Track count: G4 PCI vs. G4 AGP

[uno1234]

I need some help here. I am a proud G4 PCI owner, but recently I tried to do a hardcore 64 voice session and the thing blew up at me-- "PCI bus too busy" errors all over the place.

Here's my setup: G4 PCI Yikes 400 mHz w/ 256 MB ram, ATTO DC SCSI (REV 1.44, 1.63, and 1.63a1 do not make a difference, Sync Rate at 20/10 or 16/8-- neither worked, Offset set at 16), DAE Buffer at 2 (4 didn't work). 2 10K 36 GB Cheetahs, on separate ATTO busses. Single 17" monitor, set to 256 colors. All ATI extensions are off.

I talked to my silver passport tech genius, who suggested that 64 voices are hard to get out of the Yikes motherboard, because the computer monitor is on the limited PCI bus, where with the G4 AGPs, the monitor is obviously on the AGP bus and not the PCI. However, Digi compatibility docs DO NOT suggest that I cannot get full 64 voice track count with this machine-- and all of the other related "track count" components are up to their requirements (except I need to upgrade my G4 ROM-- does this make a difference? Don't have chance to try it yet).

So are there any PCI Yikes owners out there with large track counts? Or can you not do it? I have been able to get it to kind of work-- but I cannot scroll the screen with out the system choking (and I can guess why this is....).

Any help would be most appreciated- even from AGP owners who know more than I do about the differences between the computers.

[PeeTee]

Why do you have your ATI extensions disabled? They speed up graphics performnance. Also, setting your graphics to 256 colours only applies to the PowerMac 9600.

Is your G4 ROM updated to 1.8.1?
http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11533

[baobab]

have you looked in preferenced to see if protools is trying to allocate the entire drive for recording, that's caused us problems in the past.

[uno1234]

ProTools is limited to 10 mins of RECORD, but I am only talking about playback here.

Furthermore, the ATI extensions off and the 256 colors noticeably reduce the pci load, allowing me the playback 64 tracks. If those are set to normal, then it immediately chokes.

I have a silver passport and talked to a top digi tech who told me this was so. Please read the whole of my post before replying... I haven't upgraded to the new ROM, I'll try that next. Any other ideas?

[This message has been edited by uno1234 (edited February 08, 2001).]