I am a relative beginner with VCV, but have already run into what I believe are hardware limitations on my current setup. Most of Omri Cohen’s demos stutter. I’ve set frame rate to 10Hz, limit the number of threads, marked Rack to open in Low Resolution Mode. Those settings help, but I’m still limited to very simple patches.
I see screenshots of monster patches that I have no hope of replicating on my setup. I might consider buying new hardware, but am reluctant to spend too much on fancy hardware only to find that it’s still not enough for Rack.
I’ve scoured the forums looking for hardware advice – but don’t see anything objective. I’m on a 16G 2.7GHz i5 Macbook Pro (and I’m aware that laptops with integrated graphics are not recommended). Yet I’ve seen forum posts of other mac laptop users claiming good performance, but “good” is probably subjective (how many modules in the patch? What frame rates? In my ideal world, I’ll be able to run large VCV patches on a mac since that will integrate with my Logic Pro based workflow better as I get more ambitious with my patches. I gather that Windows machines with “gaming” GPUs are probably a better bet, but everything else I’m doing music/audio-wise is on the mac, so would really like to find a way to run VCV on macos.
But how beefy of a mac is necessary? Is a 2015 iMac with RADEON GPU “good enough”? (and again, how best to quantify “good enough”?)
I wish I understood how much is too much. I see very few modules above 4%, most less than 2%. Then there must be some modules that while using lots of cpu are doing the work it would take several simpler modules to do.
I admit it’s not always easy to find replacements. Sometimes you will find a module that is using a HUGE amount of cpu - then it’s pretty easy to decide if it’s worth it to switch. Also, when you are initially evaluating a new module make sure to check.
I would like to say “just use only my modules and you will be fine”. But of course there are all kinds of things out there, and just using one set of modules would be impossible or at least very confining. fwiw - mine use very little. if you have a favorite module that uses “too much” CPU, ask the maker to fix it. Many times it’s pretty easy - I’ve seen many cases where this happened.
Yeah, I have found one or two modules that used insane cpu and just forgot about them as an option. But some modules that do use more than most (like Blamsoft XFX Wave) I still use because I like what it can do and am willing to accept the “cost”.
How do you measure performace of your modules? I assume you are not relying on the cpu meter in Rack as the final judge. And does using multiple threads make the cpu meter less meaningful? I have compared cpu for osc’s and don’t see very low cpu usage from SL modules on my system. Since I take your word that your modules are efficient, I am left assuming the meter is not a great way to judge actual performance.
haha - btw, while Functional VCO was in it’s day a clone of Fundamental VCO-1 that used 1/4 the CPU, it is now a little long in the tooth. Some people still like it (obviously), but the current Fundamental VCO-1 is (imao) better. My BasicVCO is enormously more effecient. ok, end of detour.
For my own modules I have a very very precise was of measuring the efficiency, but it only works on my modules, and requires writing code even then. So for comparing with other modules I do use the CPU meters. I have found:
they jittered a lot with my ancient m-audio sound card, but they are fine with my new steinberg ur22c>
I always use one thread.
If the number are too small I set the sample rate to something insanely high to get bigger numbers.
Oh, and by the way, Bogaudio modules are usually very good on the CPU usage.
@flyingLow Thanks for the pointer to @diimdeep 's fork! (and @diimdeep thanks for the fork!!). I just fired it up on an old Omri Cohen patch I’d been having problems with and it’s running very well! (early-2015 MBP, 16G).
Is it normal to have audio go completely stuttery when the CPU meter is turned on? With standard Rack, it was unusable for me. It’s better with the @diimdeep fork, but on a large patch (I’m currently running a 3-row approx 30-module patch and as soon as I turn on the CPU meter, it is just static noise…
I don’t usually test with the sound on, so I’m not sure. But this does not sounds right. Unless you are already right at the CPU limit, Then the small extra CPU for the meters could do it? Try with a smaller patch and see?
Disable port lights does seem to help. Thanks for all the ideas - My laptop is behaving much better (mostly due to the @diimdeep fork I think, but each little thing helps a bit.)
I’m feeling much better about being able to get more serious about VCV now…
Yup. It was a long time before I found out about changing the block size. Even just bumping it up from the default 256 to 512 made a world of difference.
