Graphics cards DO matter for music production... A LOT.

Discussion in 'Computer Hardware' started by Torrao, Nov 1, 2017.

  1. adrian

    adrian Ultrasonic

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    hommage to Ivor Cutler
     
  2. Smoove Stack

    Smoove Stack Kapellmeister

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    question went to a new thread
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2020
  3. JudoLudo

    JudoLudo Kapellmeister

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    yo guys. in a month or two I'm planning to upgrade my Sapphire Radeon RX 480, which gives me signs of near death (green screen while video, crash during the game).
    is that question of NVIDIA drivers still an issue? should I go to AMD again? I really like the new RTX 30, put an eye on the 3060...

    but my doubt is for the drivers. any issue? advices?
     
  4. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    First of all make sure the 480 is not dying due to issues like dried out thermal paste and dust or dirt.
    Now, anything from Nvidia's 1xxx series and onwards should pose np. Btw, the 3060 will be coming later this year logically along with the 3070 (my eye's on this one heh). The 3080 and the 3090 will be released first, launch is scheduled for September 17.
    Oh and if anyone has misunderstood their pricing, the 3090 should arrive @ 1500$ which seems a lot but supposedly it replaces the Titan RTX (which cost ~2400$) and has almost double the performance.
    Overall, the new Nvidia pricing is most welcome. The 3070 will come @ 500$ and surpasses the 2080TI , a recently 1200 dlr part. They are trying to make up because their last year was not what they expected it to be and not because of Covid, but because of people staying with their older cards on the high end, reluctant to pay the premium Nvidia was asking. Also, on the mid and low range cards which is where companies make the most, AMD was back with new more affordable cards making hard for Nvidia to have siginificant gains from the consumer market, despite their better performance.
    Cheers
     
  5. anonymouse

    anonymouse Platinum Record

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    Core i7 9900k, 64gb ram, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1tb, RTX 2070, Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen, Reaper. Lol latency? Never had a problem.
     
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  6. Clayton123

    Clayton123 Producer

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    R9 3900x, RTX 2070 Super, WD Black M.2 SSD, 32 GB 3200Mhz CL 17 Ram. Behringer UMC 1820. I can track with in the box effects, into full projects, mastering chain and all, nothing resampled, at buffer size 32 with no noticeable latency (~5 ms according to Ableton). So no, I don't think the Nvidia drivers are still messing with latency.:thumbsup:
     
  7. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    I'm following with techie interest this bomb of Nvidia with the performance and price. It's cool but also makes the 2K line one of the most overpriced PC parts of hardware history.
    It's the horrible thing about almost monopoly, we all know about Intel until recently.
     
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  8. zadiac

    zadiac Ultrasonic

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  9. vuldegger

    vuldegger Producer

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    r7 5700x, only 16gb ram , 1tb gen3 crucial p3 , asus rtx 3060 here. this thing slices through everything. 25C idle cpu temp, quiet msi fans
     
  10. saccamano

    saccamano Rock Star

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    Well the gaming thing may be true but I really wouldn't know as I don't game at all. But I use my production machine for video production as well as audio and AMD sucks for that so that's why I have the RTX 3070TI. I have known about the suckage of Nvidia drivers for a long time and thought I had all their garbage shut down on this latest build, but the utilities mentioned here showed up a few I hadn't patched. My prod machines never touch the internet, but still these threads/services take up resources and cpu time if they are left unchecked.

    Thanks for that!!
     
  11. macros mk2

    macros mk2 Platinum Record

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    ughhhhh I just got a new i7-12700k build with an Nvidia 2070. everytime I move the mouse with reaper open and the Nvidia driver enable I get drop puts. latencymon points to nvidia. did a clean ddu install, only installed the studio driver, no GeForce (I have an offline machine.... maybe I'm missing a key driver update? dirextx? games run FAST and without issue. reaper runs fine with the driver disabled MINUS there is no opengl so things like dynone or scaler2 won't display.

    sigh. Nvidia. any help/ ideas would be appreciated, I'm concerned I'm just gonna have to try a different card and hope it magically works. I know this has happened to others I can't find a solution anywhere though. super frustrating, fastest thing I've ever owned for music and it drops out.
     
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  12. saccamano

    saccamano Rock Star

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    There's no denying that Nvidia seems a might retarded when it comes to building video drivers that work and play well with others. However I will share this experience I had recently when I updated drivers on my big production box that contains a RTX 3070ti. The only reason I have a 3070ti in the machine is because I do audio AND video production on the same machine. So I grabbed the newest 'studio' driver from the NV drivers site and went about applying the update to an incumbent driver set that was about 1.5 years old (they were 2021-'22 vintage). I opted, as I usually do, to do a "clean install" and instructed the installer to install "ONLY THE DRIVER AND NOTHING ELSE". To my amazement, the installer for this new crop of drivers actually did just what I had told it to do - it installed ONLY the driver and NONE of the other resource sucking nvidia garbage (or telemetry even) that it would normally have done in the past.

    I have used nvidia cards for years and I have installed MANY MANY drivers for different NV cards, and I have never come across an instance wherein the installer actually did what it was told and installed ONLY THE DRIVER and NOTHING else. Just for giggles, I checked latency numbers after I found what had occurred and found them to be much better in terms of how much resources the nv driver was consuming. Significantly less resource hog-age and better latency specs overall. Amazing!

    The only ONE caveat to this story is that while the installer cleaned out all the older junk from the previous install and installed ONLY what I had told it to, it FAILED to install the Nvidia Control Panel for the driver/hardware. Further investigation revealed that this little bugaboo apparently is by design. Seems it's Nvidia's little joke on all those that only want the driver and not the rest of the garbage that installer would unleash upon their systems. Apparently if one wants the Nvidia Control Panel (an obviously needed piece of the puzzle) at this stage of the game one has to obtain it from the "microsoft store" as an "app package"...:rofl: Not as easy for me since there is NO internet allowed on ANY of my production machines and I run optimized GhostSpectre builds that do NOT contain any "ms store" bullshit (along with a whole lot of other junk) on them by default. Needless to say there are ways around this sort of road-block which I have taken advantage of many times before and it is not REALLY an issue for me personally, but I can see for others where it might be an issue or even a show stopper. The added frustration to the end user resulting from an infantile and petulant decision by Nvidia to NOT install the single-most important part of the driver (the control panel) infuriated the piss out of me even though the fix was easy enough to apply given the circumstance.

    Admittedly I was not really having issues with latency artifacts and my decision to update drivers was based purely on maintenance reasons, but a nice little bonus even though I created a second issue as far as the nv control panel was concerned. Suffice to say, all is back to normal, the new driver is installed, as well as the nv control panel, my RME audio gear is even happier now due to the fact that there is even less nvidia trash on the system to have to deal with.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2023
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  13. EddieXx

    EddieXx Audiosexual

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    list your stuff man, otherways how the heck are we going to have a chance knowing whats wrong with your system. what audio interface do you have to begin with

    (this thread is old as fock, 2017.. And then that machine was probably some years old... today graphics is even more a nonissue for audio. Chasing latency was a Y2K thing, today the margins are so great you either have an under-powered machine for what you want to do or have some big time hardware conflict).
     
  14. pratyahara

    pratyahara Guest

    The communication between the CPU and GPU can affect CPU performance a bit. This is because the CPU and GPU need to communicate with each other to share data and instructions. This communication can take CPU time, and it can slow down the CPU slightly if the GPU is demanding a lot of resources.
    In general, the communication between the CPU and GPU has a relatively small impact on CPU performance. However, it can be a factor in some cases, such as when the GPU or graphic tasks are very demanding or when the CPU is not very fast.
     
  15. macros mk2

    macros mk2 Platinum Record

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    lol yes that's a real good point, I should list my stuff duh. windows 10, i7-12700k, Nvidia 2070, ddr 4 32 gb 4000mhz, 850w, motu m2, g502, Samsung 32 screen.

    latencymon shows motu and Nvidia as not working well with each other. Nvidia and directx show. it doesnt drop out until I move the mouse.

    would Nvidia profile inspector allow you to get away with not using the control panel?


    edit I fixed it Nvidia was set to optimal power not maximum power.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2023
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  16. Garamondo Furbish

    Garamondo Furbish Rock Star

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    I use a dedicated pc for music production, its not internet connected, in fact i removed the wireless card as well. its an I-5 4 core, 3ghz
    16gb ram, intel graphics. Its a 100$ machine, cheap enough to buy another for a backup machine or for testing. HP Elitedesk Small form factor (SFF) USDT. These are corporate off lease machines, I use an 800 g1, cause it has a dvd drive for loading software.
    it has 4 usb 3 ports, and 4 usb 2 which are great for usb midi devices like keyboards and drum pads and audio interfaces.

    It supports 2 monitors directly with 2 DisplayPort sockets.
    for me its a cheap easy way to make music without spending my days being an IT guru troubleshooting problems I don't need.

    if you want to game, websurf etc, buy a separate computer or laptop, used are cheap. a good websurfing laptop can be had fully kitted
    i7 for about 125$ in the states off ebay, frequently with free shipping.

    never depend on a single computer, or you're boned when the tech breaks, and all tech breaks eventually. power supplies go bad, memory goes bad, drives fail..

    here's my little headache solver.. you can replace the dvd drive with another ssd if you don't do dvd. BTW USB3 transfer rate is faster than sata or most nvme, so an external usb 3 ssd for sample librarys etc is an easy storage expansion - these machines use an exteranal power brick, like a laptop so heat and emf/electrical noise isn't a problem. The legacy ps2 ports are handy if you want to use a touchpad and a a keyboard. I've got a touchpad velcro'd to my arturia keyboard and i rarely touch the logitech wireless keyboard when using the pc...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. Madison Henderson

    Madison Henderson Newbie

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    Has anyone any comments on graphics performance of M1/M2/M3 Mac’s vs. the old intel ones? I mean for music production specifically.
     
  18. fnord23

    fnord23 Ultrasonic

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    I can play GTA V and similar games on highest settings with my integrated graphics.
    Why should the GUIs of some plugins be too much to handle?
     
  19. Legotron

    Legotron Audiosexual

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    Probably the refresh rate and resolution of spectral and other metering
     
  20. tzzsmk

    tzzsmk Audiosexual

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    Metal API is pretty much required nowadays, so for ex. Waves plugins no longer work on Intel MacPro with HD5770,
    also there are various Metal revisions/feature sets, so older graphics platforms are no longer being supported - for ex. MBP 2014 with Intel & nVidia 750M has only Metal feature set 1, MGUX 4.0.8 [3.2.8]
    here's an overview (pdf) https://developer.apple.com/metal/Metal-Feature-Set-Tables.pdf
     
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