Mac client shows continuous high CPU usage

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

ROCK 1.0 (build 186) stable / Roon Server Version 1.7 (build 555) stable

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

Wired connection, TP-Link T1500G-10PS

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Audinate Dante AVIO USB

Description Of Issue

Whenever I launch Roon on my Mac mini (wired connection to the ROCK, 3.2GHz 6-core i7 2018 model), the Roon process uses up several cores of CPU at 100%, and the RAATServer process also hogs an entire core, even when it’s just sitting there doing nothing.

I thought maybe this was upsampling (as the Dante device only accepts 48KHz output), but upsampling should be active only during playback, and 44.1->48khz upsampling shouldn’t take up multiple cores on an i7. Having a quick look at the sample it looks like it’s hitting some kind of exception over and over and hammering its exception handling path?

I tried to attach the samples here but hit a character limit, I’d love to email them to someone.

Roon is currently working on this issue (CPU and GPU), they are getting new hardware to be able to troubleshoot the issue in house: High CPU Usage on Mac Mini 2018

1 Like

Hello @Ben_Englert, thanks for your report! mavmcl is correct, we are aware of the issue and working towards a solution at the moment. I will add your name to the list of users experiencing this issue, though! Are you only seeing high CPU or are you seeing high GPU as well?

Ditto here, the CPU usage ramps up as soon as I start Roon client on MacOS. Not effect on GPU usage, see picture.

Me too. Roon, as a Client , often takes up 25% or more of my CPU when idle (high 30s and into the 40s when listening to something) and it is easily the most memory hungry app I use at 2.73 GB. Parallels running Windows 10 uses less. My design software with multiple large files open at the same time uses less.

I do see spikes like the above but mostly it’s just a hog.

My Roon server on another machine uses drastically less. 1.36 GB and about 0.6% of my CPU when idle. When playing music I’m looking at 3.3% CPU.

I’ll keep my eye out for the update. Glad to see it’s not just me and it’s being worked on already.

Hello @Emmanuel_Tychon and @Thomas_Sola, thanks for your reports! Our team is still working to resolve this issue and I will be happy to add your information to our list of users experiencing this issue. Thanks again!

1 Like

Ok, a weird thing happened - I set up the same Mac mini and ROCK in a new house with a slightly different network… new router that actually runs an IGMP Querier, and all the switches configured to support IGMP Snooping (no idea how Roon uses multicast, so no idea if relevant)… but now the problem is gone. Roon and RAAT Server now using about 5% CPU while playing.

I guess the other thing I did is connect the Mac mini to its display and keyboard directly, instead of via a Thunderbolt dock. Again, no clue why that would make a difference.

I have been occasionally following this topic and if I understand correctly the issue is exclusively with the ROON download for Mac OS and not with the ROON Server download.

I run ROON on a 27” iMac with SSD. I have yet to check cpu performance as there is nothing to cause me to do so.

My question is slightly different. Since I do not need ROON control on my iMac am I better off uninstalling ROON and instead install ROON Server? Will my iMac provide better performance in this instance?

within my experience no, this happened to bridge and Roon (forgot to check RAAT) last Saturday, not sure since when I did noticed it in a moment I had to pause playing:

Had to reboot, the wifi trick does not work for me.

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.