Mac Pro users& Pro Tools..

[pguy]

Hi,

I'm considering a Mac Pro and was curious as to if, their are as great as "they" (all the advertisement hype) say they are?

Are they really that awesome for running Pro Tools with lot's of Plugins and Synths and worth the price?

Then of course, taking advantage if boosting the ram anywhere from maybe from 8 to maybe 16 Gigs.

Thanks for your input!!

[marcioguitar]

I use Mac Pro with 003 and PT 7.4, I still using OS tiger and it works great, I have only 4 Gb of memory, a lot of plugins and very satisfied with the results that I have been getting from my work.

[Ziko]

Pro Tools is a 32bit app so even though Mac OSX is 64bit and can address more than 4 gig of RAM, Pro Tools itself can't.
There seems to be some confusion as to whether VI's run inside their own process and effectively get their own 4GB limit or whether they run "inside" Pro Tools and so you are limited to 4GB total for Pro Tools, plugins and VI's. I personally believe the second to be the case.
Anyway you cut it up, putting significantly more than 4GB of RAM into a Mac for the purposes of beefing up Pro Tools is pointless.

[flommer]

Well, if you want to run PTLE on a Mac, a Mac Pro is the most powerful option available. Mine is 1st Gen, 4 processor and I have never caused it to bog down. My sessions have been fairly modest, though, with maybe 4-5 VI's, several plugins and 16-20 tracks. I'm confident I could double that if the need arose.

It has a couple advantages over the iMac (not counting processing power):
very easy to add extra internal drives
2 firewire 400 ports

If you can justify the cost, you won't be disappointed.

If you want to spend less, a new iMac will also do just fine...

[dougied]

I agree.... I bit the bullet and got my 8 Core earlier this year and I have never been happier. I look at the long run when I want to upgrade to HD later on in life. I have been using 39-45 tracks with 2-3 plugs on every track and no problems.

It's totally worth every red cent!!

[pguy]

Thanks Guy's!

Sounds great! I think I'll get it.

Yes,.... I also need the Power for the Synth's and midi tracks printed to audio.

So....Am I understanding correctly...getting more than 4 Gigs of ram is pointless because Pro Tools won't recognize anything over the 4 Gigs?

[Ziko]

If you have exactly 4GB of RAM, PT will use whatever is left after the OS and whatever is running in the background have consumed some RAM (probably only 150 - 200 megs). So you effectively have say 3.8 gigs of RAM for PT.
If you have say 5 Gigs of RAM (ignore the impracticality of that for a moment), then there'll be more than $ gig available when PT starts so it'll have a full 4GB to use.

[Slim Shady]

Ziko nailed it. I have 6GB of RAM in my 2.8 8-core and it's smokin. I actually wasn't expecting it to be as fast as it is, but it runs circles around my old dual G5, and still has power left to spare. I even keep PT's playback engine on 1 CPU most of the time (for VI stability) and still have never come close to hitting any CPU limits.

The Mac Pros are REALLY killer if you have to do any work with video. All my Quicktime exporting/converting now goes by so fast, it's really sped up that part of my workflow immensely.

[pguy]

Thanks Again!

Sounds like 5 or 6 Gigs of ram for the Mac Pro is is the number.

That should then, be good enough for runnings multiple Synths and plugs, right?

When would more ram, like up to the, I believe it's 32 Gig maximum in the Mac Pro be usefull?

[Ziko]

If you're running a 64bit application on a 64bit OS (like Mac OSX) then the RAM limit effectively disappears.
I'm not sure if there are plans to make Pro Tools 64bit, it'll happen one day I'm sure but maybe it's more likely when Windows has gone 64bit on a large scale (you can get 64bit Vista but most people stiull buy the 32bit version).