Hi, <div><br></div><div>are this cpu hikes actually affecting sound or image?<br></div><div><div><br></div><div>I'm no expert but I have some ideas. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>anyway, </div><div><br></div><div>hope this helps!'</div><div><br></div><div>J<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Damian Stewart <span dir="ltr"><<a href="http://damian.ml">damian.ml</a>@<a href="http://frey.co.nz">frey.co.nz</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">hey,<br>
<br>
i'm setting up for an exhibition in Madrid that opens on Tuesday (it's<br>
called VIDA and it's at Matadero Madrid, come down if you're in town.)<br>
<br>
so, i'm trying to track down a strange issue with Pd jumping to 100% cpu<br>
periodically, once every 15 seconds, when i run another cpu-intensive task.<br>
i'm running Pd 0.40-2, installed via apt-get on Ubuntu 8.04. (i have the<br>
same issue with the Pd-extended 0.40-3 .deb from the <a href="http://puredata.info" target="_blank">puredata.info</a><br>
website). this is on a dual-core Pentium-D 3GHz cpu. i'm using ALSA with an<br>
MAudio Delta 66 card. (linux is *so* not ready for multichannel audio<br>
unless you've got a high end RME device, but that's another story).<br>
<br>
if i start up top, and just run pd, it chugs along fine. the cpu usage line<br>
at the top edge of the screen in top stays around 20%us, with around 80%<br>
idle time. and the entry for Pd gives a CPU usage of 63% (i don't<br>
understand what these two values mean or why they differ)<br>
<br>
if i then start up a cpu-intensive graphical task that sits around 100% but<br>
is only single-threaded, the weirdness begins. in top, the total CPU usage<br>
line jumps up to 70%. in the listing of processes below, the cpu-hungry<br>
graphical task sits on around 97%, but the Pd process is now down to 36%.<br>
after running for around 30 seconds, the Pd process jumps up to 100%,<br>
totally killing the framerate on the cpu-hungry graphical task. it stays<br>
like this for 10 or so seconds, then drops back down to 36%, before<br>
repeating the cycle again after another 20-30 seconds.<br>
<br>
i tried running pd with -nogui and -rt -- no change. i also tried running<br>
pd with niceness -10 and the graphical task with niceness 10 -- again, no<br>
change.<br>
<br>
so, questions. first, wtf? why is top reporting a lower cpu usage in the<br>
second scenario than in the first?<br>
<br>
second: how can i stop this?<br>
<br>
third: it's possible this is being caused by an almost-infinite loop in one<br>
of my patches. how can i profile them to test this?<br>
<br>
thanks<br>
d<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
damian stewart | skype: damiansnz | <a href="mailto:damian@frey.co.nz">damian@frey.co.nz</a><br>
frey | live art with machines | <a href="http://www.frey.co.nz" target="_blank">http://www.frey.co.nz</a><br>
<br>
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</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jaime E Oliver LR<br><br><a href="mailto:joliverl@ucsd.edu">joliverl@ucsd.edu</a><br><a href="http://www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeoliver">www.realidadvisual.org/jaimeoliver</a><br>
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