Poor performance with a 2.4 GHZ Pentium PC

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:04 pm

I have a 2.4 GHz single-core Pentium PC with 1 GB RAM. It meets the minimum requirements for Ableton Live, that are:

Windows: 1.5 GHz CPU or faster, 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows compatible sound card (ASIO driver support recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or higher, DVD-ROM drive

My PC has:

Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
1 GB RAM 266MHz PC2100 DDR FSB 533
120 + 300 GB 7200 RPM PATA Hard Disks
Ableton Live 7.0.5
Windows XP Pro SP2
M-Audio 410 FireWire + Pinnacle DV PCI FireWire interface (TI chipset)
AudioSystem (TerraTec) EWX 24/96 PCI

I optimized my PC following Tascam's and Tarekith's guides, in addition to the optimization thread Diagnose and Optimization of Windows performance. For reference only, my optimization is described in a first thread, very long, and in a second thread. I ended up with very poor and unacceptable performance with Ableton Live.

Here are the results of the Tarekith's Performance Test. The test was made with the PCI soundcard. Using the FireWire soundcard the performance is even worse.

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter: 160% (2 tracks) 230% (4 tracks) 330% (6 tracks) 440% (8 tracks)
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model: Desktop
3) Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2
4) Ableton Live version: Live 7.0.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
6) Amount of Ram: 1 GB
7) Soundcard: AudioSystem (TerraTec) EWX 24/96 PCI

Hard Disk Drive Speed: 7200 RPM
9) Number of playback tracks? 8 Tracks (???)

Is anyone having an acceptable performance with a PC having the same specifications? I am not able to search in the LIVE 6 & 7 PERFORMANCE TEST - Results Here thread for a system similar to mine that yields similar performance results. Is there any spreadsheet containing the data in that thread?

Do you have any suggestion for further optimizing?

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:04 am

To be more specific, here are all the issues in my PC I am aware of. I cannot get rid of them, even after optimization.

There are conflicts/sharings in my PC (how do I tell whether they are conflicts or just sharings?). No matter how I tweak the BIOS, I cannot assign IRQs at will, so I cannot give the PCI card a higher priority IRQ.

Even with an idle system, there is a spike in the processor queue length every 28 seconds. At the same time, the CPU usage stays low. This is something I don't understand. These two readings should be related.

Do you have ideas on how to proceed?

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:13 pm

firstly, the ableton minimum specs are a joke.

However you should be able to get some use out of that computer. As a ballpark guess (I have a P4 2.8) you should be able to run 10-15 tracks, 2-3 of which could be instruments which aren't TOO demanding (probably you would have problems with tension or analog)

and a modest amount of FX and automation in there... a reverb or two, a delay or two etc. nothing crazy.

in terms of your irq situation, I don't see anything to worry about there. if you can, try disabling usb ports and maybe you can eliminate the sharing between usb and firewire.

use a ps/2 mouse and keyboard if possible.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:14 pm

and get another G of ram if you can.

***

actually, although I have a p4 2.8g, it is on a 800 FSB. so my RAM (2G) is pc3200

maybe scale back my guesstimate a little bit more...

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 3:52 pm

longjohns wrote:actually, although I have a p4 2.8g, it is on a 800 FSB. so my RAM (2G) is pc3200

What are your results with the Tarekith's performance test?

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:02 pm

unfortunately I can't tell you. that computer is packed away for now..

sorry

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:59 pm

From what I read in the test results thread, I understand that with a single-core Pentium 4 results are in the 75-80% range with only 2 tracks. With the same number of tracks my results are in the 160% range. So there must be something wrong. I expect to bring the results down to the 75-80% range with 2 tracks. I need some more optimizing.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:15 pm

well I understand your frustration

if you want to do real honest troubleshooting, you'll need more hardware.

swap out ram, video card, etc..

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:59 pm

Have indexing for your drives turned off? Try that. How much free space? When's the last time you dumped temp files and defragged?

As far as assigning IRQs go, use a USB mouse and hard assign the slot your EWX uses to IRQ12- that's the IRQ normally reserved for a PS/2 mouse. You should have something in your BIOS for freeing IRQ12.

ew

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:02 pm

First of all I will try to resolve the IRQ conflicts. I have a PS/2 keyboard and an USB mouse. I am going to disable all the USB controllers except the one where the mouse is connected.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:25 pm

I would really recommend getting one of those little green usb -> ps2 adapter plugs

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:15 pm

I got a green PS/2-USB adapter and I connected the USB mouse to it, but it didn’t work at the first attempt. I am going to try again in the next few days.

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:50 pm

The green USB-PS/2 adapter still doesn’t work for me. Does the mouse have to be of a special type, or will any type of mouse work with the green adapter?

I disabled all the USB ports except the one the mouse is connected to, but the system performance did not improve.

andy.m · Post by **andy.m** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:18 pm

I understand that my PC is somewhat aging. After I optimized the PC for audio according to the several guides on the Internet, disabled all the unused hardware, adjusted PCI latency, here are the results for the Tarekith's Performance Test:

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter: 160% (2 tracks) 230% (4 tracks) 330% (6 tracks) 440% (8 tracks)
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model: Desktop
3) Operating System: Windows XP Pro SP2
4) Ableton Live version: Live 7.0.5
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
6) Amount of Ram: 1 GB PC2100 533FSB
7) Soundcard: AudioSystem (TerraTec) EWX 24/96 PCI

Hard Disk Drive Speed: 7200 RPM
9) Number of playback tracks? 2 Tracks (???)

Reading the thread, the typical results for a single-core Pentium 4 (2.4 GHz or less) are in the 75-80% range with only 2 tracks. With the same number of tracks my results are in the 160% range.

I downloaded Sandra and run most of the tests, but I found no particular problem in the results. Also, the benchmarks are in line with similar hardware.

So why is the performance of my PC about the half of comparable machines? What more can I check? Should I try overclocking?

Running System Monitor I noticed a spike in the processor queue length every 30 seconds or so. At the same time, the CPU usage stays low (see the screenshot in the above post). Can these spikes show that something is wrong with the hardware or software?

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 10:46 pm

what happens when you switch out the ram?

what happens when you switch out the video card?

ask timur