Jack audio custom buffer setting to maximize cpu

Will increasing the buffer in jack allow me to truly maximize my hardware for DSP beyond the 8000 buffer etc

Larger buffer size (in JACK or in Ardour’s own audio/MIDI backends) means less overhead per sample processed, which reduces the effective DSP load. If you have 5msec to process each buffer of sound, but just calling the code without doing any actual DSP takes 2 msec, you only have 3msec left for any DSP, and a minimum DSP load of 2/5 or 40%. Increase the buffer size to 20msec and the fixed cost is now down to 2/20 or 10%, a four-fold improvement.

But of course, you also pay in terms of latency. Finally, in case you’re not aware, you do not need to use JACK with Ardour. If you do inter-appplication routing, JACK makes sense, but for many users, Ardour’s own audio/MIDI backend makes more sense. It has the same characteristics as JACK, however, in terms of performance, buffers, latency etc.