problem one.

If you had a ati card i would try that first then possible go back to xp or 7

[gdougherty]

Xp and 7 are recommended. IIRC, Bob explicitly recommends against Vista as an OS.

[Bob L]

Have you tried doing the Win 7 tweaks... they should be similar in Vista although they may be found in different places... the main thing being the border padding to zero and the desktop composition option for all the transparency graphics... this can be a real cpu hog just drawing anything to the screen.

Bob L

[Richard Rupert]

Have you tried doing the Win 7 tweaks... they should be similar in Vista although they may be found in different places... the main thing being the border padding to zero and the desktop composition option for all the transparency graphics... this can be a real cpu hog just drawing anything to the screen.

Bob L
Yes, I did the tweaks first and it improved, but didn't fix the problem. Unfortunately, I don't have an ATI PCIe video card lying around that I could try. That would obviously be the easiest. I'm also wondering if I could set up a dual boot to XP option (since I do have an XP install disc). At this point I don't know how to do that, but can learn.

[Dan Fulton]

well the easiest way to dual boot is reinstalling both but there are tools out there that can repartiition the drive or you could install xp on a second drive if you have one it doesn't have to be huge if you have a 20 gig or something laying around that would work

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed _first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

or give this a shot

[Richard Rupert]

well the easiest way to dual boot is reinstalling both but there are tools out there that can repartiition the drive or you could install xp on a second drive if you have one it doesn't have to be huge if you have a 20 gig or something laying around that would work

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed _first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

or give this a shot

Wow, thanks Dan. I'll read this thoroughly!! :)

[Dan Fulton]

np bud

[Richard Rupert]

I thought I'd update this thread with some (somewhat expected) result information.
I bought an ATI PCI-E graphics card and installed it.

Right now I have a test mix session running with 32 channels of full e.q., compression, and sends to three effects plugins, with 6 monitor mixes with at least 3 bands of Bob's e.q. on each output.

This is using the Frontier Designs Dakota and Montana audio cards with ASIO drivers. The system load is sitting at 28% unless I hit the F keys or I,R,O, when it briefly goes up to 30%. The big point is-- I'm getting no slipped buffers. Yay!!

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. I don't know if the problem lies in the fact that the computer came with N-Vidia graphics, or the fact that it was on-board video. It would be interesting to switch out the ATI for an equivalent N-Vidia adapter to see the result. I don't have an N-Vidia adapter to try. But I'm very happy with the way it's working now.

[gdougherty]

I thought I'd update this thread with some (somewhat expected) result information.
I bought an ATI PCI-E graphics card and installed it.

Right now I have a test mix session running with 32 channels of full e.q., compression, and sends to three effects plugins, with 6 monitor mixes with at least 3 bands of Bob's e.q. on each output.

This is using the Frontier Designs Dakota and Montana audio cards with ASIO drivers. The system load is sitting at 28% unless I hit the F keys or I,R,O, when it briefly goes up to 30%. The big point is-- I'm getting no slipped buffers. Yay!!

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. I don't know if the problem lies in the fact that the computer came with N-Vidia graphics, or the fact that it was on-board video. It would be interesting to switch out the ATI for an equivalent N-Vidia adapter to see the result. I don't have an N-Vidia adapter to try. But I'm very happy with the way it's working now.

Possible its the implementation of the nvidia onboard graphics and how it shares resources with the system. Onboard graphics often, though not always, share main memory with the system and may step on memory access SAC needs. Reports from many Intel based setups don't have those problems using onboard GPU's.

[Richard Rupert]

Possible its the implementation of the nvidia onboard graphics and how it shares resources with the system. Onboard graphics often, though not always, share main memory with the system and may step on memory access SAC needs. Reports from many Intel based setups don't have those problems using onboard GPU's.
Good point... and this IS an AMD CPU. But all's well now with the separate video card. Thanks.