High CPU consumption on demo project - normal?

[AmpliFuzz]

Both the 2.0RC1 and 1.888 releases' demo song nearly maxes out (65% to 100%) my admittedly puny laptop (1.2ghz mobile P3, intel 830 integrated GFX). What's weird is that plugins themselves use like 40% of power, and even if I turn'em all off, just running the tracks with no processing whatsoever eats 35% to 40% of cpu. Is this normal?

Update: with all FX turned off, the stopped song's idling at 10%.

cheers,
AF

[marcelvdg]

I have a similarly spec'd machine for internet browsing and I find the same sort of excessive processor hogging, but its not likeit is much better if i run another daw! The machines just too old.

If I run Reaper on my main machine, which is still not incredible by todays standards I am very happy with the performance. In particular, it thrills me that it runs happily at half the latency that Cubase asks of my soundcard. Almost quick enough to monitor with FX.

[jakerock]

Not my experience unfortunately...
My P4 2.4Ghz / 768MB RAM can do more tracks /plugs with Cubase SX3 than Reaper... But this is an ongoing discussion I guess...
64 bit engine vs. 32bit etc...

By the time I get another machine, it will probably be fast enough to make the difference in performance not such a big deal...
And, in the end, perhaps the 64 bit core will yield better sound???

Im in the reaper posse!