Performance problems on a quad core i7

sorry to bring this up again but… listening to a 2 disc, 60 tracks DSD (64) album is a great big pita!

  • “waveform” takes 8/10 sec to load (at each and every track)
  • doing anything (eg. marking a track as favourite) causes dropouts
  • forget about marking a track as “pick”: apart the time it takes to load/save… dropouts and even track skips are a guarantee

and this is on a dedicated, headless, quad core i7 machine running just the OS and Roon

a fix is needed asap! :frowning:

Hey @pl_svn – the 100 track limit discussed in the other thread has been frustrating for people with albums containing more than 100 tracks on a single disc (such a digital “box sets” with tracks simply numbered 1-250). We did this because showing hundreds of tracks on screen at once means tens of thousands of UI components, which could cause performance problems in the current interface design.

Point being, if you’re having performance problems it’s not because the 100 track limit, since that’s designed to prevent performance problems – something else is going on.

Can you give us the details of your setup, including the total size of your library in tracks?

I already reported issues with multi-disc, “high-ish” tracks count (not necessarily even just close to 100 tracks total), hi-res (all three occurences at once) albums
last time I did, months ago, was with a two disc, 63 tracks total, DSD 64 album (Jacob’s Bach Matthaus-Passion)
today the very same is happening with a two discs, 60 tracks total, DSD 64 one (Montanari’s Corelli Sonatas Op. 5)

setup is:

  • dedicated (late 2012) Mac mini, 2.3GHz quad core i7, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD running just Mac OS (11.6) and Roon Core
  • files on a Qnap HS-251 NAS
  • output to an Auralic Aries
  • just 26.000+ tracks library

Have you tried any remotes connected to that Roon on your mac? iOS or Android? Even another Mac or Windows PC?

That quad core Mac Mini is known for doing very bad things to its internals. it’s probably their most returned Mac Mini due to heat damage on various components (especially the GPU). Note that they never made a quad core mini again… it just overheats in there. How hot is your machine to touch? I wonder if the CPU is doing some backing off since it is getting too hot in there… I had the same machine and I was much happier when I upgraded.

We understand why 100+ tracks on that page are slow to display, but your issue doesn’t fall under that explanation (that’s why @mike moved you out of that other topic). The fact that you are the only user reporting this happening on an amply powerful machine, I’m thinking something is not as we both think it is.

So, let’s first try to eliminate some variables… try a different remote connected to the Mac… if it is also slow, it gives us very little information, but if it is fast (once the data is loaded), I think I will have a better idea of what is going on.

the Mini is headless and I’m controlling it from a MacBook Pro or an iPad Air 2

slow loading of those two albums (and others “similar”) happens using either (it’s even slower from the iPad)
dropouts on playback of those two (only two multi disc, high-ish track count, DSD ones I have) I’ve only seen happening using the MPB because that’s what I use, first time I listen to a new album, to assign favourites/picks

issue is clearly dependant from the above activities: if I just let the music play all is fine

Mac mini is lukewarm as it has always been. fan never goes above the minimum (1600/1800rpm)

never heard of issues on quad core i7 Mac minis: I have two, the older one (mid 2011) I’m using as server
Apple pulled the quad-core options from later generations just to keep costs down by also not having to stock two different motherboards :rolling_eyes:

So you’re marking favorites on the MBP or the iPad, and you’re repeatedly getting dropouts when you do that? Or the dropouts happen whether you’re doing anything with the remote or not?

Are you able to log into the Core machine remotely and confirm what you’re seeing in Activity Monitor?

Can you also try moving a file or two to the Core’s internal hard drive, and confirm whether you get dropouts when the QNAP isn’t involved?

exactly: only getting light dropouts when marking favourites and heavier ones, often even skips, when marking picks (which takes forever!)

here are Activity Monitor screenshots with Roon idle and with Roon loading that album:
(not playing at the same time: just idle or loading that album)

I’m quite sure the NAS can be ruled out: it’s dedicated to music tracks only, with all services/apps but SMB turned off and only accessed by the Mac mini
Mini’s local SSD would obviously be much faster but… :wink:

how long does that cpu spike last?

also, just to be clear: the machine with the slowness, dropouts, etc, is running RoonServer, not Roon? It looks like it from your activity monitor, but i want to make sure there isnt another Roon there.

is this the only album this slowness/cpu spike happens on? is favoriting fine on other albums or just this one?

spike only lasts a few seconds (wasn’t easy getting that screenshot from the same MBP I’m controlling Roon from)

though… I guess it also happens each and every time I access “Edit track” to mark a pick. this takes almost as long as opening the album then… saving takes even longer and this is when droputs occour

Mini is running Roon Server

reported something very similar, a few months ago, with a two discs, 63 tracks total, DSD 64 album (Jacob’s Bach Matthaus-Passion)

momentary spikes are normal. delays in waveform loading could just be because they are generating on-demand.

the only thing youve told me that makes me think this is an issue is favoriting… that shouldnt cause dropouts.

what album is it?

Dantone/Accademia Bizantina/Montanari Corelli Violin Sonatas Op. 5

when favouriting dropouts are very light (but almost always there)

anything else?

is it only the large tracks albums?

we need to get your dbs… @support will contact you shortly.

dropouts only with DSD ones, slow loading… with every “large-ish” multi disc album

thank you very much @danny support contacted me and I just finished uploading my Roon database :slight_smile: