I recently purchased a Lenovo Legion 5 16" with a i9 149000HX 32gb ran RTX4060 and was disappointed to find that with a new install of Ableton 12 and xfer serum 2 I was having CPU spikes. Considering returning the computer and finding something else. Is there any laptop that works best for audio production?

 

You probably need to tweak some stuff which are causing those spikes, there's handful of info out here, probably someone will jump in with wall of text to help you out with everything.

Personally consider Macbook's best stuff out of the box for music production, but something with those specs could cost you around 3K.

 

base macbook pro with m4 pro

 

You need a Ryzen processor with a higher base clock frequency. This is just an example and not a recommendation to buy.

Lenovo Campus ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 (AMD) 21ME000PGE
14" WUXGA IPS matt,
AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 8840HS OctaCore - basic clock speed 3.3GHz
32GB RAM
1TB SSD PCIe 4.0
AMD Radeon™ 780M Graphics
Windows® 11 Pro
€1,599.00


Intel® Core™ i9 Prozessor 14900HX

CPU Specifications

Number of Cores: 24
Number of Performance Cores: 8
Number of Efficient Cores: 16
Total Threads: 32
Maximum Turbo Clock Speed: 5.8 GHz
Clock Speeds with Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost: 5.8 GHz
Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 Frequency: 5.7 GHz
Performance Core Maximum Turbo Clock Speed: 5.8 GHz
Efficient Core Maximum Turbo Clock Speed: 4.1 GHz
Performance Core Base Clock Speed: 2.2 GHz
Efficient Core Base Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz
Cache: 36 MB Intel® Smart Cache

 

Login with local account only even if on w11 and turn off as much as telemetry as possible

Turn off Wifi driver and connect ethernet cable only

turn off any internal soundchips only use your ASIO driver with dedicated external sound card

make sure that your ext drives have no shut off timers and that have the highest speed possible if no SSD 7200RMP is mandatory and you also have to get thru usb port with the faster speed possible

Make sure your force our RTX nvidia to be the only video card reader

otherwise return your machine and start from scratch by studying all parts that will be in sync with the CPU and GPU

Good luck

 

Better you use the following links to optimize your computer for music production.

0.) Don't let audio glitches ruin your performances! www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/
1.) The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your Windows PC for the Stage
https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html
2.) LatencyMon 7.31
The LatencyMon software analyzes and identifies which device, which driver or which service is causing audio dropouts or malfunctions. Real-time audio suitability checker for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/2016/2012/2008 (x86 and x64)
Scroll Down to: System Monitoring Tools https://www.resplendence.com/downloads
3.) Windows Tuning Tips for Audio Processing
https://support.native-instruments....1729-Windows-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing
4.) PreSonus - Optimizing Your Computer for Audio - Windows 10
https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-...Optimizing-Your-Computer-for-Audio-Windows-10
5.) Ableton - Optimizing Windows for Audio
https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/209071469-Optimizing-Windows-for-Audio
6.) FL Studio - Optimizing FL Studio performance
www.image-line.com/fl-studio-learning/fl-studio-online-manual/html/app_opt.htm
7.) Windows: How to set up and optimize a Digital Audio Workstation
https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/...t-up-and-optimize-a-Digital-Audio-Workstation
8.) Focusrite - Optimising your PC for Audio on Windows 10
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10
Hardcore DAW Optimizing Tips for Windows 10 and Reaper

 

One thing I'll say is "name brand" PCs (which you have no choice in buying when grabbing a laptop) are notorious for installing bloatware. I have a Dell laptop (I digress, but I've always hated Dell, but decided to give them another chance) and it was damn near unusable when I first got it. I don't actually use the laptop for audio production though, but out-of-the-box was so f'ing slow for a lot of things. That was absolutely ridiculous to me because I spent probably 2x the amount on the lapop as my last laptop, and at the time this Dell Laptop had a pretty good i7 in it. My Samsung laptop wiht an i5 from like 3 or 4 years prior ran better. Anyways, I wiped away almost all the bloat and it runs quite well now.

I will also say if you do end up looking for a new laptop, you really don't need that powerful of a video card in it. The RTX 4060 is near the bottom end of that series of card, but it's still overkill IMO and adds cost you could really put elsewhere (unless you're concerned about GPU processing for audio or you do other thing with this laptop, such as gaming) like a higher end CPU. There's a lot cheaper intel GPUs that will do the job well enough. Just my 2 cents.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025

shizzyex says: Thanks for pointing this out. After I noticed the CPU spikes I started wondering about the lower base speed but thought the i9 could handle it.
It's great for gamers, TURBO, but for musicians they don't need turbo but constant CPU performance and 2.4 GHz is really not enough.

AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800X ---> Base clock speed 3.8 GHz
https://www.amd.com/de/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/5000-series/amd-ryzen-7-5800x.html

Key Takeaways - Best Ryzen CPU for Music Production

• The Ryzen 7 5800X is the best Ryzen CPU for music production, offering excellent performance and multitasking capabilities.
• The Ryzen 9 5900X is a top-tier choice for music production with its high core count and superb single-thread performance.
• The Ryzen 5 5600X is a budget-friendly option that still delivers impressive performance for music production tasks.
• When choosing a Ryzen CPU for music production, consider factors such as core count, clock speed, and cache size.
• Pairing your Ryzen CPU with fast RAM and a solid-state drive will further enhance your music production experience.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025

Trash that junk and buy a macmini: you will thank me later

 

1. Lenovo Legion 5 15ACH6H 15.6" Gaming Notebook, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 3.2GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB M2 SSD, Full HD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB Graphics, Windows 11, 82JU000LGE Legion 5 15ACH6H, Black Visit the Lenovo Store €1,799.00 Processor Speed: 3200 MHz

2. Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gaming Laptop | 16" WQXGA Display | 240Hz | AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | Win11 Home | QWERTZ | grau | 3 Monate Premium Care
1.899,99€
AMD Ryzen™ 7 7745HX --> Base clock speed 3.6 GHz
AMD Ryzen™ processor for premium laptops

https://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-Legion...ds=lenovo+legion+5&qid=1745774688&sr=8-3&th=1

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025

i have good experience´s with my ZEN4 AMD 7900 CPU 12/24 Cores and Serum 2 .
no spikes even with 6 Voice Chords on power hungry Pad´s.
Smooth performance. 3 x Serum 2 in a EDM project with is no problem in Studio One 7.

 

Also consider that Serum 2 is a CPU muncher for any CPU, especially with some more complex presets. With time its CPU consumption will go down a bit as they optimise the code more. Ableton 11 and Serum 2 are good for testing CPUs, it seems. If you get crackles, it's fine. If it can't even play them, it's not fine.

 

What OS? Has it been optimized? Just fyi, win10/11 are complete crap out of the box as they both have a ton of autonomously running junk that must be silenced. What audio hardware? What kind of audio drivers? ASIO? If you're using ASIO4ALL that is not ASIO, it's shit, and more than likely a cause of some of your issues. What all is running on the machine - proprietary drivers and services can be a cause of many headaches and may need to be removed. Also OS updaters and telemetry are notorious for changing your shit around from underneath you and undermining every single piece of optimization you have completed. Which is why I always keep production machines OFF the internet.

That machine may be adequate for your needs (depending on your needs) but if you're looking to get desktop performance from a ANY laptop you're probably barking up the wrong tree with a laptop. If you're looking for a mobile solution to keep up with desktop projects you should probably look for a laptop with a faster CPU and more ram.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025

And spend twice the $$ for the same basic performance. Plus, forget about reverse engineering the garbage out of apple os - it ain't gonna happen... Don't let them kid you. There's plenty of junk in apple os that needs to be RE'd. Seems the haters are relegated to live with their apple privacy issues and telemetry where as the win side can squash it as they see fit. Also, if you're planning on running releases from sisite, it's a way more complicated and twisted road getting there on an apple machine than on a win platform.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2025

A pc with those specs should not have any issues with cpu spikes when running multiple instances of serum 2 in the highest os quality etc in live 12. you have it setup wrong, either your pc or maybe your interface, ableton buffer settings, something. My pc specs are i7 12th generation and faaaar inferior to yours and I have no problem running 50 tracks with 6-10 serum 2 and a ton of other plugins without any cpu spikes at all. also if you use a lot of k'd plugins and dont wanna overpay for a computer stay faaaaaaar away from the whole mac bullshit.

 

Building a new pc with windows 10/11 for a music production based system demands a lot more tweaking then it used to.
Some daws are just not optimized for newer powerful cpus on top of that newer windows demands to change a lot of things before you can actually start using your computer for music production.
More cores does not equal more power. Even when you have everything tweaked you might find that you get only about 10% more usage vs a computer from 5 years ago.

Main culprit is microsoft that made it a lot harder for companies to make their DAWs work efficiently with their bloat.
Reaper based systems are more optimized for newer cpus, while DAWs like Cubase demand a lot of tweaking and even then they are not fully using the newer powerful cpus, even with all the bios, windows tweaking. Sad but true.

 

Wipe the system drive and install a TeamOS Win 11 Enterprise ISO. It can be heavily, lightly or not modified. You should be having zero problems with that machine.

 

most likely your problem is actually quite simple to solve and you don't need to return anything, just download PARKControl from Bitsum and make sure you have all your cores running/unparked. I had the same issue on a different laptop (Dell) tried a ton of things, settings etc, but in the end just making sure all cores are on is what made the difference. Modern laptops are just a pain....