frames dropping but CPU used is low

[suzybee]

Hiya gang,

I'm using Resolume Arena with an Alienware R4 PC laptop:
8th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK (6-Core, 12MB Cache, Overclocking up to 5.0GHz), 15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) 60Hz IPS Display NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X

I use 3 layers including feedback effects and use other effects too.
I'm playing at 24fps but my playback seems to struggle and is often below 10fps, despite the fact that the computer doesn't seem to be stretched with CPU consistently shown to be around 12%, Ram 34% and 29%.

So why might my frames be dropping?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated,
Cheers,
Suzybee

[Zoltán]

If you enable show display info in the output menu, what does the renderer gpu line say?

[suzybee]

Hi Zoltán,
thanks,
it says:
Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q Design/PCIe/SSE2
Gfx Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q Design

The problem seems to be intermittent - this morning I was trying to re-create it and i was giving it all my effects ontop of each other and it handled it all pretty well, only dropping a couple of frames now and then despite me trying to overload it.
Other times I'm holding right back on the effects and it's still struggling.
..now it's struggling again (with lot of effects still applied) with the framerate dipping down to 6fps but the CPU use is showing up to just 15%, Ram 29% and Vram 21%

Surely the CPU would be showing way more than 15% for it to be struggling like that? (i don't know how these things work)

Thanks for your help,
Suzybee

[Zoltán]

Hard to say. Could be overheating too.
Or maybe lots of heavy effects?

[suzybee]

Hi Zoltán,

thanks ... (sorry been away for a gig in Lithuania)..

yeah it would make sense about heavy effects as I do use 2 feedback effects and sometimes blur which i know is heavy, but the reason i questioned it was because the CPU percentage use seems so low, which makes me think it's not actually being stretched and there could be some other reason.

Do you know what i mean? (see original post)

Thanks for your thoughts,
Suzybee

[Zoltán]

Effects won't use the CPU in most cases, check the GPU loads too.

[suzybee]

Thanks,
That's what i was wondering...
can you tell me the best way to do that?
Does Resolume have an option to show that information?
Thanks for your help!!

[Arvol]

What is your composition size?
How many outputs are you using?
Are all of your clips DXV3 encoded?

[suzybee]

Hi Arvol,
thanks,
Composition size Full HD 1920x1080
Framerate 24 fps
One output
Yep all clips DXV3 encoded
Cheers,
Suzybee

[suzybee]

Hi Zoltán,

I found the GPU usage in Task Manager and it looks like that's where the problem is:
it was often going up to 87% around the time when the frames were dropping.

Is there any way to improve the efficiency of my GPU or will this simply be the limitations of my hardware?

Is my computer spec and Graphics Card wildly out of date now or am i being greedy with my effects and need to practice more restraint?

To re-cap, here's my spec:
I'm using Resolume Arena 7 with an Alienware R4 PC laptop:
8th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK (6-Core, 12MB Cache, Overclocking up to 5.0GHz), 15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) 60Hz IPS Display NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X
Composition size Full HD 1920x1080
Framerate 24 fps
One output
all clips DXV3 encoded

Thanks for your advice!
Suzybee