Ultimate low-latency optimization guide for Windows 10. No more clicks/pops

[Infidel]

This is a guide for optimizing your PC for Realtime Audio.
I have been battling with really bad clicks/pops due to malfunctioning drivers and lack of optimization for months now,
so hopefully this guide will save you some time in winning this fight.

My setup:

Prism Orpheus
Intel I7 3770
16GB RAM DDR3
Asrock H61M DGS Motherboard
Kingston 120gb SSD
WD 3 TB HDD

The following optimizations allowed me to work with a buffersize of 32 samples with virtually no problems.
I can now open up projects with many channels, plugins, virtual instruments and so on and have the computer running smoothly with 32 buffersize.

First of all download LatencyMon (http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon)
and let it run the test for a night, without any other programs running.
If you get an error then you are screwed.
For me it was the internal ethernet adapter that was messing things up, so I installed a
Gigabyte PCI-E adapter that solved the conflict.

Windows 10 Optimizations:

All these are very crucial steps so dont skip anything:

1)Install AVG Tuneup:
Settings:
-Turbo Mode
-Live Optimization OFF

AVG Tuneup helps you eliminate unwanted software running in the background and also manage your system and save resources.

2)General Windows Optimizations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwLzg0GJhoA

This guy done an awesome job in optimizing Windows 10 in general

Remember to keep all antivirus and firewall off.

3)Black Viper Windows 7 SP1 *Bare Bones* Services Config:
http://www.blackviper.com/service-co...onfigurations/

and also Black Viper’s Windows 10 Service Configurations:
http://www.blackviper.com/service-co...onfigurations/

Do both of them.

These are optimizations down to the core.
The guy has nailed it with making Windows run like a feather. D
efinitely deserves a donation imho.

----Update 10/04/16: More Tweaks

4)Kill all the Apps

Turns out that Windows 10 Apps that run in the background spike the CPU every 10 minutes or so, which can be pretty devastating when recording.

One has to uninstall all built-in apps:

Here is how:

http://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-...einstall-them/


and how to disable Cortana:

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-unins...in-windows-10/

5)Kill RuntimeBroker

The above might not be enough as you probably need to disable RunTimeBroker, a process that relates to the Apps and runs in the background and can be way too CPU consuming.

Here is how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LdGssoL16A

6)Experiment with Disabling Hyperthreading in BIOS:
In some systems HT can cause clicks and glitches or CPU Spikes, try and see if disabling makes a difference for you.


So thats that.
Hope that helped some of you out!
Let me know

[C-H]

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[autoexecncf]

Thanks for the tips. Excellent post and much needed.

[foxAsteria]

32 samples at what samplerate? I still have this weird problem of a slowly building crackle at high samplerates. Have to repeatedly restart Reaper and wait for it to creep back into the mix again. I never knew about LatencyMon, that looks cool, gonna try it. Thanks for the tips.

[BenK-msx]

well i'd be very wary of recommending install of a 'tuneup' utility especially by avg, and especially if you read that app's reviews which basically tell you it is intrusive, feeds you with adverts and slows down you system in order to tell you ineffective ways of speeding it up again.

the usual visual effects tweaks, backround task settings and services you dont need plus all the notification stuff now in win 10, should be our focus.

[ivansc]

But you can do what I do.
Install it, run it, uninstall it.
Still works. I do that with most every 3rd party utility I run.

[Infidel]

Thanks for the comments guys!

32 buffersize at 44.1khz so far, havent really tested 48khz yet, but 64 works smooth there.

Also one thing that helped was turning off Intel Speedstep from the BIOS.

[Infidel]

One additional thing, and this only concerns Prism Orpheus and Windows users: while running ASIO software Orpheus might be pretty stable but you might get an occasional click here and there if you are on youtube or broswing through the internet.

My guess is that this is probably Window's architecture fault cause when you open a new broswer tab you can get a sudden CPU spike(please correct me if this happens only in my computer) which translates to a click.
Anyway my workaround to that is to use my internal soundcard as the playback device for Windows and then connect it to the Orpheus through a minijack to two mono jack cables.
The downside is that i am using two inputs for that but its better for now at least, no damaging clicks for the speakers.

[foxAsteria]

This LatencyMon has shown me that my computer is pretty wack... I'd already been consulting the Black Viper service list since XP as well as all the other tweaks, but man there are some nasty drivers on my system...explains a lot. Thanks again.

One thing tho; it keeps telling me that my 3ghz processor is measures at only 1ghz. Cpu-z says its 3, but makes me wonder. Did you get an accurate measurement from LatencyMon?

[Infidel]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

This LatencyMon has shown me that my computer is pretty wack... I'd already been consulting the Black Viper service list since XP as well as all the other tweaks, but man there are some nasty drivers on my system...explains a lot. Thanks again.

One thing tho; it keeps telling me that my 3ghz processor is measures at only 1ghz. Cpu-z says its 3, but makes me wonder. Did you get an accurate measurement from LatencyMon?

This is what I am getting with an Intel i7 3770:

Reported CPU speed: 3392 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.

Today I did another stability test by disabling Hyperthreading in BIOS, and I think that made a huge difference. Its too soon to say but maybe for my system this is the cure to get rid of the final pops and clicks in 32 buffersize.

[foxAsteria]

@Infidel - I have the same CPU and results, so I guess it's nothing. But are you saying you experienced a power increase by disabling Hyperthreading? I'll have to try that.

[ivansc]

A thought: Is one of them reporting un-multiplied core speed and the other speed AFTER multiplier applied?
That would seem to account for a roughly 3x difference on most PCs

[Infidel]

Disabling Hyperthreading did wonders in my case, cant say it's an all around solution but give it a shot and see if it makes things better for you.

[JGrabowMST]

I did a vast amount of research for this back when I was doing work with Avid/M-Audio, and it's not Hyper threading that's causing the issue, it's throttling.

Speedstep, C1e, AMD Cool N Quiet and other similar technologies are what cause the issues. Pro Tools never sees this issue, yet many people using Avid/M-Audio interfaces would report problems with other DAW software (Reaper included) and it was initially unclear as to why.

Pro Tools forces the CPUs to run at full speed as long as it's open, it's just written into the code. So far, I haven't encountered any other DAW that acts similarly, so I'm really not surprised to see this issue pop up again. Some motherboards also run into resource sharing issues where there's IRQ sharing (not conflicts, just sharing) between the graphics card and your interface's connection (firewire, USB, internal PCI/PCI-e), the GPU generally gets prioritized bandwidth which will mean your audio interface can see either stability or the crackling audio as well. I certainly don't have the means to go through it again, but several years ago I went through hundreds of forum threads and made a compatibility list of motherboards and BIOS versions that would work extremely well with the M-Audio Delta series interfaces.

It involves a lot of computer knowledge to hammer a system down to working 100%, but I would also suggest that anyone who wants to submit a feature request for Reaper, do so and request that Reaper force the CPUs to run at 100% as long as it's open.

Then it will just be ensuring hardware compatibility to make sure that the interface will run at it's peak performance, and you'll be good to go.

[Infidel]

Hmm thats really interesting.

In my case though, I had problems when throttling and c states were disabled and HT enabled.
It was only when HT was also disabled that i saw the biggest difference.

Actually this made a huge difference in Protools for me.

Protools would report and work with 8 CPU threads with HT on, and there were issues.
With HT off Protools would report only 4 CPU cores (as it should be) and things are way more stable like that.

But again every system is different.

[Infidel]

Updated the original post with more tweaks.

[ivansc]

Thanks!
P.S. You should change your username to Panguin or Penda.
Love the avatar.

[Infidel]

Haha! Cheers