FWIW, The latency of your audio interface does not change based on CPU load/etc.
If that were the case, you'd never be able to record any tracks that lined up with existing tracks.
The audio interface latency is consistent.
Lets say your audio interface is set to a 64-sample ASIO buffer size (at 44.1k)
- 1.5ms latency for the ASIO input buffer
- 1.5ms latency for the ASIO output buffer
Then you have the latency of the audio interface's "safety-buffer"... and the latency of the A/D D/A.
The sum of all these things is the audio interface's total round-trip latency.
The X-Factor is round-trip latency is the audio interface's "safety-buffer".
Better designed units/drivers can use smaller safety-buffer (resulting in lower round-trip latency).
As long as no buffer sizes have changed, the resultant latency is static.
Working at that 64-sample ASIO buffer size, background tasks (especially heavy tasks) can indeed affect performance.
But they will not affect latency.
Latency will be consistent... but you may hear glitches or (worse) experience a transport drop-out if the machine can't keep up.
In short, performance does affect the latency at which you can effectively work (glitch-free).
Performance doesn't determine actual latency value.
Audio latency has but two sources:
- Audio Interface (outlined above)
- Latent audio plugins
