Old 01-06-2019, 08:45 AM   #1
eufex
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Default Slow/laggy UI

I'm not sure if this is neccesariily 100% a Reaper issue but I've a problem on my main system with extremely slow/laggy graphics. This is not a latency issue: audio is rock solid. I'm getting the laggy behaviour even when audio is not being played.

In an empty project it's ok. As I add tracks (nothing in them) I note the problem starting at around 10 tracks or so. It's also causing the desktop to display the same behaviour. If you try to move a volume slider on the master it lags, opening a menu lags, going up and down a menu lags (or trying for example to move an empty midi clip in the arrangement the block lags behind the mouse pointer).

It's machine specific as I've got Reaper installed on a laptop and it's not displaying this issue.
Both builds are Ubuntu Studio 18.10. on xfce desktop. Both have Nvidia graphics running the inbuilt Neuvae (sp) drivers. I'm trying to get the 3rd party Nvidia drivers to install on the problem system, no joy currently, getting the black screen issue so had to purge back to the generic drivers. The problem system is on a 32 inch monitor running at very high resolution, don't know if that's the issue...

The graphics card in the main system is only a G210 but that worked fine in a DAW context for years when I was running Windows on there. The laptop does have a GPU rather than just onboard but again it's nothing special.


The irony is the laptop is an old Vostro 1700, Core 2 duo processor, 2 gig of RAM and it's fine.
The main system is a new Ryzen 2600x 16gb RAM and the screen update is awful. It's not a processor issue: running a 50 track project loaded with vsts etc shows 2% RT processor useage.

The issue is the same whether I use the onboard Pulseaudio or whether I use my FireWire interface via Jack. Definitely something going on between Reaper and the graphics system.

As an aside I've got Traction Waveform 9 installed on the same system, it doesn't display this behaviour. Unfortunately though, the reason I'm demoing Reaper is because Waveform on the whole has turned out to be a crashy bugfest and totally not up to the job.

Any help/ comment would be appreciated before I potentially spunk £170 up the wall on a Radeon.

Cheers

And hello to the forum as a whole: been using Reaper for a couple of weeks and liking it.
Previous history: Logic from version 1 to audio 5.5,, Cubase Audio from about v3 to SX2, Ableton from v3 to 9, now shifting to Linux and trying the options. Liking Reaper, reminds me a bit of how Logic was.

Last edited by eufex; 01-06-2019 at 11:22 AM.
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Old 01-06-2019, 10:42 AM   #2
Glennbo
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When I first setup Linux I had a cheepo GT210 passive cooled video card, and REAPER for Linux was fine using it. I've since combined a games computer with my DAW into a dual boot Windows for games, Linux for everything else, and have a hot rod gaming card now for video. I'm using the "nvidia-driver-390" on a 2009 Asus/Intel/i5 and 6GB RAM. I noticed zero change with video performance in REAPER, but running HD video got better.

The fact that you can't switch to the nVidia driver might be part of it. When I switched video cards, I got my machine into a mode where it thought I had manually installed 3rd party drivers and wouldn't let me select any of the normal ones from the distro.

In my case, I had to switch the video cards back, change from the nVidia driver back to the Nouveau driver, switch the video cards again, and then I could finally select the nVidia driver with the upgraded gamer card installed. By leaving the nVidia driver that worked for the GT210 card selected and then changing to a different series nVidia based card, it locked me out of making any changes to the drivers or changing any screen options like resolution.

What latency are you running, and are the tracks you are adding in record ready?
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Old 01-06-2019, 11:33 AM   #3
eufex
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Cheers.

The track being added aren't record ready I'm simply adding tracks into an empty project, hit track 10 or so and the issue starts. Nothing even being played, armed or anything else, I think it's just down to how Reaper claims resources or redraws etc.

The driver thing switching from Neuvau (however you spell it lol), it seems a fairly common thing - I've googled extensively (obviously). There's a fix if you're running Gnome which involves altering a config file that's in /etc but in xfce it doesn't exist so I'm hitting a brick wall in that regard. It just seems strange though that I'm running the same driver on the laptop and not having the issue, so maybe it's the screen resolution doing it? Dunno.
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Old 02-04-2019, 03:27 PM   #4
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Update: updated graphics card to a Radeon HD7850-much more horse power. Fixed the issue.
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Old 02-04-2019, 05:17 PM   #5
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Reaper doesn't use the GPU. It renders in software only. Whether you're using your mainboard's own video or even the most awesome GPU card, it won't make a difference in performance.

The driver or settings for your previous card was probably to blame.

Also, there have been Linux Nvidia driver updates since then. (And if you were using the Nouveau drivers, that might've been the problem.)
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Old 02-05-2019, 01:36 AM   #6
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Quote:
Reaper doesn't use the GPU. It renders in software only. Whether you're using your mainboard's own video or even the most awesome GPU card, it won't make a difference in performance.
True. IIRC, CUDA (GPU processing) can be used for plugins to increase performance, but not for Reaper itself.

Aside of that, when the video drivers go wrong, anything GUI can go wrong and sluggish. My experience with different Nvidia cards varies a lot. Some wanted nouveau some didn't. Sometimes the were smooth and others a constant nightmare. That's the reason why I switched to kernel suported AMD cards and got a smooth experience ever since. In fact I forgot about dealing with drivers for once.

I'm not saying Nvidia GPUs are bad, or inferior, or anything like that. What I mean is their support in Linux is way less than ideal, while so many AMD cards are just natively supported by the kernel.
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Old 02-05-2019, 02:39 PM   #7
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That's good to know. Currently I'm using a GeForce GT1030 and it seems fine. It's the bare minimum I could consider acceptible for playing the occasional game on this system (and passively cooled, so it didn't add noise). I had to use the nVidia driver and change some settings in xserver to make it work without screen tear (and then figure out a way to make those settings persist without crashing upon boot lol).

I'd done a bunch of tests of various things in Reaper (plugins with more complex GUI and/or readouts/graphs, playing/processing video) and when I got the GPU in the system there was no performance boost for Reaper. I expected if a Linux VST plugin used OpenGL that might be different, but those are few (and I don't think JS plugins allow for that anyway).
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Old 02-05-2019, 02:46 PM   #8
eufex
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesPeters View Post
Reaper doesn't use the GPU. It renders in software only. Whether you're using your mainboard's own video or even the most awesome GPU card, it won't make a difference in performance.

The driver or settings for your previous card was probably to blame.

Also, there have been Linux Nvidia driver updates since then. (And if you were using the Nouveau drivers, that might've been the problem.)
It could well have been, for what ever reason I couldn't get the NVIDIA drivers to work, every attempt ended in a black screen of death and I had to go back to the generic drivers. Given I'd wasted 2-3 days on it already £50 on a second hand graphics card wasn't an issue. Just swapped the cards out and it works properly. No need to install the AMD drivers either.
Aside from NVIDIA linux support not being great I've read around the issue and it seems that for audio use AMD is the preferred option. NVIDIA make great cards if you need the best 3D performance etc but in terms of overall system latency with audio AMD is supposed to be the better one to go for.
Seems to have cleared up some firewire issues I had too - my theory is that the old graphics card may have been cause a PCI-E bus bottleneck. No longer getting xruns and squeels through the interface.
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Old 10-21-2020, 11:35 PM   #9
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Ive been having the same exact issue with my reaper it has UI delay after 8 to 9 tracks and i cant figure out whats wrong theres no latency at all the audio is perfect but the UI lags do u think it could be the gpu ? i saw u guys talking about drivers and or changing the gpu all together but could that really be the issue ?
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Old 10-22-2020, 08:01 AM   #10
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I'd try an alternate driver. If you're using the Nouveau driver, try selecting an nVidia driver. The 450 driver is the newest, but if your card is old, you may need to use legacy drivers like the 390. I have an old nvidia gaming card in my DAW and use the legacy 390 driver.

Note: If you switch between versions of nVidia drivers, it's a good idea to first switch to the Nouveau driver, then go to the other version of the nVidia driver. I've seen weird stuff happen on multiple machines when trying to go directly from one version of nVidia drivers to another.
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Old 10-22-2020, 10:25 AM   #11
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I had a similar issue once. It was due to the fonts being used in the menu and theme for some reason. I think my having chosen Noto Sans caused the issue, possibly since there are so many Noto Sans fonts that are installed.

I changed fonts in the theme (using the theme tweaker action) and also in the menus (by editing libSwell.colortheme), making sure that the fonts I chose were ones that I had installed. I'm using Open Sans and Deja Vu Sans now in the menus and themes.

In a blank project, open a menu from the top. If you can quickly move the mouse in the menu with no lag, that's probably not the issue. It would be really noticeable. It caused CPU spikes on my system before I changed the fonts.
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