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

[Bob L]

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

[MMP]

I can’t wait to try this out!

[mr_es335]

Bob,

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

So far ... so good. Kontakt is loading much quicker for sure.

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” —Oscar Wilde

[Dave Labrecque]

Super deal! Really appreciate your efforts, Bob!

[MMP]

So, I have worked with both the new SS32 & SS64 this morning. While I did see a big performance difference in SAW32, the SAW64 difference is huge on my system. I am getting better performance than before with about 1/8 of the ASIO buffer settings I was using on my most difficult sessions. The only tweak I have made to get the last bit of performance is I have changed the program’s CPU affinity from all to 3-8 on my hyperthreaded Quad i7. Really great gains! Thanks Bob!

[Richard Rupert]

Yee-haw!!!! (Now, why would I say that???? I'm from Pennsylvania.)

Wonderful news, Bob. Thank you for your continued efforts to refine SAW and wrestle Windows into submission.

[Bob L]

Good news Michael... hopefully some of those random quirks you were having with the 64 bit code will be solved also due to the bug fix that was overwriting arrays as well... I'm beginning to believe that may have been the cause of the weirdness with the BuildMix bugs.

Bob L

[MMP]

Awesome update!

[John Ludlow]

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

That is FANTASTIC news, Bob! Congratulations on finally solving it! The toughest bugs are the most satisfying to squash, aren't they? I'll be upgrading to 64 later today. Totally psyched!

Two questions:

1. What mb/cpu(s) have you been testing on that has/have worked so well?

2. What was it that you caught that finally made the difference? How did you find it?

[Tim Miskimon]

Great news for future builds.
I'm on Windows 7 right now and all has been good so I'm excited to find out if I get better performance.
I do have SAW on both a Windows 8 and Windows 10 machine and have had some issues with inconsistant performance so I'll be checking them out as well.
Thanks Bob for your continued great support.