Slow Performance on 6 Core Mac Pro

Hey guys, I use Audacity to chop up tracks on live albums I’ve recorder and for whatever reason, with the switch to a 64 bit version of Audacity, it performs soooo slow on my Mac Pro 2013 (6 core, D500, 32GB ram, etc). I’m really not sure what to make of it. I tried completely uninstalling Audacity but the issue remained. I’ve searched and found no one experiencing this issue. I can’t recreate the issue on my MacBook Air 2013 11" lol, it’s still solid there.

Let me know if you can help. I’m running version 2.3.2 and using Mojave 10.14.5

I’m also having really slow performance on Audacity, with severe lag on basic actions such as highlighting a waveform. This is an iMac 5K, not a Mac Pro, but Audacity is the only program with such issues - stuff like After Effects and Premiere don’t have this.

However, I have noticed that the latency seems to be related to the size of the window. If I reduce the window down to a small aspect ratio, it runs fine - but if I enlarge it to fill up lots of the screen it runs slowly. I wonder if you have the same experience?

Yup, that’s exactly what I experience. If I full screen the app, it’s almost unusable. If I make it very small, like 25% of my screen it’s much snappier (not quite what it was before but usable). I’m on a 4K and a 5K screen, I wonder if the higher resolution has something to do with it?

Yup, resizing to about 25% of my screen size appears to fix the issue. I’m on a 4K and a 5K screen (both Dell monitors) so I wonder if that’s causing the issue? My MacBook Air is pre-Retina, and it appears to work fine.

I have a MacBook Pro SSD 2017 running 10.14.5

I see no speed degradation on current release 2.3.2 or the latest alpha test build I have for the upcoming 2.3.3 even when running at fill screen - so I am totally puzzled by these reports.

WC

Are you using an external monitor? I wonder if that’s related what size MacBook do you have? I have no issue in my MacBook Air 11.

No just the laptop

Mabook Pro (Retina 13-inch early 2015)
Processor: 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel Iris Graphics 61001536 MB

WC

Did anyone ever sort this out? I too am having significant lag/delay problems after updating to 2.3.1 or 2.3.2. It seems that 2.3.0 works OK.

I’m on a 5K iMac 4 GHz i7 with 40 GB of RAM. I am running a second 27" monitor with an extented desktop but a quick check seems to suggest that the second monitor isn’t the issue. I run Audacity on the primary iMac monitor. As described above, running 2.3.1 or 2.3.2, if I make the window very small, it doesn’t lag. But if I stretch the window out or run the app full screen, it’s super super laggy.

When I revert back to 2.3.0, I don’t have the issue. Maybe something related to 64 bit?

Which version of macOS do you use? (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201260)

Sorry, I meant to include that and forgot. :laughing:

I’m on 10.14.6

After reverting again yesterday to 2.3.0 to do my podcast edit, I noticed that it also has performance that is slightly impacted by window size. However, even at full screen, 2.3.0 is more responsive than a small window of 2.3.2.

Same here, but I don’t see poor performance with Audacity 2.3.2.
Do you have any security products (such as anti-virus) installed?

No security products and I’ve ensured that I have iTunes and other audio programs or features closed. Same slow performance.

Clutching at straws now - did you download Audacity via the Audacity website (https://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac/) or some other website, or build it from source?

Are you using a high res monitor? If so, are you using scaling, or are you using “native” resolution?

Downloaded from Audacity → Fosshub using the DMG to install. I confirmed the install (not executing from the DMG) as well.

I am using an iMac 5K in native resolution as noted above, along with a Dell external 27" monitor running at its native resolution and an active desktop. One thought that came to mind was that maybe my window was overlapping into the second monitor, but confirmed that with the Audacity window solely on the iMac’s internal monitor, the behavior is slow.

Any difference if you reboot with only one monitor powered on?

Have not tried that, will test tonight.

Clean/fresh reboot into primary monitor only (external disconnected) - Same behavior. Good performance on a tiny window, super sluggish as window stretches larger. Snapping into “full screen” makes it another step worse.

Some other observations:

Same performance whether single track or multiple. My podcast is normally four (4) tracks, between 60 minutes and 300 minutes each. Even one sixty minute track has the same level of sluggishness once the window is expanded.

Track length also does not seem to be a factor. If I open a single 30 second audio track in Audacity, it seems to struggle the same way. Selecting audio (left click → drag) is sluggish as is sideways scrolling.

I edit 4K video on this machine on occasion without issue (using both monitors) so I can’t imagine it’s any kind of hardware performance issue?

With your hi-res monitors at native resolution, how do you manage with Audacity being so “small”? (small time control text / small cursor), or do you have a way to make Audacity bigger?