SAC new version release finally cracks Win 7, 8 and 10 performance bogdown.

Finally... after a few years of searching and trying all kinds of code changes to match the performance and stability achieved in XP within Win 7, 8 and 10... I stumbled across some modifications that get the job done.

With the growing complexity of the OS changes starting with Win 7 and expanding further into Win 8 and now 10... and the growing mass of background services and processes running in the newer OS versions, the performance and stability of SAC and SAWStudio has suffered greatly... with huge hits on cpu loads increasing drastically especially when using the shared memory functions needed by the SACLink between SAC and SAWStudio.

The changes made within the OS that involved the shared memory functions have baffled me for all this time as to why the performance had dropped off so drastically. It has been a constant search to find a way around that performance hit... finally.... I found a working solution.

These new SAC and SAW versions (SAWStudioBasic V2.8, SAWStudioLite and Full V5.8, SAWStudio64 V1.1, SAC V4.6 and SAC64 V1.1) should now match or exceed the performance and stability that was once only achievable in XP, within Win 7, 8 and 10... yeah!!!!

So... feel free to jump up to the latest motherboards and CPUs and install whichever Windows OS you like... I have been following the discussions here about the Win 10 Enterprise LTSB and LTSC versions and have jumped on with great results... my newest systems are all now using the Win 10 LTSC versions, and even with the large mass of background processes, seem to be achieving XP level of performance and stability.

And with the 64 bit versions you can take advantage of large amounts of RAM (like 16, 32, or more gigs) and enjoy the benefits of loading larger vst sample libraries and also editing large SAWStudio sessions completely in RAM using the Region Caching option... awesome.

So... it is hopefully time to finally put XP to rest and jump up to Win 10... and I will continue to explore new ways of tweaking it into better behavior.

Bob L

Brilliant Bob, many thanks.

Cheers
Bruce

That's excellent news thank you! My XP machine is still going strong but it won't last for ever.....

What's puzzling me is that we haven't yet had a reaction from across the pond - it seems we in Australia and the UK are ahead of the game!

Hilary

Bob,

Thank you for all of your efforts ... as they are very much appreciated.

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention."
Oscar Wilde

Great work, Bob! Thanks so much for staying on this! :cool:

This is great news. Thanks for all your continued effort and support of a fantastic product.

This couldn't come at a better time, as I finally upgraded my studio machine to a faster CPU, and installed Windows 10 after many years of XP. This will be most important in regard to SAWStudio for me, but good for both programs.

Thank you very much, Bob!

Congratulations on cracking this nut, Bob!! Persistence pays off again! :cool:

Bob, your message arrives me at the right moment.

If I now upgrade to Win 10 64-bit with SAC64 and SAWStudio64, what are the current recommendations regarding single-core or multi-core settings in the BIOS? Up to now the recommendation was to operate the board with only one core because of the concurrent memory accesses. How much RAM is recommended for smooth operation?

Best regards
Walter

Actually... I have always recommended using two cores... this way the display elements were separated from the engine audio processing elements.

With these new versions, we have been leaving all cores active so far and receiving pretty good results... the main engine thread still seems to avoid being stepped on as long as you use the realtime priority option in SAC.

Still observing with these new setups, so we'll see how it all settles in the near future.

Bob L