Turbo Boost Switcher for Mac CPU performance

[Arpegia]

Hello everybody,

I run Reaper on my Mac Pro (End 2013) 12 Cores 64Gb Ram and I am disappointed by the CPU Performance.

I just watch a video about "Turbo Boot Switcher" which seems to improve the CPU Performance :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opTm22-CtFE

Is anybody did a test with it ?

I really would like to know if it's adapted to the Reaper needs ?

Thanks...

[serr]

Well, I initially see a lot of red flags here.

The premise seems to be that some apps will for some reason not let turbo boost engage normally when the demand comes up. So this utility overrides whatever that restriction is?

Is the link really only given in a youtube video? People usually do that when trying to hide things that otherwise get taken down quickly.

Another of the premises is the stock OSX fan control will no longer work with this utility installed?! Don't like the sound of that!

Those bits were glaring.


I haven't actually investigated closely myself when/if/what conditions turbo boost kicks in normally when using Reaper. I also have a Mac Pro (2009 model in signature) and I haven't found a way to max it out with audio yet. Either the 36 input rig for live sound + multitrack recording or studio projects with 200-300 tracks and plugins with HD audio and 5.1 mixing.

The only near show stopper I experienced was 3rd party plugins that don't work with Reaper's anticipative fx processing feature. The telltale for that is crashy behavior with nowhere near full CPU use. Turning AfxP off globally however is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The secret is to disable AfxP for any track with an incompatible 3rd party plugin inserted.

Around the time I discovered that bit I also turned hyperthreading off and set the CPU core use from 1 to the number of physical cores (8 in my case). It was the general recommendation to disable hyperthreading and enable all core use because Reaper likes to manage it's own multicore use. When I compared this it seemed to ring true. (In direct contrast to conventional wisdom for DAW setup.) I have since seen this one argued back and forth and I honestly kind of forgot about it since everything works and I'm not sure even how to max out the system with audio work beyond using known buggy plugins. Again, this was tested with a mix with over 200 tracks up and a number of 3rd party plugins that Reaper clearly doesn't like (Universal Audio). Small projects run with no issues even with buggy plugins that might start to show problems in a large project. You have to have some mayhem going on to even compare these settings.

My 2c worth.

[vanhaze]

Dear serr,

As always for me, your technical posts about DAW performance and performance in Reaper specifically are so welcome.
Thanks again for this great post !

- Me, as a longtime mac user, for DAW use, would think that it maybe would be helpful to have a mac computer cpu always running at full speed, so that the switching from speed A to highest speed wouldnt introduce audio glitches.
I am aware of the fact that it would cost more power consumption / thermal heat development.

- Furthermore, would be great to have a list of plugins which don't like Reaper's anticipative processing, maybe provided by Cockos and/or Reaper users.

[serr]

Is someone having issues when the system switches on turbo boost? Do tell. The info would be welcome.

I suppose I could load up on 100 convolution reverbs and every UA plugin in the system or something to play with this. Motivation for that shootout is low. There would almost certainly be many rounds of "No... that didn't change anything."

That list could simply start with anything by UA. They still deliver with the bits of fidelity they have the reputation for but the old Protools hardware like system they use instead of native processing is getting pretty long in the tooth and is certainly the source of any and all problems with them. The next system shakedown I do is going to be looking for modern replacements for all the UA plugins just because.

[vanhaze]

Maybe Slate stuff serr ...

[cyrano]

There's a site for this tool:

http://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/
https://github.com/rugarciap/Turbo-Boost-Switcher/

It has been around since 2012 or so. I've used it on a few macs I couldn't get stable audio on otherwise. I was amazed it has gone commercial.

The problem is the CPU frequency switching. On most macs, it doesn't switch when you're working in a DAW. In rare cases it creates a sync problem with audio interfaces when it switches. It doesn't matter if it is USB or FW or TB. When it happens, it happens. And sometimes the Mac starts flip-flopping...

I've never seen cooling problems, but you have to be aware that these Intel Mobile processors can't cope with running at boost speeds continuously. Even with adequate cooling they'd burn. This doesn't apply to the Mac Pro of course. But you'd better make damned sure the cooling paste on the CPU is OK.

I've installed 2 identical new 5K imacs recently. One was stable, one was not. In this case, none of the usual fixing tools worked.

Finally, we sent the unstable one back to Apple, to be sold to some other unknowing customer probably. I was told to include the original packaging at least six times. I'm not sure I would have been able to convince Apple there was a problem if I hadn't had two identical machines, ordered at the same time, with near consecutive serials. It took about a month to convince them. Besides audio, the machine worked perfectly.

Most of these fixing tools will be unavailable under High Sierra, as 3rd party kernel extensions are no longer allowed. A lot of audio gear will stop working...

Recently, the leading Intel X86 engineer has left the company, after many of it's high-level execs. Not good either. Intel is scrapping entire divisions (wearables, fi). Wonder what they're planning.

[vanhaze]

I am stunned to hear about 2 identical 5K imacs , performing very differently.
I never heard of that being possible ..You opened my eyes.

[serr]

More fuel for the fire then... There's absolutely no way I would consider one of the non "pro" Macs for anything. The retina screen Macbooks (even the ones with "pro" in the name) and the iMacs with the glued on screen make no sense for anyone. The "cost reduced" stuff with the gluing and so forth suggest "general office machine". The processing power included goes way beyond "office" needs and the price tag attached to that makes it a pretty screwy combination.

I'd stay with the 2009 - 2012 models for the Mac Pro. Upgrade to the newer 3.5 or 4GHz Xion CPUs if you want it to run circles around the newer cylinder models. Still trying to come up with an excuse to upgrade myself.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by vanhaze

I am stunned to hear about 2 identical 5K imacs , performing very differently.
I never heard of that being possible ..You opened my eyes.

It's not possible, because in our universe, identical means identical including the behavior. What it really means is the difference is unknown and likely not anywhere in the software or controllable that high up, which could literally be down to a less than spec'd capacitor somewhere on the motherboard or who knows what small analog side of the gear somewhere.

I first noticed this when building microprocessor projects and very close to the hardware and mistakes there cause inexplicable results in the software because I wasn't realizing the tiny mistake made in the hardware and we can never actually see it from the software side.

However, the fact they are identical as in same model new in the box, it is worth noting it can happen because of all of the above.

[cyrano]

Originally Posted by vanhaze

I am stunned to hear about 2 identical 5K imacs , performing very differently.
I never heard of that being possible ..You opened my eyes.

There are no real identical machines. Doesn't matter for 99,9% of applications. But in realtime processing it can be a pita.

There was some "defect" in one.

I've got several 2009 MB pro's. Some of them are even complete

It took me a year to realize that one of these was slower because the magcharger was constantly flopping around. It made the SMC decide to go into slow mode, to avoid bursting the battery or grilling the GPU. Changed the DC-in board (the only other printed circuit besides the main logic board) and it went to normal speed. There's a one-wire serial comm chip on these DC-in board and the 100 nF ripple protection cap had gone bad, resulting in the Mac constantly switching the charger on and off.

In that year, that Mac ate several chargers. Should have figured that out sooner. But, hey, it's my own, not a customer machine, so there's no hurry

I even had a beige G3 at work many years ago, that wouldn't do mail. Everything worked, no problem. And I tried several email clients. They connected but never retrieved mail from the server. No idea what was wrong with that machine. Just put it aside and gave the user another one.

On this case, just to be on the sure side, I'd disable turbo mode. Running it permanently seems unnecessary in most cases. Except maybe with dozens of VSTi's or so. But then I'd advise a new Mac...

[cyrano]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

I first noticed this when building microprocessor projects and very close to the hardware and mistakes there cause inexplicable results in the software because I wasn't realizing the tiny mistake made in the hardware and we can never actually see it from the software side.

You should try some cheap Chinese processors some day. Just for giggles, of course.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by cyrano

You should try some cheap Chinese processors some day. Just for giggles, of course.

No doubt. I had a knock-off ESP8266 IIRC, maybe a -02 or -04 version, the one with the shield over the parts. It had a problem, I removed the shield and one of the parts (diode or resistor) had had shifted when the solder paste melted creating a bit of an intermittent short.

[Arpegia]

Originally Posted by serr

Well, I initially see a lot of red flags here.

The premise seems to be that some apps will for some reason not let turbo boost engage normally when the demand comes up. So this utility overrides whatever that restriction is?

Is the link really only given in a youtube video? People usually do that when trying to hide things that otherwise get taken down quickly.

Another of the premises is the stock OSX fan control will no longer work with this utility installed?! Don't like the sound of that!

Those bits were glaring.


I haven't actually investigated closely myself when/if/what conditions turbo boost kicks in normally when using Reaper. I also have a Mac Pro (2009 model in signature) and I haven't found a way to max it out with audio yet. Either the 36 input rig for live sound + multitrack recording or studio projects with 200-300 tracks and plugins with HD audio and 5.1 mixing.

The only near show stopper I experienced was 3rd party plugins that don't work with Reaper's anticipative fx processing feature. The telltale for that is crashy behavior with nowhere near full CPU use. Turning AfxP off globally however is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The secret is to disable AfxP for any track with an incompatible 3rd party plugin inserted.

Around the time I discovered that bit I also turned hyperthreading off and set the CPU core use from 1 to the number of physical cores (8 in my case). It was the general recommendation to disable hyperthreading and enable all core use because Reaper likes to manage it's own multicore use. When I compared this it seemed to ring true. (In direct contrast to conventional wisdom for DAW setup.) I have since seen this one argued back and forth and I honestly kind of forgot about it since everything works and I'm not sure even how to max out the system with audio work beyond using known buggy plugins. Again, this was tested with a mix with over 200 tracks up and a number of 3rd party plugins that Reaper clearly doesn't like (Universal Audio). Small projects run with no issues even with buggy plugins that might start to show problems in a large project. You have to have some mayhem going on to even compare these settings.

My 2c worth.

Cool Serr, and thanks for the explanations. However, I have some questions because I am French speaking and i am not sure to understand well:

1 - When speak about 3rd party plugins, what does it mean ? Is that the plugins which are note included in Reaper ?

2 - When yo say "The secret is to disable AfxP for any track with an incompatible 3rd party plugin inserted" how could I know if some of my plugin (Fabfilter, Klanghelm, Acustica, softube, etc) are not compatible ? And how can i disable the Afxp for a single track ?

3 - About the "hyper threading", where can I turn it off ?

Thanks for help...

[serr]

Originally Posted by cyrano

There's a site for this tool:

http://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/
https://github.com/rugarciap/Turbo-Boost-Switcher/

It has been around since 2012 or so. I've used it on a few macs I couldn't get stable audio on otherwise. I was amazed it has gone commercial.

I should have looked that up before making a disparaging comment about youtube. Oh well.

Originally Posted by cyrano

There are no real identical machines. Doesn't matter for 99,9% of applications. But in realtime processing it can be a pita.

There was some "defect" in one.

I've got several 2009 MB pro's. Some of them are even complete

It took me a year to realize that one of these was slower because the magcharger was constantly flopping around. It made the SMC decide to go into slow mode, to avoid bursting the battery or grilling the GPU. Changed the DC-in board (the only other printed circuit besides the main logic board) and it went to normal speed. There's a one-wire serial comm chip on these DC-in board and the 100 nF ripple protection cap had gone bad, resulting in the Mac constantly switching the charger on and off.

In that year, that Mac ate several chargers. Should have figured that out sooner. But, hey, it's my own, not a customer machine, so there's no hurry

I even had a beige G3 at work many years ago, that wouldn't do mail. Everything worked, no problem. And I tried several email clients. They connected but never retrieved mail from the server. No idea what was wrong with that machine. Just put it aside and gave the user another one.

On this case, just to be on the sure side, I'd disable turbo mode. Running it permanently seems unnecessary in most cases. Except maybe with dozens of VSTi's or so. But then I'd advise a new Mac...

Yeah, you know we should probably be amazed when any of this stuff actually works almost as designed rather than get upset when one of a million variables goes wild.

Originally Posted by Arpegia

Cool Serr, and thanks for the explanations. However, I have some questions because I am French speaking and i am not sure to understand well:

1 - When speak about 3rd party plugins, what does it mean ? Is that the plugins which are note included in Reaper ?

2 - When yo say "The secret is to disable AfxP for any track with an incompatible 3rd party plugin inserted" how could I know if some of my plugin (Fabfilter, Klanghelm, Acustica, softube, etc) are not compatible ? And how can i disable the Afxp for a single track ?

3 - About the "hyper threading", where can I turn it off ?

Thanks for help...

1. Correct. I mean any plugin made by another company that isn't CockOS.
2. When the system isn't being stressed (low CPU use, etc) but you have errors (clicks/pops/crackles/dropouts) you can make a guess that it might be this issue. If you disable AfxP for the track in question and the errors go away you can say "Yep, that was it!".

Plugin makers don't publish a spec for if Reaper's proprietary AfxP feature is compatible. All you can do is try that workaround when this comes up.

3. This is the command I know about.
. . . you can permanently disable hyperthreading by issuing the following command in the Terminal:

sudo nvram SMT=0

To re-enable hyperthreading, use the command:

sudo nvram -d SMT

Changes take place on a reboot . . .

This one writes to your firmware so it stays even through rebooting into other systems.
There are a couple other temporary commands that only apply until a reboot.

[Arpegia]

Originally Posted by serr

1. Correct. I mean any plugin made by another company that isn't CockOS.
2. When the system isn't being stressed (low CPU use, etc) but you have errors (clicks/pops/crackles/dropouts) you can make a guess that it might be this issue. If you disable AfxP for the track in question and the errors go away you can say "Yep, that was it!".

Plugin makers don't publish a spec for if Reaper's proprietary AfxP feature is compatible. All you can do is try that workaround when this comes up.

3. This is the command I know about.
. . . you can permanently disable hyperthreading by issuing the following command in the Terminal:

sudo nvram SMT=0

To re-enable hyperthreading, use the command:

sudo nvram -d SMT

Changes take place on a reboot . . .

This one writes to your firmware so it stays even through rebooting into other systems.
There are a couple other temporary commands that only apply until a reboot.

Big thanks for your answer Serr, I will try all your recommendation.