Hi saiirus and welcome to Arturia forums.
FYI: I don't have Audiofuse. So i can't go in details with this. But i assume you have the manual.
You don't tell which load that give crackles.
It's hard to say what's wrong based on the informations you give.
According to this your CPU is from 2015 and have the base frequency 2.6 GHz:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88967/intel-core-i7-6700hq-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-50-ghz.htmlWhat about your old CPU? How are the two CPUs scoring in both single core multicore performance compared to each other?
Are only one CPU overloaded?
I assume your new processor should be better. The question is how much better for what you wan't to do.
No doubt you get less performance for your money in a laptop. A laptop also heat up faster, and turboboost is affeted by heat. Have you checked how hot your Laptop is? Base frequency is very important, especially when working with virtual synths.
But you should have much lower latency - i would say.
I believe both the mentioned soundcards are very good. No matter what, then i doubt a soundcard will make that huge difference in latency, unless there is somthing wrong somewhere.
I presume you are using correct drivers.
Have you tested both soundcards on the same machines, with the same load? This could help to tell, if the issue is with the laptop or the soundcard.
Have you run tests to find out what causes the latency?
You have set your laptop to High Performance mode in the powerplan settings?
Have you tried to run windows with priority for both programs and for background services so see if there is a difference in the performance?
Have you tried different cables and USB ports?
Have you unchecked to shut down USB to save power?
Have you changed any BIOS settings? On some setups some settings helps, while they at other setups make things bad.
If you find nothing is wrong, and find no solutions, then i suggest you contact Arturia support through your account.