Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Sorry for the slow reply, busy with work over the weekend.
I got a reply from support.
Apologies for the bad news, but the most likely answer for this issue is that you are using your onboard (not dedicated) GPU which we don’t recommend in our System Requirements.
Does your machine have another graphics card?
If it doesn’t, you may struggle to get VCV Rack working well, but as a first attempt, I would try and reduce the framerate significantly under the View menu > Frame rate.
Here are the relevant recommendations from the VCV manual available at - Frequently Asked Questions - VCV Rack Manual
- Decrease Rack’s frame rate to the smallest tolerable value. See Frame rate.
- Use a dedicated (discrete) graphics card, such as Nvidia or AMD. Rack is not designed for integrated graphics such as Intel HD/Iris. See System Requirements.
- Make sure your graphics drivers are up-to-date.
I have reduced thew framerate to 12Hz and it’s pretty stable. I just can’t watch Omri’s videos at the same time - any other graphics-using program means an immediate crash. But at least it’s enough to get me going!
I did try reinstalling VCV Rack, and ultimate performave mode, but no dice - I just think my GPU isn’t up to spec. I do find it weird that I have no problem with anything else, including games which I would have thought would need far more GPU ‘power’.