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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Windows Laptops Considerations for DJing (especially average DPC Latencies) - Page: 2
My 2024 ASUS Rog Strix G16 required downgrading to Windows 10 to get my DPC latency to an acceptable level where I did not experience distortion, crackling, etc. I'm dual booting this machine with Win 11 and Win 11 is still a DOG for DPC latency related problems in my situation. It is so bad that if Windows 10 auto upgrades, I'm buying a MacBook Pro ASAP.

Who would have thought that an i9-14900HX, 32 gigabytes of RAM, an RTX 4070, a 1 TB NVME for the OS and a 4 TB NVME for the music storage would give me these kinds of issues?
 
DJ Bilski wrote :
My 2024 ASUS Rog Strix G16 required downgrading to Windows 10 to get my DPC latency to an acceptable level where I did not experience distortion, crackling, etc. I'm dual booting this machine with Win 11 and Win 11 is still a DOG for DPC latency related problems in my situation. It is so bad that if Windows 10 auto upgrades, I'm buying a MacBook Pro ASAP.

Who would have thought that an i9-14900HX, 32 gigabytes of RAM, an RTX 4070, a 1 TB NVME for the OS and a 4 TB NVME for the music storage would give me these kinds of issues?


Just Buy the Mac lol
 
the SOUND INSURGENT wrote :
DJ Bilski wrote :
My 2024 ASUS Rog Strix G16 required downgrading to Windows 10 to get my DPC latency to an acceptable level where I did not experience distortion, crackling, etc. I'm dual booting this machine with Win 11 and Win 11 is still a DOG for DPC latency related problems in my situation. It is so bad that if Windows 10 auto upgrades, I'm buying a MacBook Pro ASAP.

Who would have thought that an i9-14900HX, 32 gigabytes of RAM, an RTX 4070, a 1 TB NVME for the OS and a 4 TB NVME for the music storage would give me these kinds of issues?


Just Buy the Mac lol


Oh, I am buying a Mac this year. WHEN is all dependent on Microsoft! Force install the Windows 11 OS and I'll have a Mac that day or the next. I'm talking I will buy it from the Apple Store, take off of work, and drive 70 miles to get it!

EDIT: Something similar happened to me years ago when Windows 10 was force upgrading. I was still running 7 and my tax software (I'm also a CPA) stated to NOT upgrade to 10 because Lacerte was not 10 certified. Well, I turn my laptop on and Windows 10 is the new OS, it botched the upgrade so I couldn't roll it back, and I was dead in the water until mid February for filing income tax returns for my clients. I lost 10 that year due to a stupid OS auto install that I technically had blocked from installing!
 
My Laptop... Absolutely the GOAT for Virtual DJ
Lenovo Legion 7i w/ RTX 4070 (white)
Core i9-14900HX
RAM Kingston Fury DDR 5600 32x2 64GB Kit
1xWD 8TB M.2 SN850X (slot 1)
1xWD 4TB M.2 SN850X (slot 2)
I have no issue's and I'm good running my RANE One, RANE Performer, & DDJ Rev-7

NO Latency Issues when running NO Controller. Why? I don't use the Realtek Drivers. I actually find using the ASIO4ALL drivers work way better. You can also customize to use the ASIO4ALL drivers simultaneously with your DJ controller drivers too.
 
I recently went through DPC hell as well. It took me FIVE different devices to find a solution (albeit a bit unique). I was trying to avoid intel entirely given the recent CPU issues (it basically cooking itself overtime if you don't undervolt it)

Devices I tried that failed audio/DPC tests despite tons of tweaking:
Lenovo Legion Go [Ryzen Z1 Extreme]
HP Victus 16 (2023) [Ryzen 8845HS/RTX 4070] - fast as hell, terrible build quality, lots of audio drops
ASUS TUF [Ryzen 7735HS/RX7700S] - modest performance, nice build quality, sporadic audio drops
Dell G15 [i7 13650/RTX 4060] - nice build Q, terrible lag spikes, shit cooling

I ended up trying a mini PC by Beelink SER8 [Ryzen 8845HS/780m integrated GPU]
- it's fast, quiet, stable with no lags or dropouts WITHOUT any advanced CPU/OS tweaking, and it can do STEMS 2.0 in real time at about 10x!!!
- I paired it with a portable 2k USB C monitor and really like this combo
 
A link I stumbled upon that may help Windows users with DPC Latency issues:

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Blog/tip-of-the-day/solving-audio-dropouts-dpc-latency-issues-with-nvidia-drivers-on-windows/

The idea seems to be using a microsoft tool to adjust interrupt handler core affinity, forcing handlers for drivers causing high DPC latencies (NVidia, AMD graphics cards, etc) to run on a different CPU core from the audio driver.
I would suppose combining that with the other PC optimization suggestions, in particular, disabling CPU Core Parking if possible, would give the greatest chance at good audio performance.
 
Good links DJ Vinyltouch!
 
 
I wanted to share (what appears to be) a solid Windows DJ laptop in 2025. Asus ROG Strix g16

I've since found a Windows laptop that seem to work well with Stems 2.0 in real-time. Here is the exact one that worked during my tests (meaning they exhibited low DPC latency and I experienced zero audio or any other problems)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-ROG-Strix-G16-2025-16-Gaming-Laptop-Ryzen-9-TBD-32GB-RTX-50XX-1TB-SSD-G614FM-WS94/13567365941

--VERY powerful CPU w/ mid level dGPU
-- the case lighting is actually really nice during events as I shines right down on my controller.
-- feels responsive and I didn't even have to do a clean windows install, just uninstalled minimal bloatware and a few power tweaks.

CONS: My DDJREV 5 doesn't like it when I process real-time stems = audio dropouts guranteed. Not a big deal if I pre-analyze, but then I'm like...why have all this power lol, Works great with my Hercules T7 though.
 
I have an Asus 16" laptop for home use which also works well but those "gaming" laptops are just too big and heavy for my current mobile setup. Massive brick to power the graphics card too.

schmidi_0 wrote :
My DDJREV 5 doesn't like it when I process real-time stems = audio dropouts guranteed


Did you try changing the ASIO buffer in the Pioneer control panel? Also if stems are using the RTX GPU then this shouldn't happen. You could try setting skinUseLowPowerGPU to Yes in VDJ to see if that helps.
 
KRad, yeah I've tried every buffer from 32-1088. No matter what, there are big audio dropouts with the REV 5 when one track is playing and load a non analyzed track on the other deck...BUT ONLY ON CERTAIN COMPUTER BUILDS! This also happened on multiple other laptops, even a Macbook M4 pro. The REV 5 drivers are just really picky, I guess.

I've tried and returned 17 laptops in the last year and a half. The G16 above is one of the best performers I've found. Otherwise, Beelink SER8 mini PC, and my old Sager 10th gen i7 do the job.
 
schmidi_0 wrote :
KRad, yeah I've tried every buffer from 32-1088. No matter what, there are big audio dropouts with the REV 5 when one track is playing and load a non analyzed track on the other deck...BUT ONLY ON CERTAIN COMPUTER BUILDS! This also happened on multiple other laptops, even a Macbook M4 pro. The REV 5 drivers are just really picky, I guess.

I've tried and returned 17 laptops in the last year and a half. The G16 above is one of the best performers I've found. Otherwise, Beelink SER8 mini PC, and my old Sager 10th gen i7 do the job.


Since posting the above, I've learned of an inherent BIOS level issue affecting nearly all ASUS gaming laptops that causes latency microstutters. There is currently no workaround unless ASUS address it. See here: https://github.com/Zephkek/Asus-ROG-Aml-Deep-Dive

Luckily, I've found an even better laptop for a few $$ less. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Legion-5-15-1-WQXGA-OLED-Laptop-Ryzen-7-260-16GB-512GB-NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-5060-83M0004AUS/16553274797?classType=REGULAR&athbdg=L1600&from=/search

To summarize, in 2025 the best laptops I've found are the above Lenovo Legion 5i, Macbook Air/Pro M4 (unless running real time stems 2.0 + a DDJ REV5), and Beelink SER8 Ryzen 8945HS mini PC. Cheers
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I got a good price on the Legion 5i (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32gb RAM, 2tb SSD, RTX5070 8gb vram) so will see how that pans out when it arrives.

Should be a good all rounder and decent for realtime stems too. My main issue has been compatibilty with Denon drivers so see what happens this time.
 
I hope that 5i is good for you! I wanted to test out that 275x but never had a chance to. Seems like it's a great laptop CPU.
I actually ended up doing another 180 and I'm sticking with the earlier mentioned Asus G16. It has the best DPC latency results I've found which (I think) means it's unaffected by that Asus bug I mentioned. The CPU is a beast, and it seems solid so far. Cheers
 
The bug was on older AMD processors so anything recent should be unaffected.

I'll still probably have to disable core parking and tweak power management settings.
 
schmidi_0 wrote :
...The REV 5 drivers are just really picky, I guess.

I've tried and returned 17 laptops in the last year and a half.


At this point I would stop changing laptops and I would change controller.. :)

(Just kidding :) )
 
This is from another thread discussing the Legion Go.

djdonn wrote :
I recently purchased 2 Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition (16″ Intel)

Very happy with them. Bought mine with the RTX4060 GPU. Currently, they have up to a RTX 5070 GPU.

Not sure what your budget is.

This is the latest model:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/yoga/yoga-pro-series/yoga-pro-9i-gen-10-aura-edition-16-inch-intel/len101y0063?IPromoID=LEN661420

This is the one I purchased:
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/yoga/yoga-pro-series/yoga-pro-9i-gen-9-16-inch-intel/len101y0039#models
 
Tried the Lenovo Legion 5i (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32gb RAM, 2tb SSD, RTX5070 8gb vram) and these are the DPC latency results.

I could get it down a bit with a lot of tweaking but the base latency was around 700 to 900 us so absolutely no use for DJ work unfortunately.
 
Kind of surprised that you get dropouts with that though. Should still handle 256 sample latency fine.

(Quickly checked what I got, and my XPS15 got around 1300us)
 
Tried with the Pioneer FLX10 ASIO drivers and there were definitely crackles at points which is no use when amplified through a sound system.

For comparison here is my home machine I use for making the music videos (Zenbook Pro 16X OLED) which is a lot better and has no issues with the sound when used with a controller.

Even my current DJ machine from 2019 is far far better for latency.
 
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