CPU problem on Mac OS X

    Nikolas K
    Jul 20 2013 | 8:33 pm
    Hello everybody, I have a problem with a patch. Obviously... I am running a somewhat heavy granular patch, using poly~. This is used as a bpatcher inside a bigger "main" patch with some more effects. So I end up having a main patch consisting from about 12-15 bpatchers.
    When this runs on my Windows PC, the DSP CPU goes to about 25-35%. When this runs on my Mac OS X Macbook, the DSP CPU gets stuck to 100% and result is not listenable! Even if i slow down the granular grain rate, it drops to a 85% minimum and still sounds like it's at 100%, having a lot of sound glitches and everything in the max window, UIwise, is responding very slow.. I do expect some difference due to better characteristics to my Win PC but not like this...
    I have a feeling that the Mac OS X(Mountain Lion) doesn't go to well handling UI objects from Max, from which i have a lot... Before going to Mountain Lion, i used Snow Leopard and while their still was a similar problem it wasn't that big.
    The main question is, first why is there so much difference between the two OS (Win 7, OS X ML) and second is there really such a problem when using UI objects (mainly about panels...) at any Mac OS ?
    Thank you in advance, Nikolas
    • Floating Point
      Jul 20 2013 | 11:59 pm
      You may already know this, but make sure you have poly~ attribute parallel set to 1. You might have vector sizes and audio IO buffer (in audio status window) set differently. Also the low-level scheduler settings (including overdrive) may be different. Otherwise I don't really know.
    • Nikolas K
      Jul 21 2013 | 12:13 am
      poly~ parallel is set to 1, and same signal & IO vector sizes the same. Generally i tested it with the exact same settings/parameters, and as I said there is a HUGE difference. Tried whit overdrive and audio interrupt both on and off. With overdrive off i sounds even worse on the Mac OS... at windows, is sound fine with overdrive on or off.
    • Floating Point
      Jul 21 2013 | 1:23 am
      The only other thing I can think of is the other scheduler settings, such as scheduler interval, slop etc. ( in the Preferences window). But maybe the windows machine's hardware is simply faster...
    • Nikolas K
      Jul 21 2013 | 7:28 am
      i might be a little stubborn, but i can not accept that huge of a difference. Other patches, with almost no UI but a bit heavy DSP load, have a DSP CPU difference of about 10..15 %, no more. I mean, the patch can not be used at the OS X. The same patch, run smoother on the same MacBook when it had Snow Leopard, now by just updating to Mountain Lion, it is working like crap! Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer, appreciate it, Nikolas
    • Floating Point
      Jul 21 2013 | 8:52 am
      LOoks like it's the OS then-- I have snow-thing, I won't be upgrading to mountain-thing unless absolutely necessary...
    • Nikolas K
      Jul 21 2013 | 11:32 am
      Don't mean to scare you about the Mountain Lion... A friend of mine installed them, with a MacBook like mine, and it was better that Snow Leopard...!! And most comments I have heard say that Mountain Lion runs smoothly on older MacBooks... So i guess I might be a little unlucky!