A few things to consider:
- Your DAW may have buffer settings. In Pro Tools, I can set my buffer size anywhere between 32 samples and 1024. This controls how many samples of audio are processed in a batch by all the active plugins before they're sent for playback and a new batch is processed. Low buffer size means less latency, but eats more processing power. If I have a big session with a lot of virtual instruments, I sometimes have to raise the buffer size, thereby introducing more latency but still allowing the session to record and play. Check your buffer size: is it higher than it needs to be? Lower it and have lower latency. Is your processor choking on the load? Raise your buffer size and consider upgrading to a more powerful processor.
- Some plugins delay the audio from all tracks. Do you have any look-ahead compressors? Limiters? Mastering plugins? If so, removing them or making them completely inactive (not just bypassing) should reduce your latency.
Unless your DAW does funky things, one would think it doesn't scale the buffer size automatically. A new processor may not affect your latency then. But your processor is pretty cheap and pretty weak (age notwithstanding). It has only two cores and doesn't have Hyper-threading. The cores are at 3.2 GHz and can't be overclocked. And latest gen processors, all other things being equal including clock speed, are perhaps 10% faster.
- An i7-4790K is probably about 350% faster than what you have, though pretty expensive. And that's before overclocking.
- An i5-4690K is about 240% faster than what you have and reasonably priced. Also before overclocking.
- An i7-5930K is about 425% faster, though rather high end (but not extremely high).
If a processor has twice the grit, you should be able to have more than double the virtual instruments and plugins. Or keep the same number of plugins at a much lower buffer size without choking your PC.
