Overloading CPU and Crackling MIDI

[TalismanRich]

There is one other option on the newer Intel processors, called the TDP or Thermal Design Power. There is an Up and a Down setting. The TDP-Down is the lowest normal speed that the processor will be running, with the most efficient setting. (lowest power usage)

In this case, the I7-1165G7 has a TDP=Down of 1.2gHz, and draws 12 watts. The TDP=Up is 2.8gHz, and there it draws 28 watts. If you run higher than that, you begin to stress the cooling. Some manufacturers can configure the TDP-Down setting to get more processor speed at the cost of battery life. On my Lenovo, the std TDP-Down is 1.3gHz, but the manufacturer sets it at 1.5gHz. If the system is configurable, it may be found in the BIOS settings.

 

[Gtoboy]

I think it really depends on your DAW a lot. I run Pro Tools and its proprietary AAX plugin system. I have an older MSI laptop with 4gb ram, i5 processor and a 1TB SSD(it came with 2 gb ram and 500gb spinner) and it doesn't like too many plugins which is in part due to the low RAM number (the chipset wont run more RAM). Then I have a Lenova laptop (G70) that came with an i5 processor, 4 GB ram and 500GB 5000 rpm spinner. I burned the spinner hard drive up using it to store audio while running Pro Tools on Win7. I upgraded it to an i7 processor , the max 8 gb ram and SSD and it worked great with Pro Tools as long as i kept the Virtual instrument count reasonable.

I had some trouble trying to upgrade the lenovo to win 10 to take advantage of DAW addition functions so I ended up getting a reman HP i7 dual core laptop that runs win10 and it has 16 gb ram

I have since upgraded the Lenovo to Win 10 by doing a wipe and clean install to take advantage of the latest Pro Tools and newer plugins. Worked great so last weekend i went and upped to a 2 gb hard drive so now i have room to grow. But the HP is still faster due to the processor and ram numbers. I have never bothered with latency monitor. Pro Tools is famous for third part plugins to "leak" where the code gets corrupted and they just start taking up huge amounts of RAM, so there is even a process that your average PT guy uses to fix that.

The desktop i use is a Dell that i have upgraded to 4core i7 with 32 gb ram and 7 tb worth of hard drives. It never bogs down. I imagine if i was using reaper it would fly. I still run win 7 on that one though i am in the process of cloning the main drive prior to updating to Win10 since i have had success with the laptops.

I will say that i adhere to all the DAW dev's advice as far as bios and power settings. Pro Tools advises setting processor power management Minimum to 100% set hard drives to not turn off, disable any bios processor throttling , etc.