HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Hi,

I have a Protools HD CORE system (HD 1) that I really need to improve.


My computer is a Mac G5, so I cant buy the new HD ACCEL cards because theirs new slots are only for Macpro (at least that is what I was told).

The old HD ACCEL cards are al also very expensive (5.000 dolars at least).


So, I was considering buy an older HD PROCESS card. What I really need to know (anyone can help me?) is the diferences between PROCESS and ACCEL (I know ACCEL is better, but how much?).

Also, very important:

Are HD PROCESS viable on a Mac G5? Are their slots PCI or PCIexpress?


Really apreciate any help.

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Hi,

The HD Process cards are PCIx (PCI)

They have only presto chips, where as the accel card has 3 x presto chips 4 x 321 chips with ram and 2 x 321 chips without ram. basically the 321 chips are able to house more plugins than presto chips, expecially on plugs that have been maximized for accel, you can get approx double the plugins on a 321 chip over presto chips. with the right plugins you can get about 80% more processing on accel. then there's the multishell compatibility to consider! but we'll save that for another day.

Some plugins will only run on accel cards especially at 96k.

Chris

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

For the diference of prices I think that the best option is to buy two Process card for your system, actually only few plugins are exclusively for Accel card (such as Revive).
Respect to power, Accel can charge up 80% more plugins than Process, it´s true, but in the real use is about 40-60% more power, because in the assigments of voices, delay compensation and many plugins there is not diference in both cards (except Accel acepts more voices).

One Accel card is about 2500$, but you can find Process card by 600$ each (you can find on AltoMusic, NY, official dealer of Digidesign).

Your G5 can accept 3 PCI or PCI-X cards (depends of model, single CPU is PCI, and double CPU is PCI-X).
PCI-X accepts 64bit data at 33/66 or 100Mhz
PCI only accepts 32bit and 33Mhz (the conector is smaller)

Both Digidesign cards works with PCI or PCI-X, but you can obtain more bandwith and voices with PCI-X
Your Mac do not accept PCI-e format!!

With this configuration, you will obtain a HD3 Process machine, 27DSP for your mixing (for DAEengine, voices, delay compensation and plugins TDM).

Regards

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Thank you very much for the information.


How many voices could I reach exactly, do you know? For now I have a maximum of 48 only.

And sorry, I thought that PCIX and PCIe both meant pci express. What is PCIe then?

Once more, thanks.

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Thank you very much for the information.


How many voices could I reach exactly, do you know? For now I have a maximum of 48 only.

And sorry, I thought that PCIX and PCIe both meant pci express. What is PCIe then?

Once more, thanks.

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

only PCIe is PCI Express. PCI-X is just PCI-X. Very unfortunate and confusing choice of names and abbreviations.

Also, not all G5's are PCI-X. The last few models before the Mac Pro came out were PCIe.

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Thanks for the info,



But what´s the diference then between PCI and PCI-X? Are they the same thing?

Could I reach the maximum of 96 voices buyning a HD process cards as with Hd accel?

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Thanks for the info,



But what´s the diference then between PCI and PCI-X? Are they the same thing?

Could I reach the maximum of 96 voices buyning a HD process cards as with Hd accel?

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

HI,

Your best bet is to buy a additional HD Accel card to make your system a HD2. HD Accel cards retail for $5000, but you can easily find one for less then $2000. I just bought an additional one for my system for $1800 yesterday on ebay, and there were more there at or around that price and all PCI.

Here are the links (don't know how long they will be good for):

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pro-Tools-HD-Acc...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digidesign-Pro-T...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digidesign-Pro-T...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-New-Digide...QQcmdZViewItem

Best,

JSR

Re: HD PROCESS Vs. HD ACCEL
 

Amazing to see how far we have come in 10 years....