Mac Mini M4 Pro Issues

[BBenesh]

Hello. Im wondering if maybe some Apple + Presonus experts can help me out here. I upgraded recently from a 2020 iMac to the Mac mini M4 Pro, and I'm bummed to say that I'm not getting the same performance out of it, which, according to everything I've read, makes no sense to me.

If I have a session open with 4 or 5 tracks, 2 of which are base virtual instruments (lets say Mai Tai and Presence), another one is an electric guitar with one instance of Amplitube, and lastly I have Steven Slate Drums one another track, I get somewhat frequent occurrences of the task meter at the bottom having momentary SPIKES, with the red dot, and a just-audible stutter or pop.

On my iMac I could have had 5 times these exact tracks and have barely an issue.

currently, its a Mac mini M4 Pro, 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24gb Unified Memory, 1TB SSD, running the latest version of S1.

Im only recording at 44.1k, 24-bit. My I/O hasn't changed at all. Maybe there is some other settings I'm just not familiar with? I know I'm forgetting many things that the experts will want answers about. Please let me know and I can get all pertinent information out there. I really don't use the computer for much other than S1 as its a dedicated Multimedia machine, so there's not a lot of strange software installed that could be spiking the meter, as far as I can tell.

 

[Lukas]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

What is your buffer size and what are your Dropout Protection settings? These are probably the most important parameters when it comes to CPU usage and performance.

The next question would be whether the Efficiency Cores option is enabled.

 

[BBenesh]

Hi! My dropout protection is “low” and my device block size is 32 samples. process precision is set to 32. Regarding the Efficiency cores stuff - I don’t see any option for that information in either S1 or on my systems processes. Am I missing something with that?

 

[Lukas]

The setting should be under Preferences/Audio Setup/Processing. "Use efficiency cores"

 

[tpittman]

Hi! My dropout protection is “low” and my device block size is 32 samples. process precision is set to 32. Regarding the Efficiency cores stuff - I don’t see any option for that information in either S1 or on my systems processes. Am I missing something with that?

If what Lukas states about efficiency helps or, does not help (hopefully it will) maybe the 32 block size may be putting a strain on your Computer. Have you tried 64 or 128 or even 256 to see how it goes?

 

[Lukas]

Yes, 32 samples is most likely far too low.

Also, if the Efficiency Cores setting is enabled, that would further explain why you're experiencing issues. Efficiency Cores should only be used with higher buffer sizes.

 

[BBenesh]

Hi Lukas. Thank you for your response. I’m a bit ashamed to say that while I thought I was up to date, I was on 7.0.2 and not 7.2, which explains why the efficiency cores option was not there. But now it’s updated and it is checked “on”. Maybe they will make the difference?

 

[Vocalpoint]

Hi Lukas. Thank you for your response. I’m a bit ashamed to say that while I thought I was up to date, I was on 7.0.2 and not 7.2, which explains why the efficiency cores option was not there. But now it’s updated and it is checked “on”. Maybe they will make the difference?

Not a Mac user but have been running block size of 128 since 2011 - never had an issue to speak of.

Block size of 32 is probably - way too low. (and hard on CPU)

VP

 

[Lukas]

Then I would suggest setting your buffer size to 128 and Dropout Protection to a higher value - like High or Maximum. And report back if this makes a difference.