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The CPU pill button in the header opens a popup menu for managing FOAM’s CPU usage. It controls two things at once: a bubbles-per-second governor (a hard ceiling on density) and a worker thread count (how many CPU cores FOAM uses for voice rendering).

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Performance Modes

ModeThreadsWhen to use
Battery1Laptop on battery, light sessions
Balanced2Default for most situations
Performance4Heavy sessions, multiple instances
MaximumAll available coresStandalone or solo plugin work, full machine
The thread count for each mode is detected from your CPU and shown in the menu.

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Bubbles-per-Second Governor

In addition to the threading mode, the menu shows the current bubbles-per-second cap. FOAM will smoothly throttle density above this threshold to prevent runaway CPU spikes — the cap protects you from setting Rate too high in combination with high Cascade values. You can also set a custom value from the menu.

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Other CPU Tips

  • Reduce Rate — fewer bubbles per second means less CPU
  • Reduce Topology — foam physics simulation is CPU-intensive
  • Lower Cascade — chain reactions multiply bubble count exponentially
  • Choose a less complex Resonator preset, or set Resonance amount to 0% if you don’t need it