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[Zsolt Andrasy]

I have a brand new MacBook Pro late 2016 with USB DAC and USB HDD with the song files. I am an old user of MC, now I have a latest version of MC22. I have observed my MC 22 uses too much the CPU. When it is stoped it uses 17%. I think it is unrealistic. See attached file.
Playing 16/44 Flac it is 22-28, playing 24/96 is above 30.
When I play SACD iso it could reach the 50-60%.
I think something wrong with this version.

[blgentry]

I see similar behavior.  I'm using roughly 25% while playing 16/44 material, which doesn't bother me.  When I press pause, MC uses 17 to 20% CPU.  When I press Stop, MC drops to under 1% CPU.

I've noticed the "paused CPU usage" for at least a year.  I just know to press stop if it's bothering me.  In the past this paused CPU usage could be very high:  50% or more.  But I haven't seen that in a while and that was on my other Mac (2011 MBP), which I haven't used MC on in a couple of months now.

Brian.

[Zsolt Andrasy]

I'v uploaded three screenshot:

SACD played - extreme high CPU
SACD paused - 15%
SACD stopped -17%

Interesting.

Zsolt

[mwillems]

I don't use MC for Mac, but out of curiosity, what happens if you disable the spectrum analyzer in the playing now bar at the top center?  That spectrum analyzer is a source of large mystery CPU usage on the Linux builds, so it's possible it might be contributing here.  Brian, IME on Linux, the usage is especially consistent with your description (i.e. high CPU usage is ongoing while paused but not while stopped). 

[Zsolt Andrasy]

We had some serious problem with the spectrum analyzer some built ago, since we don't use it - basically switched off when you install it at Mac versions.

[Awesome Donkey]

What CPU does the MacBook Pro have? Also, have you tried running the benchmark (Help > Benchmark)? If so, what's the benchmark JMark score?

If I remember correctly, playing SACD, especially multichannel SACD is one of the more CPU intensive tasks. But I can't remember if that's when bitstreaming (which *should* be lower) or converting to PCM/higher DSD on-the-fly.

[blgentry]

Just to be clear, we're talking about the dancing bars display that appears to the left and right of the song information at the top of the screen.  I right clicked and disabled that, then did a few trials.  With spectrum analyzer disabled I get:

44.1 Music:
Playing:  Less than 4% CPU
Paused:  Less than 2% CPU
Stopped:  Slightly less than paused, but still between 1 and 2%

1080P Video:

Playing:  Just under 40 - 45% CPU
Paused:  Less than 3% CPU
Stopped:  Less than 2%

That definitely seems to have made a difference.  I actually had Spectrum analyzer turned off for a LONG time, but turned it back on as a visual indicator of playback, in the rare instance that my DAC or AMP or whatever wasn't responding.  I think I'll just leave it off full time now.

For reference, since Awesome Donkey asked the OP, the JMark on this machine is ~4400 .

Brian.

[mwillems]

Just to be clear, we're talking about the dancing bars display that appears to the left and right of the song information at the top of the screen.  I right clicked and disabled that, then did a few trials.  With spectrum analyzer disabled I get:

44.1 Music:
Playing:  Less than 4% CPU
Paused:  Less than 2% CPU
Stopped:  Slightly less than paused, but still between 1 and 2%

1080P Video:

Playing:  Just under 40 - 45% CPU
Paused:  Less than 3% CPU
Stopped:  Less than 2%

That definitely seems to have made a difference.  I actually had Spectrum analyzer turned off for a LONG time, but turned it back on as a visual indicator of playback, in the rare instance that my DAC or AMP or whatever wasn't responding.  I think I'll just leave it off full time now.

For reference, since Awesome Donkey asked the OP, the JMark on this machine is ~4400 .

Brian.

That's the spectrum analyzer I meant; looks like it's at least partially the same issue in your case.  Sounds like that's not OP's problem, but at least I saved you a few cycles 

[Zsolt Andrasy]

Spectrum Analyzer is definitively switched off.

Zsolt

[blgentry]

The original Brothers In Arms has a much higher dynamic range than the remaster.  The remaster was always oddly boring to me until I figured this out.  I dug out my older version and now I'm happy with Brothers In Arms Again.

I haven't heard the 20th anniversary edition, and I can only find a reference to an SACD in the loudness database.  If the numbers there are correct, the 20th anniversary edition is *horribly* over compressed.  It shows, for example, So Far Away with a dynamic range of 8.  On the remaster I have the DR is 14.  The original CD I have has a DR of 20 for that same track!

I know this is as off topic as it can possibly be.  I hope you'll excuse me.  That album is like an old girlfriend.  I know every detail of it and relish it.

Brian.

[Zsolt Andrasy]

Dear MC Beta Team,

My JRMark (version 22.0.108): 3256
My processor:Intel® Core™ i5-6360U Processor
4M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz
 
Regards,

Zsolt

[Awesome Donkey]

Yeah, thought it might be a Core-i5 here. That CPU only has two cores, and four threads so the CPU usage is likely normal.

If I recall correctly, SACD/DSD playback (especially multichannel) is one of the most CPU intensive tasks there is. What I can't recall is if that's during bitstreaming (which as far as I know *shouldn't* be that intensive) or when converting SACD/DSD to PCM or a higher DSD output or both.

Nonetheless, it's likely normal usage in this case.

[Hendrik]

The spectrum analyzer is an interesting beast, the way it draws seems to be very inefficient on anything but Windows, so we should probably revisit how its drawing.

[Zsolt Andrasy]

Can anybody tell me something about my 17% CPU load when nothing is played?
Is it normal?

[Awesome Donkey]

That depends. Is MC building thumbnails in the background? Go to Help > System Info and look under Background Tools Running and see if anything's there.

[Zsolt Andrasy]

You are right!
Background Tools Running is nothing, but Thumbnails Built is 7% and Audio analyzed is 44%.
So they are running when I stop the music, and maybe also during playing?
That is why higher my all value than usual?
Thanks for the idea!
Zsolt

[Awesome Donkey]

They run in the background until the task(s) are complete, which it seems they have a while yet until completion. You *can* disable both via the configure auto-import dialog unless you can live with it until it's done (IMO, I'd leave it enabled and let it do its thing - especially if you're interested in using volume leveling).

[Zsolt Andrasy]

Yes, I will let them run. Volume leveling is a useful thing. I don't need to turn the amplifier's knob up and down always.
Thanks for the support!

[bob]

The spectrum analyzer is an interesting beast, the way it draws seems to be very inefficient on anything but Windows, so we should probably revisit how its drawing.

It's not really efficient on windows either.
An accelerated FFT would be good.

[Hendrik]

We can probably do something about the FFT. I do remember seeing high X11 cpu usage figured with the thing on as well though, unless that was mitigated already since then.

[bob]

We can probably do something about the FFT. I do remember seeing high X11 cpu usage figured with the thing on as well though, unless that was mitigated already since then.

I pulled the drawing code out to test it and it had virtually no effect on CPU usage so I came to the conclusion that it's the algorithm that's the issue.

[dfortney]

Nice post here as it has alerted me to the culprit of MC using 10% of my cpu.  when i turn off the spectrum analyzer it drops to only 2% 

Definitely keeping this option turned off as sometimes I would get minor glitches during playback and every cycle counts.  Those displays are gaudy anyways.  I have never liked them.