Octane vi dpc latency help

[Jame]

Hi, I am going to be purchasing the octane vi in thext few weeks, but only if it has very, or exceptionally low DPC latency. If there are any owners of the Octane VI that would be willing to test it's dpc latency using latencymon and post the results to this thread , it would be so helpful. Thanks very much for any help given.
Ps, the build I am going for will be i9 9900k, rtx 2060, 64gb ram (for heavy instrumentation). I'll be using the laptop for music production, and if it has high DPC latency, it will cause audio drops, pops, clicks, and underruns in my DAW. For example, an exceptional score would be readings of 0.01 for all drivers in the drivers tab in the latencymon results. Under 0.5 for everything would be usable.

 

[Oussebon]

There are a few users who've bought Octanes for music production. You could try finding their topics (maybe try the laptop sales advice, Check your spec, and Show off your new spec forums) and PMing the owners.

Stephen M has an older Octane I think and may be able to give some pointers if they have the time? Though it will be a slightly different chipset ofc.

The fact nobody's complained about DPC latency issues after having bought one for music production is probably a good omen.

 

[TremF]

Hi there,

I've just installed LatencyMon, as requested, and it says the system is suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts. Is this ok and what you were looking for?

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[Stephen M]

I had a quick look at LatencyMon but needed to do a bit of work on the kernel to use it and do not have time at the moment, although not sure my results would be that useful as I do not use Windows. Not sure what music software you use but if it is cross platform like Ardour a good bet would be to dual boot with one of the Linux studio distros as these are all designed for music production and come with low latency kernels.

 

[Jame]

Thanks so much for the help and feedback guys. I will do some more research myself aswell before I decide to purchase. The results I'm looking for is under 0.1 for every driver. Also, the pc would have to be optimised for it, music production doesnt need a 2080, or even 2060 graphics card which have been known to cause issues for real time. So i could get better results if i were to disable any turbo on the CPU and give the CPU priority over the GPU. Maybe if I alter some things in the BIOS. Anyway , thanks again and I'll look more into this.

 

[Jame]

And also I use FL studio 20, with sound libraries such as Komplete 12, Omnisphere. The most cpu imstensive things such as izotopes mixing and mastering programmes.

 

[Oussebon]

The results I'm looking for is under 0.1 for every driver.

Just out of interest, what's the number based on and is it remotely realistic?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just out of interest, what's the number based on and is it remotely realistic?

In my experience, windows is just not very well optimised for audio out of the box, you have to configure the windows 10 installation purposefully to enhance dpc timings. A default installation will always be a lot slower than a configured one.

The timings have little to do with the chassis, and more the OS, windows being the worst, with MACOS and now Linux being far superior.

 

[Jame]

The number is based on the drivers time taken to execute it's process I believe. Recommended for highly intensive workloads is below 0.1, but below 0.5 is usable aswell. A low number for example, should mean that I can lower the buffer size from my current 512 to 128 or 64 to get less latency when playing keys on my midi keyboards, drum pads, etc. Then with the i9 processors fast single core performance backed with 64gb or ram, I should be able to have a lot of vst plugins open at once, along with a lot of effects open. From what I've learned DPC latency can come from poor optimisation of windows, BIOS settings, WiFi cards, poorly optimised or incompatible drivers, the motherboard itself, the audio interface (I have a very good interface though) , the Nvidia graphics cards (although sometimes they can be optimised to lessen the latency). I've seen results of people getting 0.01 for every driver and that would be my dream , however 0.1 will be more than fine. Over 0.5 will cause pops, clicks, and underruns which are basically crackle noises while a track is playing , and if I were to play notes, there will be random delays which means playing on time will be randomly not working and killing my motivation. I'm looking for a powerful laptop that I can just go onto my DAW and create without any worry and have limitless (higher limit) possibilities. Your guys help has been great. I'll also send an email directly to PCS and ask them can they optimise it themselves based on my preferences.

 

[Oussebon]

I know what the number is, my question was what the basis for the 0.1 target was

 

[Jame]

Thanks for the response. Ya I explained it in the message. It's the next sentence after I said what the number was. And I also explained that it is a realistic figure as I've seen people with results of 0.01 for every. I also spoke to both Audient and focusrite audio interface supports and they gave me the range of numbers it should be below. A lower number enables me to use a lower sample rate, and get less random latency when playing audio in real time.

 

[Jame]

It enables me to use a lower buffer size I mean, and higher sample rate.

 

[Oussebon]

You didn't answer my question at all - I asked what the basis for the number was. From what I can tell, the basis is something some random people have said maybe on other forums, which is about as robust as getting info from X down the pub.

You don't have to answer my question of course And maybe you have actually seen good information on why those numbers specifically are desirable. But you haven't told us what it is.

Best of luck anyway.

 

[Jame]

Hang on, this must be a misunderstanding, as I've stated that I've spoken to both Audient and Focusrite customer support regarding the numbers. Also looked on forums and read similar things that the two established company's told me?. If this isn't answering your question , then could you maybe word it differently as I'm pretty sure I have answered it. Thanks again for the response.

 

[SpyderTracks]

As stated previously, you wouldn’t get optimised results without configuring windows correctly. No windows “out of the box” would get you the numbers you’re expecting.

 

[Jame]

Guys i really appreciate the help. I was already closing out the thread when I said that I will do more research and message pc specialist directly. I was just trying to answer some follow up questions after that. Apparantly some of the Lenovo line such as the p51/p52, Razer blade 15 get scores closer to what I'm looking for and have no issues. Ive already completed all the optimisation steps there is, besides buying a new laptop itself lol. Thanks again for your help guys. Ive already sent in an email to PCS and am awaiting response. I was already taking into consideration the optimisation I would have to do myself. I just thought it would be easier for me if the scores were already low and optimised by the seller. Razer optimises there's for example.