Any users using R5 on the latest Powerbook rev?

If so, are you seeing double the CPU usage as previous revs of the powerbook?

This only seems to be happening on the latest rev. of the powerbook (the DDR2 RAM PB).

For example, the default Carbon 2 patch runs at ~73% using the built-in soundcard at 20ms latency. I verified this thru a friend who bought a PB at the same time I did, he was running the R5 demo for this test.

Someone at the ableton forums (he's here too) was extremely kind enough to help me out by testing this on his system (an older rev. of the powerbook) and his cpu usage runs at about 36%.

I'm basically looking to verify this is an issue, I'm going to e-mail NI tech support about this now, but the more data I can collect, the better the chance they'll be able to figure out whats going on.

-Eric

 

??? what powerbook?

sowari

 

relax dude.

go to 'system prefs/energy saver'

and switch the 'optimisation' menu to 'better performance'.

enjoy your powerbook!

 

I have the latest powerbook released, the DDR2 one with the higher resolution. These powerbooks run R5 at 2x the cpu usage as the 1.67ghz powerbooks that preceded these.

Thanks for your input!

 

It does not make a difference unfortunately. Also, this latest rev of the powerbook does not have the ability to select "highest processor" or whatever from the advanced energy saver menu. I even checked the man pages for the admin program that defines which energy saving features to enable/disable, the ability to force the cpu into running at a particular speed has been removed as a valid options from the command line.

Also, if I run the live5 stress/cpu test, I get the same numbers as all 1.67ghz powerbook owners. It is only Reaktor5 that exhibits this 2x cpu usage, again, this leads to ruling out any "energy saver" related option being the issue.

Thanks for your input!

 

ok......

sowari

 

I am using a Powerbook 1.67ghz w/ 2 gigs of RAM.

An update to this issue. I am in conversation with NI tech support and they've been awesome so far, so the goal of this post is not to deluge them with the fact this issue exists, as they are aware of it, and working with me on it, but I just wanted to post an excerpt of my last email with them in case anyone who has the latest rev of hte powerbook wishes to replicate the issue.

"
Now! I've found a perfectly easy way to replicate this problem!

Open up Reaktor 5 standalone and load Subharmonic (Baltik State).

The CPU usage should be about 55%.

Now, either load Live5 (or the Live5 demo), and in the options screen, under the audio

tab, select "Test Tone", and crank the cpu usage threshold to 80%.

Now load R5 as an AU into a channel, and reload the Subharmonic (Baltik State) patch

again. Now this patch only takes up ~24%!

Now, go back to the CPU Usage threshold and reduce this number to 0%, and watch the

reaktor cpu usage meter dynamically grow up to 46%!

So either

a) The powerbook is not changing CPU speeds in reaktion (sic) to Reaktors CPU requirements

b) Reaktor is hogging as much CPU as possible, and only scaling back when it has to.


c) Reaktor is not accurately reporting the CPU usage to activity monitor.

d) Something I haven't thought of


Also, you asked about Activity Monitor. This is another good way to observe the problem.

Start up Reaktor 5 standalone, again load Subharmonic (Baltik State), and observe the ~55%

CPU usage in activity monitor.

Now Load up Live 5 (or demo) and go back to that cpu usage threshold and crank it to 80%

again.

Now observe Activity monitor, you will see as Live's CPU usage goes up, Reaktors will

decrease to compensate.
"

-Eric