Sign In:     

Forum: General Discussion

Topic: In 2025 does a low DPC latency laptop even exist??? It's brutal out here - Page: 1
This last two weeks have sucked, tech wise. I'm about to return my THIRD laptop after it failed DPC latency tests (after 1+ hour of tuning/tweaking).

Tuning performed on each machine:
-enabled ultimate/high performance
-disabled USB OS power management
-disabled core parking (processor idle demote/promote)
-tested out if disabling dynamic tick helped (seemed to cause instability so I re-enabled)
-disable integrated GPU (so that discrete/powerful is the only GPU in use)
-clean and minimal install of GPU drivers
-updated all drivers + BIOS (deep BIOS settings were not easily accessible on any of these machines)
-disabled Bluetooth adaptor
-removed all bloatware
-disabled all non-essential startup programs
-disabled all non essential services
-disabled Windows firewall and Defender

So far I've tried out the following laptops:
- HP Victus 16 w/ Ryzen 8450HS + RTX 4070. Powerful, poor build quality, and lots of crackles and pops with three different ASIO controllers. 2nd worst DPC spikes.

- ASUS TUF w/ Ryzen 7435HS + RX 7700S. Decent performance, nice build quality, still crackles and pops. Least DPC spikes of the three. [I was hoping an all AMD build might help :( ]

- Dell G15 Intel i7 13650HX + RTX 4060. Middling performance, tons of bloatware, nice build quality, and the worst DPC latency spikes of the three.

I know another forum member had poor results with a Macbook air recently, and I've searched and read many other forum posts about video issues and freezing during gigs with M2/3 Macs.

What the hell is out there that's useable folks? I'm on a five year old Sager (Clevo) that is a champ, but that doesn't automatically mean a new Sager will work either. (And I'd have to pay shipping on a return).
 
Posted Sat 18 Jan 25 @ 4:34 am
You did test them before making all these adjustments right?
I personally wouldn't try disabling core parking before trying everything else. Disabling the integrated GPU is also probably not very useful, as it is more efficient than the nvidia, so using it for windows/vdj skin actually keeps your computer cooler, and thus have more headroom for when it needs to speed up.
For the same reason I normally use the 'Balanced' power plan in windows, allowing the processor to ramp up when needed, but stay cool otherwise.

Personally no cracks or pops for me so far with Dell XPS's. (Currently using RTX 4070 + Intel Core Ultra 9 185H)
 
 
ADION: Yeah I tried them all "as is" but there were noticeable audio clicks and pops with default ASIO buffers on all three controllers (MC4000, Inpulse 500, NS7).

Kradcliffe: Unfortunately, clicks and pops on all models I've tried so far.

Only my older Sager i7 10875H + RTX 2060 is performing well.

 
I bought an acer helios, rtx4080 i91400hx 32gig ram , terrible time tried everything cant get it to not drop out. Im at my wits end
 
I have an Asus equivalent of that (but a year older) for home use and after some tweaking it runs really well.

Try installing ParkControl and disable core parking. Also install Windows Ultimate power plan and activate it. Those two things made a massive difference to my machine and the latency is super low now.

Been a fair bit of discussion on this across various threads and there are some "gaming" type laptops that just don't work well with low latency audio. yours may just be one of them.

Asus Zenbook Pro 16X Oled
i9-13905H
32gb LPDDR5X
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 Laptop GPU 12GB GDDR6
 
I ended up trying a mini PC by Beelink SER8 [Ryzen 8845HS/780m integrated GPU]
The setup is: mini PC connected to a portable/fold-up USB C 2k monitor. I'm using a mobile app called Remote Mouse in place of a trackpad and keyboard.

- it's fast, silent, stable with no lags or dropouts WITHOUT any advanced CPU/OS tweaking, and it can do STEMS 2.0 in real time at about 8-10x
 
Hi

Did you manage to find a laptop that can run vdj without glitches? I have just returned my second laptop, MSI i9, Nvidia 4070, 32gb ram runs like total crap!!! Tried all the usual fixes and nothing works!! I DJ 3 times a week and relying on a 13 year old i7 laptop built by pc specialist that is very tired is making me very nervous! Plus the latest windows update caused audio glitches when using stems (rolled back and all ok). Anyone know a rock solid laptop that works with no glitches and is good for real time stems?

Cheers Ant
 
No luck here. Just tried yet another one, the Asus PX13 which on paper looks awesome but it kept completely freezing randomly (I raised a thread on it last week). Another return. That's probably 6 I've tried now and they've all been crap.

My home machine is great but it's impractical to use at gigs because it's too big and has a massive power brick.

Asus Zenbook Pro 16X Oled
i9-13905H
32gb LPDDR5X
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080 Laptop GPU 12GB GDDR6

Like you I'm sticking to my ancient Lenovo C940 14" 2 in one for gigs which runs perfectly every time. It doesn't do stems in realtime but the precompute works great so no issues at all.
 
There's a company called XMG that has a deep dive article on audio laptops, with a link to an up-to-date spreadsheet of suitable models (their own of course).

There are also sites that recommend laptops suitable for music production, so IMO if they can handle dozens of tracks playing back and recording, whilst simultaneously running real time FX on multiple channels, then they should be suitable for DJing.
 
This is getting ridiculous now, there must be someone who has recently purchased a laptop running a 13th or 14th gen intel processor that works without the audio issues. Seems it is caused by high DCP latency. There are so many so called fixes and tweaks but for me none of them have worked. I've seen that Ecores may be causing some of the issues and you can disable them in the bios or use software such as process lasso to disable them for virtual DJ. Didn't try that one before sending back my 4th laptop!! Anyone out there got any ideas? I feel like my 13 year old laptop doesn't have much left in her 😬 Cheers guys
 
The last one I tried had the AMD HX370 processor and the latency was pretty good. The crashing may have been a hardware issue with the laptop itself but I don't want to order another one in case the same thing happens again.
 
Any updates on laptops that work for audio? I'm getting desperate to replace my 13 year old very tired DJ laptop but still yet to find one that can run as smooth 😬 Any advice much appreciated 👍
 
M1- M4 Macbook pro 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
@THE SOUND INSURGENT

Thanks for the input. I'm not a Mac guy and have no interest in changing platforms, had one once didn't like it and it performed poorly being a Mac book pro I was pretty surprised that my windows laptop dealt with far more that was thrown at it. Plus at the time virtual DJ was a very different software on Mac, not sure if it still is? Anyways looking at forums trying to find the issues with modern processors it seems the new M4 isn't without it's issues either.

I'm just desperately trying to find a powerful windows laptop that doesn't have the DPC latency issues that looks to have been around since the 12th gen of intel CPU's. Can't believe this hasn't been resolved now with 14th gen 🤯 Does anyone have a recently purchased laptop with 12, 13, 14th gen processor that actually works flawlessly? I mean no clicks, crashing, pops, audio dropouts and generally a mess that makes it impossible to DJ with? My old donkey built by PC specialist 13 years ago is outperforming everything available that I have tested so far. Crazy this isn't a bigger thing in the industry! I guess a lot of people haven't updated there laptops yet 😬 All help is appreciated 👍
 
Wow. I bought msi gaming laptops for last 5 years zero issues, Installed additional ram and faster ssd in both and have ZERO issues running vdj/soundswitch/downloaders/ running full video.Bought newer model this year but have not used it because my 2020 model still works perfect.
 
This is my 2019 Lenovo C940 14" i7 so you can see why I don't really want to move on as it runs perfectly.
 
Thedj Antz wrote :
@THE SOUND INSURGENT

Thanks for the input. I'm not a Mac guy and have no interest in changing platforms, had one once didn't like it and it performed poorly being a Mac book pro I was pretty surprised that my windows laptop dealt with far more that was thrown at it. Plus at the time virtual DJ was a very different software on Mac, not sure if it still is? Anyways looking at forums trying to find the issues with modern processors it seems the new M4 isn't without it's issues either.


Are far as my experience goes, I haven't had any issues with the M1-M4 MacBook pros. I've used nothing but MacBook's for the last 15 years all without issue and issues I have had were lack of certain plugins and a few driver issues that were caused by Apple but have since been fixed.

Anyways its an option that is the most stable in my experience. Good luck with your hunt. I'll keep an eye on this thread as I might pick up a windows machine if 1 is out there that'll run everything just as smoothly as my MacBook.
 
The issue for me is prepping on a Windows machine and syncing to a Mac.

Point one is that you can't use a specific VDJ home folder for example an external SSD. Point 2 is that you would need to sync your database to the hidden folder location on Mac each time and it's a bit of a pain.

If you are just using the mac exclusively then I guess there's no issue.
 
You can "un-hide" those folders tho. Like I have mine out in the open for lack of a better term, lol!!

But no, I fully understand and have used a VDJ with a PC and some of the stuff I could do on them I couldn't do before. I've figured out a lot of stuff, but I still miss the Telly plugins.

Like I said if you guys find a newer machine that works I'll definitely be looking into it!!
 
71%