Rendering performance problem

mimoLive
1

Hello,
I’m having a very strange rendering performance problem. The problem occurs in a much layer mimoLive document but I’ve narrowed it down to just one simple photo layer and it still happens. I even created a new document with just this layer and still the problem happens.

Here is a WeTransfer download of the mimoLive document: https://we.tl/t-5NRlFyYL5q
Here is a WeTransfer download of a video of the render problem: https://we.tl/t-Ok0h5uh6eZ

As you can see the render time of the document sometimes peaks very high, with no reason. Also the GPU memory usage goes up and down every so seconds. No idea why. When I load another document (with much more layers btw) I don’t have that problem. Render time is pretty constant and the GPU memory usage is pretty much flat.

I’ve already contact Boinx support but they’ve not been very helpful unfortunately.

2

Hi @eMilty – Sorry to hear that our support team hasn’t met your expectation.

Thank you for not giving up and contacting us here in the forum instead.

I’ve downloaded your document and I see the effect you’re describing, although it is not nearly as severe on my Mac mini as it is in the video you sent. Can you please tell me what computer you’re using?

I will have engineering look at this asap. Thanks for your patience.

3

Here are the main specs of my machine:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro13,3
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2,7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 16 GB
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon Pro 455
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x8
VRAM (Total): 2 GB

I have auto GPU switching turned off in the energy settings so it should always use the AMD card instead of the Intel HD Graphics 530 GPU in the CPU.

4

I think this is one of the MacBook Pro models with the Thermal Throttling problem:

Can you please install the Intel Power Gadget and monitor the CPU clock rate?

It should not happen with such a simple document, though. We will definitely have to look deeper into this.

5

No, CPU is not running hot (around 60 degrees), fan is inaudible. At the moment that of the peak in rendering time there is however a short spike in CPU usage. I also noticed that when I minimise the mimiLive main window the spike doesn’t occur and the GPU memory usage stays flat. So it’s definitely caused by mimoLive and not some other background process.

6

Any update on this? I still see this happening, even when I have no layer at all active. It’s very annoying as it seems to freeze for a very short period.

7

I’m still convinced this is a thermal issue. I might be wrong, but it is worth checking out. The purpose of the thermal throttling is to make sure that the CPU stays below a certain temperature, so the temperature isn’t an indication of the Thermal Throttling happening. The Intel Power Gadget will let you see at what CPU clock rate your computer operates and if that is significantly lower than expected. There is no other tool to see that, so please install it and let me know if you see a drop in CPU clock.

Also, please take a process sample when this happens. This will allow us to see if there is anything in mimoLive going wrong: https://docs.mimo.live/docs/process-sampling

8

It’s not a terminal issue. I’ve checked with the Intel Power Gadget. It’s has to be something in mimoLive and most likely something in the UI because when the main windows is minimised the problem goes away. I have the feeling the UI has some operations that block the main thread and eventually causes frame drops. For example a news crawler can’t scroll smoothly. It sometimes stops and then skips ahead when this suspected blocking operations completes. This happens always in sync with the memory increase/decrease of the GPU.

9

Thanks for checking with the Intel Power Gadget.

As I said, I see a small spike on my Mac mini as well but it never causes frame drops.

How is the display connected to the Mac? What resolution is the display and are you using multiple displays? Are you running a screen capture on the computer? Maybe an NDI scan converter? Or screen sharing? TeamViewer?