About XFCE, I don't think 500 MB of RAM usage is bad but this is a super simple DE and for me it's strange to have the same use of Windows 10 with much less visual resources. I remember old versions of Debian with XFCE not consuming more than 300 MB of RAM. KDE with much more visual resources than XFCE consumes the same or even less RAM. But RAM consumption is not everything, maybe XFCE is lighter for old hardware because it uses less GPU resources.
Build specifically for DAW/Reaper/Audio
- Thread starter thedogsdinner
- Start date
Hellbovine
Well-Known Member
For the Windows idle stuff, check out my thread on default resource usage (link). I updated it last month and added disk space too. The memory usage does change drastically depending on how much RAM is installed. With 16 GB it idles at 1,300 MB (default install), but will jump up to 1,800 MB often due to things like sysmain, indexer, and defender. The data in that guide is on a non-VM, it's a hard install to an SSD with previous partitions deleted, etcetera.
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With more than 2 GB of RAM it seems that tweaks to reduce RAM usage don't have as much effect. That's why I like to test in VM with this amount of RAM allocated. But that's not to say it doesn't improve performance, Windows tends to use all the memory you have for caching which is a good thing. So having more memory available to be allocated will improve performance. RAM usage is relative in that sense, it doesn't reflect the level of performance you'll get.
For comparison my desktop currently running Windows 10 21H1 debloated with NTLite consumes 1 GB of RAM in idle (I have a total of 16 GB) and 0% CPU usage
having all drivers installed, running VMware services, nvidia services, and none open program.
For comparison my desktop currently running Windows 10 21H1 debloated with NTLite consumes 1 GB of RAM in idle (I have a total of 16 GB) and 0% CPU usage
having all drivers installed, running VMware services, nvidia services, and none open program.Hi ..I'm using NTLite on a video production workstation ( i9 10940-128GB- RTX3080 ) ..I'd be interested to know of others setup in this capacity I would guess it would be quite similar to a DAW.Hi all, new here and am just tinkering with my first couple of builds in NT Lite. Just wondering if anyone else is using NT lite for audio production specifically? I did search "DAW audio" but didnt get much. If i missed something targeted please do point me in the right direction.
Im pretty sure Im on the right track, did a win 11 22h2 Lite(template) and seems great, although I missed a few things would prob like down the line ie bluetooth for a mouse (im building a mobile laptop rig for travel, and potentially want to keep as many usb slots available as poss) , snipping tool, calculator.
I also did a gaming template this morning which just about to have a play with. (Initially looks more like what I might be after)
Just wondering if anyone else is using this for audio production, and if anyone has have any tips, tricks or things should stay away from in terms of performance when building a iso specifically for audio.
Thanks all
Mod note - preset and list of software used in post no24.
thedogsdinner
Member
So you mean "tweaking" too much is actually taking you backwards for round trip latency? Ive wondered something similar lately, can we rip out too much and start to go backwards
thedogsdinner
Member
I just checked mine- i do have more RAM tho so maybe thats it.??For comparison my desktop currently running Windows 10 21H1 debloated with NTLite consumes 1 GB of RAM in idle (I have a total of 16 GB) and 0% CPU usage
Thats with brave running for what its worth
thedogsdinner
Member
Hey Robbo, think most here are basically just tinkering and removing's as much see fit, good old trial and error. Im not really across the video side of things so cant really comment, but you said, id guess would be similar aspect as in trying to remove unnecesary processes, debloat, keep an eye on latency etc
There are no removals, all tweaks. my lexicon alpha can do 5.2ms minimum, it wont let me go lower and at 16bit 44.1khz(wav files) its been glitch free, no drop outs. when i do advanced bcd hpet etc, advanced timer tweaks then latency monitor complains. my alpha is used for audio out only so i dont know what inputting audio is like, dropout free or otherwise. be very careful/sceptical about any timer tweaks, test them by all means but remember that they may do more harm than good.
Yeah, it is trial and error, a lot of it :/
Whether i am running 8gb or 16gb of ram i can get windows down to 6% ram usage, 6% seems to be the minimum windows will use no matter what size ram you have installed.
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thedogsdinner
Member
Just did a reboot, Im getting the same.
cpu 0% utilasation etc. So thats cool, I thought it was going to be more. AeonX, are you getting 10 21h1 RAM usage below 6%?
Hellbovine
Well-Known Member
The build I'm using right now is also 1.0/16.0 GB (6%), but the 6% is because we tend to stop tweaking around 1 GB, and most of us have 16 GB memory installed. You can go much lower than 1 GB, but it starts to become a trade-off scenario of giving up features and dependencies for resources.
Thedogsdinner is using an XML that doesn't remove/disable a lot right now, if he were to use my Optimized Image guide or the GamerOS, I'd bet he would drop down to 1.0/32 GB, however that theory is what stopped me from posting a few weeks ago, because I then researched something I have had on my to-do list forever, and fell down a rabbit hole that I never got out of.
One of the concepts that is allegedly responsible for differences between machines, is the split threshold for services, which is handled by the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB registry key (link). I wanted to test all aspects of this, but there's a lot to consider, and I haven't found the time to pull my PC apart and reinstall Windows with different amounts of RAM so I could compare the registries and see what else is changing too.
Tweaking that key can really make a colossal difference in what Task Manager shows. The thing is, I would never throw a tweak like that into my build until I can research/test/benchmark the heck out of it, because it's just as likely to decrease performance since it's the type of tweak that could go both ways.
Thedogsdinner is using an XML that doesn't remove/disable a lot right now, if he were to use my Optimized Image guide or the GamerOS, I'd bet he would drop down to 1.0/32 GB, however that theory is what stopped me from posting a few weeks ago, because I then researched something I have had on my to-do list forever, and fell down a rabbit hole that I never got out of.
One of the concepts that is allegedly responsible for differences between machines, is the split threshold for services, which is handled by the SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB registry key (link). I wanted to test all aspects of this, but there's a lot to consider, and I haven't found the time to pull my PC apart and reinstall Windows with different amounts of RAM so I could compare the registries and see what else is changing too.
Tweaking that key can really make a colossal difference in what Task Manager shows. The thing is, I would never throw a tweak like that into my build until I can research/test/benchmark the heck out of it, because it's just as likely to decrease performance since it's the type of tweak that could go both ways.
that is handy to bring usage down but i havnt used that for my minimal ltsc services configuration.
value will vary with the amount of ram installed but if you get the value on 16gb it will only work on 16gb.
some of the more advanced tweaks like disabling hpet in device manager and the various bcd tweaks can cause latency monitor to complain about handing realtime audio, users would have to test them all individually themselves to see benefits or downsides.
i am rock solid stable at 5.2(.6?)ms latency on the Alpha USB at 44.1khz 16bit. foobar2000 defaults to 50ms latency i believe.
i am rock solid stable at 5.2(.6?)ms latency on the Alpha USB at 44.1khz 16bit. foobar2000 defaults to 50ms latency i believe.
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Hellbovine
Well-Known Member
For the earlier question about reducing memory further, I tried to keep a good mental log of where the memory usage of Windows is mostly located as I was working on my image and guides. The following are my rough, unofficial findings from the last year or so on W10 21H2 Home:
- About 300 MB consumed by many features in the Settings pages, Control Panel, and Security Center.
- About 300 MB used purely by the autologgers.
- About 300 MB in services that can be safely disabled.
- About 400 MB mandatory for Windows.
This is on a 16 GB machine with the default SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB value, and these numbers will scale up and down if you change either. For reference, a default install of W10 21H2 Home on a machine with 16 GB of RAM uses about 1.3 GB to idle at the desktop as a baseline, and then features like Defender, Indexer, and Superfetch will be some of the biggest culprits for making it rise higher than that baseline. When we're calculating how much memory usage we've reduced Windows by, we have to use the baseline to be accurate, rather than the numbers that fluctuate higher.
- About 300 MB consumed by many features in the Settings pages, Control Panel, and Security Center.
- About 300 MB used purely by the autologgers.
- About 300 MB in services that can be safely disabled.
- About 400 MB mandatory for Windows.
This is on a 16 GB machine with the default SvcHostSplitThresholdInKB value, and these numbers will scale up and down if you change either. For reference, a default install of W10 21H2 Home on a machine with 16 GB of RAM uses about 1.3 GB to idle at the desktop as a baseline, and then features like Defender, Indexer, and Superfetch will be some of the biggest culprits for making it rise higher than that baseline. When we're calculating how much memory usage we've reduced Windows by, we have to use the baseline to be accurate, rather than the numbers that fluctuate higher.
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ram use does fluctuate as does Handles Threads and Processes(H/T/P's) and getting a True minimum for each can take many sessions but i always use H/T/P's as my (variable)baseline. from a cold start to desktop i can get windows cpu usage to flatline very quick.
i will post my own what/where/how in due course, inc bios settings(if possible).
i will post my own what/where/how in due course, inc bios settings(if possible).