DP9 - CPU overload after computer upgrade

[Garf]

Hi all,

I'm experiencing a very strange issue after a laptop upgrade. I have a very large DP9 project for a live show with some chunks over 100 tracks at 96k/24 bits, buffer at 1024. The old laptop was handling the session fine, with the only problem of taking a minute to load up chunks.

I upgraded to a brand new MacBook Pro, reinstalled DP9 (no disk image) and copied the session over. I'm now getting processing overload all the time. This baffles me because the new laptop is significantly more powerful than the other one. I've been reading about improving performances on DP, but nothing seems to do the trick. Also I cannot find the Work Quanta settings which I'd like to play around with.

One thing that changed between the 2 machines is the audio interface connection. I'm using the Waves MGO the interfaces with Digigrid server. It connects to the laptops using Ethernet RJ45 port. The new laptop only has USB-C ports (thank you Apple...), so I have to use a usb-c to ethernet adapter. Could this affect CPU performance?

Below the specs of the 2 laptops:
Old MacBook Pro:
CPU: 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7
RAM: 16 Ghz DDR3
1TB internal SSD drive
OS: Sierra

New MacBook Pro:
CPU: 2.9 Ghz Intel Core i7
RAM: 16 GB LPDDR3
1TB Internal SSD drive
OS: Sierra

Thank you

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Make sure the PREFERENCES/PLAY AND RECORD/SHOW ALERT WHEN PLAYBACK OVERLOADS THE PROCESSOR is unchecked. Should fix you right up. Long time bug in DP.

[Garf]

Thank you,
I have that unchecked already. I forgot to mention I'm getting audio glitches every time Processing clips

[mikehalloran]

What are your buffer settings?

[Garf]

1024 as I said in my first post. Tried 2048 with no success either

[cuttime]

Activity Monitor should be your first stop. Could it be that Spotlight is still indexing (mds or mdsworker)?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

OK, the others may laugh, but try it anyway... REPAIR PERMISSIONS?

[mikehalloran]

OK, the others may laugh, but try it anyway... REPAIR PERMISSIONS?

You know that I never laugh at that but Repair Permissions functionality has been completely removed from OS 10.12 Sierra.

Could Spotlight indexing be a culprit? Perhaps—that will go away soon enough.

How did you move your content over? Migration Assistant, Time Machine restore, copying files or cloning?

[Garf]

Fixed! Thank you Cuttime for the Activity Monitor tip!

So, activity monitor showed that the usb c/ethernet port was using a lot of CPU power and was making playback clip. I read about it is appears there is a known conflict with this port on Sierra. A driver update did the trick.

Thank you all, this is a relief. I really appreciate your help

[cuttime]

Good news and thanks for checking back with the solution!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Cool! I didn't know that Repair Permissions was gone in Sierra. Haven't tried it since the update.

That's a good thing... isn't it? Mikey?

[mikehalloran]

Cool! I didn't know that Repair Permissions was gone in Sierra. Haven't tried it since the update.

That's a good thing... isn't it? Mikey?

Yes it is. The whole Package Receipts thing is history with Sierra. About damned time.

One thing that should still be done once a year or so is a Safe Boot: shut down, Boot with the Shift key held down, release the key and log into your User account at the prompt, wait till your desktop icons look normal, reboot normally. This can take a very long time with a mechanical hard drive, 5–10 minutes with an SSD. Almost nothing runs in Safe Mode so don't bother trying.

A Safe Boot does a few things. It restores your system and default caches. It also rebuilds your desktop, just as it did in System/OS 4–9 except that it was called Rebuild Desktop back then—you still held down the Shift key.

If you notice that alias icons don't display correctly, a Safe Boot fixes that.