I am building a portable DESKTOP computer and for this i would really appreciate to have your fine and experienced advices!
I want it to be operated as an “high quality sound expander” filled with soundbanks, and trigered by external midi devices. For example one of my goals is to be able to trigger drum samples with my Midi Drum triggers so I need really low latency operation. Another example would be to play Spectrasonic Keyscape (CPU intensive, Hard drive intensive…) at low latencies with rock solid audio stability.
I am now building my config according to these specs, as a first look I didn’t choose to buy a discrete GPU because i can use the integrated Graphics on Intel Processors.
But now I wonder if it could be more efficient to have a dedicated discrete GPu with it’s own CPU and Memory but not sure if it is overkill or even a good idea for my needs.
I would like to know if you guys experienced stability issues with audio at low latencies when also using the integrated GPUs which share the bus and the RAM on the motherboard.
Any advice would be much appreciated!!
My config :
I bought a Silverstone ML06 case. Its a 7 liters only case, which can easily fit it in a backpack with a portable screen and keyboard!
eGPU will add cost and heat with no benefit to music performance. The graphics requirements of Draws are tiny. If you decide to get into video you can always add one later.
Thanks, as a matter of fact i am wondering about audio stability due to the IGP accessing the motherboard much more than “global perf” wich will be really confortable with my config.
I am just a bit affraid because I am having hard times to find a GPU compatible with my case (size+PSU)
Only found 1 reference (Geforce GT 1030 by Asus wich is low profile and 30W only). maybe it is now or never if this kind of card disappears!
Not sure what you mean by global perf… on my laptop I have a discreet GPU that gets disabled in the BIOS when I’m not playing games, to reduce heat. I’ve tried running Ableton with both GPUs (integrated is HD3000) and there’s no difference at all.
For my application I need a HardDrive-Memory-Processor-Bus as fast and stable as possible.
Regarding speed I have plenty of “Headroom” with my config so that I can lower buffer latencies.
But I think that regarding stability the video is a pretty demanding and fluctuating process even if it is only basic Daw+OS HD graphics. This task will be shared with audio on the same bus and that could lead to instability for real time audio. I am thinking a dedicated GPU with it’s own memory and CPU could decouple these processes and improve audio stability. Would like to use this computer for live keyoard and drumming situation so this seems important for me.
Heat + battery life is not a problem for me because I have a “desktop” case.
Even if it is tiny i have plenty of options to reduce heat on the case, so i can set the dicrete GPU to be always engaged and disable IGP on the bios.
additional GPU = more heat, more fan noise, more power drain, more OS level abstractions / clashes, additional 3rd party display driver interrupts, more electrical noise inside your case.
Haha no my mind is not made up i was just trying to develop my idea.
Very possible it’s “hair splitting” or even a complete bullshit idea
There are debates on other forums about these concerns, but there is no consensus …
As long as the IGP has proper hardware acceleration you’ll be fine. The extra power draw and heat by a dedicated card is not worth it. The new i7’s come with pretty decent graphics. Heck, even the older ones with Iris or HDxxxx are good enough for light gaming. They’ll be fine with a DAW.
No problem for me because my case will be well ventilated (silently! ), my PSU can handle it, the graphic card can I found seems ~30W only so that it has passive dissipation.
I guess what you mean is the simpler the better for my OS.
Better If it has to communicate with one single CPU unit, one Memory unit.
Add dedicated hardware like a dedicated graphic card and you create a new connection to hardware to manage by the OS, with it’s own driver and own potential instability.
Seems to me like an other pretty convincing argument to avoid discrete GPU if not specifically needed for other tasks than audio music production !
), my PSU can handle it, the graphic card can I found seems ~30W only so that it has passive dissipation.