• Hi and welcome to the Studio One User Forum!

    Please note that this is an independent, user-driven forum and is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or maintained by PreSonus. Learn more in the Welcome thread!

RAM usage and Studio One

algleymi

New member
So I recently upgraded my PC from an i7-8700k and 32gb of DDR4 ram to a 9700x and 64gb of DDR5 ram. Ever since then studio one has been so much slower, more latency, and experiencing pops and clicks. I've gone through the whole optimize for windows article, disabled c states, quiet and cool (or whatever it's now called for AMD), performance plan etc.

Sessions I had in studio one 5/6 on my old system would seem to handle way more than what I can now.

I'm working on a session right now with about 15 instances of soundpaint, 25 instances of Opus, 1 of Synchron, one of Kontakt, Arturia, and Musio. Highest plugin latency is 8ms with each Soundpaint ones.

Whenever I use studio one, if sample rate is less than 256, I get pops and cracks despite my CPU usage in studio one showing 35% and in task manager being around 38%.

After around 30-45 minutes in Studio One, it starts to lag. The cursor no longer smoothly runs across the timeline and jumps by beat.

I noticed when I check Resource Manager, I noticed in the same time frame my ram usage goes from around 25gb allotted to Standby to 45 and my "free" memory drops to about 5gb.

Does anyone know if this is a potential cause for any of these issues?

I did have my 4TB nvme pcie drive more than 75% filled and deleted a bunch of stuff and it's now ~60%, but haven't noticed any improvements. For what it's worth, I do store my samples and write my sessions to the same drive.

But I'm more interested in the RAM usage. Has anyone experienced anything like this? It's just bizarre that I didn't have these issues on my old system with older versions of Studio One, even when CPU usage was at 80% or more.
 
Does anyone know if this is a potential cause for any of these issues?

Need more info on what this "upgrade" actually consists of. If this involves Windows 11 - you will have bunch of work to do - especially since you mentioned pop n clicks a couple of times. Windows 11 is horrific out of the box and needs some serious TLC before it will actually perform correctly for a DAW.

And buying a new CPU and new RAM does not instantly equal a panacea of light resource usage.

Gentle suggestion to completely fill out your "signature" (like mine below) so we can see exactly what you are running.

VP
 
Need more info on what this "upgrade" actually consists of. If this involves Windows 11 - you will have bunch of work to do - especially since you mentioned pop n clicks a couple of times. Windows 11 is horrific out of the box and needs some serious TLC before it will actually perform correctly for a DAW.

And buying a new CPU and new RAM does not instantly equal a panacea of light resource usage.

Gentle suggestion to completely fill out your "signature" (like mine below) so we can see exactly what you are running.

VP
Thanks for the advice. I've updated my signature. Curious what TLC you'd recommend for Windows 11? Here are the following changes I've made in the BIOS and in Windows to help optimize my computer:

BIOS
  • Disabled PSS (Quiet and Cool)
  • Enabled XMP Profile for RAM (so it's running at 6400
  • Changed CPU power from 65W to 105W
  • PBO - Enabled
  • Latest BIOS installed
Windows 11
  • Power Plan - High Performance
    • Sleep/Display Off - Never
    • Turn Off Hard Disk after - Never
    • USB Selective Suspend Setting - Disabled
  • All USB Root Hubs "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" - Disabled
  • Controlled Folder Access - Disabled
  • OneCloud Uninstalled
  • Uninstalled most unnecessary applications (XBox etc)
  • Disabled Fast Startup
  • Disabled almost every startup app
  • Drives
    • Enabled Advanced Performance
    • Compress this drive - Disabled
    • Do not limit disk space - Enabled
  • Disabled Bluetooth and Wifi
  • Turned off all windows sounds
  • Turned off screen savers
  • All drivers up to date
I've run SFC File Checker Scan with no errors, memory diagnostic with no issues to repair.

Hopefully provides a little more context.
 
Did the number of cores of your processor change?
 
Did the number of cores of your processor change?
Yeah. Went from 6 cores to 8 with a higher base clock speed. And the 9700x has some of the highest single core benchmarks compared to most other CPUs.

Which is why this feels weirder to me as this is happening when my CPU usage is at 35%. Temps aren't even high as that point.
 
Yeah. Went from 6 cores to 8 with a higher base clock speed. And the 9700x has some of the highest single core benchmarks compared to most other CPUs.

Which is why this feels weirder to me as this is happening when my CPU usage is at 35%. Temps aren't even high as that point.
Strange indeed. Get in touch with support. They should be able to see what’s going on.
 
Thanks for the advice. I've updated my signature. Curious what TLC you'd recommend for Windows 11? Here are the following changes I've made in the BIOS and in Windows to help optimize my computer:

Thanks for the update and hey - nice hardware listing - looks like someone's I know :)

With Windows 11 - your initial list of tweaks are solid but you will need to go deeper - into the realms of core management and latency tracking.

First thing to do today is to seek out a free tool called LatencyMON. Download it - and with nothing else running - fire it up and let it run for 5-7 minutes to grab a nice cross section of activity on my machine. Then stop the scan and check our your report.

If it is ALL green - you are good to go and this issue has another cause. However - if you see any long RED bars - you have trouble.

Post your report up here after you run and we can move on to next steps.

Cheers

VP
 
Thanks for the update and hey - nice hardware listing - looks like someone's I know :)

With Windows 11 - your initial list of tweaks are solid but you will need to go deeper - into the realms of core management and latency tracking.

First thing to do today is to seek out a free tool called LatencyMON. Download it - and with nothing else running - fire it up and let it run for 5-7 minutes to grab a nice cross section of activity on my machine. Then stop the scan and check our your report.

If it is ALL green - you are good to go and this issue has another cause. However - if you see any long RED bars - you have trouble.

Post your report up here after you run and we can move on to next steps.

Cheers

VP
Thanks I'll try this shortly
 
Thanks for the update and hey - nice hardware listing - looks like someone's I know :)

With Windows 11 - your initial list of tweaks are solid but you will need to go deeper - into the realms of core management and latency tracking.

First thing to do today is to seek out a free tool called LatencyMON. Download it - and with nothing else running - fire it up and let it run for 5-7 minutes to grab a nice cross section of activity on my machine. Then stop the scan and check our your report.

If it is ALL green - you are good to go and this issue has another cause. However - if you see any long RED bars - you have trouble.

Post your report up here after you run and we can move on to next steps.

Cheers

VP
Do you know if the 45gb of RAM used by Standby with only 6gb considered "free" is a problem or is that pretty common?
 
The first thing I'd check is to be sure the CAS latency for your RAM is set correctly. If you let the BIOS auto-detect, it may have set it at the wrong speed.
 
Do you know if the 45gb of RAM used by Standby with only 6gb considered "free" is a problem or is that pretty common?
Have no idea what that means - or where you are seeing that.

VP
 
Have no idea what that means - or where you are seeing that.

VP
If you open Resource Manager, under memory you'll see how it's being used. Standby is essentially cached RAM, but not stuff that's as frequently accessed as your cache. It still has data stored in it but can be allocated differently as needed. So you have your system memory, used memory, cached memory, standby, and free.

I've read that people experience performance loss when their free RAM becomes significantly less than standby. I'm my case I'm noticing the issues when it gets to a point of having only 5gb of "free" memory and still 45gb in Standby. Which seems that something is not releasing the ram back as it's being needed.

In the same session I'm also experiencing issues with HOOPUS not wanting to playback audio so I'm wondering if it's something about how Opus plugin handles RAM usage?

Idk at this point I'm just troubleshooting with Support but was curious if people have noticed slow downs in their system when their free RAM becomes significantly smaller than their standby ram.
 
If you open Resource Manager, under memory you'll see how it's being used. Standby is essentially cached RAM, but not stuff that's as frequently accessed as your cache. It still has data stored in it but can be allocated differently as needed. So you have your system memory, used memory, cached memory, standby, and free.

I've read that people experience performance loss when their free RAM becomes significantly less than standby. I'm my case I'm noticing the issues when it gets to a point of having only 5gb of "free" memory and still 45gb in Standby. Which seems that something is not releasing the ram back as it's being needed.

In the same session I'm also experiencing issues with HOOPUS not wanting to playback audio so I'm wondering if it's something about how Opus plugin handles RAM usage?

Idk at this point I'm just troubleshooting with Support but was curious if people have noticed slow downs in their system when their free RAM becomes significantly smaller than their standby ram.
Well - I have been doing DAWs since 2001 and have to be honest - have never looked in Resource Monitor or been concerned with how the OS is managing it's memory - Windows is very adept at taking care of it's memory needs.

I can assure you that if your DAW is acting oddly - I seriously doubt it has anything to do with this.

I can also assure you that Windows 11 has major issues with core management and if that is part of this issue (hence the LatencyMon request) - that is a more logical explanation.

Also - if it were me - I would be more inclined to study the differences between Intel and AMD as it is quite well known that Studio One and Intel have a long and fruitful history whereas I have read about all sorts of oddities with AMD. I almost owned one a couple years ago - but it was bit of disaster for reasons I cannot remember now - so I have based all my DAWs on Intel and have never had a slowdown or speed issue.

VP
 
Well - I have been doing DAWs since 2001 and have to be honest - have never looked in Resource Monitor or been concerned with how the OS is managing it's memory - Windows is very adept at taking care of it's memory needs.

I can assure you that if your DAW is acting oddly - I seriously doubt it has anything to do with this.

I can also assure you that Windows 11 has major issues with core management and if that is part of this issue (hence the LatencyMon request) - that is a more logical explanation.

Also - if it were me - I would be more inclined to study the differences between Intel and AMD as it is quite well known that Studio One and Intel have a long and fruitful history whereas I have read about all sorts of oddities with AMD. I almost owned one a couple years ago - but it was bit of disaster for reasons I cannot remember now - so I have based all my DAWs on Intel and have never had a slowdown or speed issue.

VP
Seems like LatencyMon report was all green.
 

Attachments

  • LatencyMon Report.png
    LatencyMon Report.png
    73,7 KB · Views: 7
Seems like LatencyMon report was all green.

Excellent.

So - your issues lie elsewhere. Exactly where remains a mystery.

But if it were me - the motherboard would be my next checkpoint. For this MSI board - what I saw in about 5-7 minutes of very quick reading was not exactly a confidence builder. Seems that specific mobo can either just OK or it can be a real PITA. Again - these things are very subjective and some runs of boards are poor and some are great.

Example: Here is a Reddit thread with a ton of input:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Now - take Reddit for what it is but know that most of the crew that know what they are talking about - show it.

This thread has some good angles to study - however I do see many references to "instability", "slow" and other (not great) words that would make me suspect for using this gaming board in a DAW specific situation.

The PCPartPicker reviews - from real world builders - are so-so as well:

1738078658095.png


VP
 
Last edited:
Excellent.

So - your issues lie elsewhere. Exactly where remains a mystery.

But if it were me - the motherboard would be my next checkpoint. For this MSI board - what I saw in about 5-7 minutes of very quick reading was not exactly a confidence builder. Seems that specific mobo can either just OK or it can be a real PITA. Again - these things are very subjective and some runs of boards are poor and some are great.

Example: Here is a Reddit thread with a ton of input:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Now - take Reddit for what it is but know that most of the crew that know what they are talking about - show it.

This thread has some good angles to study - however I do see many references to "instability", "slow" and other (not great) words that would make me suspect for using this gaming board in a DAW specific situation.

The PCPartPicker reviews - from real world builders - are so-so as well:

View attachment 363


VP
Great insight. I think I went with this board after reading and watching a bunch of B650 mobo comparisons in time for the Ryzen 9 series launch. Luckily I haven't had the BSOD and any major crashes, although the initial windows install had tons of issues but finally got it running stably and then had to help iLok fix the issue with incompatibility with the Ryzen 9 series, and THEN soundtoys as well since all my old sessions wouldn't load in Studio One due to Ryzen 9 and Soundtoys incompatibility.

It's my first time using an AMD system and those initial few months were a nightmare. Luckily it's been more stable recently until I started doing more composing with tons of midi tracks. The last couple days have been smoother though so that's a positive. I'll keep monitoring and see what happens.
 
It's my first time using an AMD system and those initial few months were a nightmare. Luckily it's been more stable recently until I started doing more composing with tons of midi tracks. The last couple days have been smoother though so that's a positive. I'll keep monitoring and see what happens.
Sorta like my one (and only) foray into AMD back in 2022.

The hassle factor was high and I was not prepared to deal with it so I bailed on all of it and returned to Intel. Never looked back - nor will I.

VP
 
Be careful with broad categorizations like AMD=Bad, Intel=Good. Too many other variables to make those statements.

For what it's worth, I have an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX that's been excellent and rock solid for almost 4 years now.

Processor/Mobo/Memory/Interface and many many drivers and other components all contribute to the stability of a system.
 
Be careful with broad categorizations like AMD=Bad, Intel=Good. Too many other variables to make those statements.

For what it's worth, I have an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX that's been excellent and rock solid for almost 4 years now.

Processor/Mobo/Memory/Interface and many many drivers and other components all contribute to the stability of a system.

Yep - fair enough. If AMD is working for you - rock on.

VP
 
Back
Top