Hi, are this cpu hikes actually affecting sound or image? I'm no expert but I have some ideas.
When things like this have happened to me it has been because i am running out of ram. Like when you play a video and for some reason I see my cpu affected. I think the reason is that I start using swap memory and/or because swap memory is insufficient. When this has happened loading images or other files and running out of ram i find ways of reducing the size of the images, etc. I run all visual stuff in separate a pd instance with -nosound flag. Unless you are not using Pd/GEM for the visual part... Do you have a graphics card? maybe try reducing the frame rate of graphics computation. I suppose you can go down to 24fps rendering without noticeable problems. The way I look for loops or other forms of ineffectiveness is to put a 0 switch in all audio patches and check that cpu is very low in those circumstances. Otherwise there is usually a problem unless you are doing really intense control computation. Also, since you have a dual processor there is a command to see both processors at the same time which isn't top. it is something like cat /proc/cpu or similar, my linux machine is away right now so I can't test it. anyway, hope this helps!' J On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Damian Stewart <damian...@frey.co.nz>wrote: > hey, > > i'm setting up for an exhibition in Madrid that opens on Tuesday (it's > called VIDA and it's at Matadero Madrid, come down if you're in town.) > > so, i'm trying to track down a strange issue with Pd jumping to 100% cpu > periodically, once every 15 seconds, when i run another cpu-intensive task. > i'm running Pd 0.40-2, installed via apt-get on Ubuntu 8.04. (i have the > same issue with the Pd-extended 0.40-3 .deb from the puredata.info > website). this is on a dual-core Pentium-D 3GHz cpu. i'm using ALSA with an > MAudio Delta 66 card. (linux is *so* not ready for multichannel audio > unless you've got a high end RME device, but that's another story). > > if i start up top, and just run pd, it chugs along fine. the cpu usage line > at the top edge of the screen in top stays around 20%us, with around 80% > idle time. and the entry for Pd gives a CPU usage of 63% (i don't > understand what these two values mean or why they differ) > > if i then start up a cpu-intensive graphical task that sits around 100% but > is only single-threaded, the weirdness begins. in top, the total CPU usage > line jumps up to 70%. in the listing of processes below, the cpu-hungry > graphical task sits on around 97%, but the Pd process is now down to 36%. > after running for around 30 seconds, the Pd process jumps up to 100%, > totally killing the framerate on the cpu-hungry graphical task. it stays > like this for 10 or so seconds, then drops back down to 36%, before > repeating the cycle again after another 20-30 seconds. > > i tried running pd with -nogui and -rt -- no change. i also tried running > pd with niceness -10 and the graphical task with niceness 10 -- again, no > change. > > so, questions. first, wtf? why is top reporting a lower cpu usage in the > second scenario than in the first? > > second: how can i stop this? > > third: it's possible this is being caused by an almost-infinite loop in one > of my patches. how can i profile them to test this? > > thanks > d > > -- > damian stewart | skype: damiansnz | dam...@frey.co.nz > frey | live art with machines | http://www.frey.co.nz > > _______________________________________________ > Pd-list@iem.at mailing list > UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> > http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list > -- Jaime E Oliver LR joliv...@ucsd.edu www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeoliver www-crca.ucsd.edu/ www.realidadvisual.org 858 202 1522 9168 Regents Rd. Apt. G La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
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