Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > Legacy Products > Pro Tools 2020

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 03-07-2021, 04:09 PM
richardgreen richardgreen is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 5
Default CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Hi I'm a Pro Tools 2020 (home studio) user. My workstation is getting a bit old and I'm getting a few dropouts lately from lack of computer resources. I'm going to invest in a new (Windows 10) workstation but want to understand the best Intel CPU & RAM configuration for best performance of PT 2020.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-08-2021, 03:57 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: The Sopranos State (NJ)
Posts: 19,136
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

The flippant answer would be 'as fast a cpu as you can get/afford and as much ram as you can get/afford'. I would look at something in the 3+ GHz cpu speed range and 32 gig or more. If you're going off-the-shelf stay away from a laptop. Also be prepared to remove all the useless s/w that gets put on a new computer. To make use of all that new horsepower be sure to do all the Avid-recommended optimizations. Here's a link to the 'official' system requirements. https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...m-Requirements Note that there are some notes about Win 10 builds.
__________________
Jack
See profile for system details
iMac dead & retired as of 11/4/17

QAPLA!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-08-2021, 08:33 AM
EGS's Avatar
EGS EGS is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Chicago
Posts: 3,691
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Quote:
Originally Posted by richardgreen View Post
...the best Intel CPU & RAM configuration for best performance of PT 2020.
10th gen i9-10900K. At the end of March 2021, the 11th gen i9-11900K will be released. 32GB (or more) RAM.
__________________
Desktop build: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz / 64GB / 4TB NVMe PCIe 4 / Gigabyte Z590 Vision D / PreSonus 2626
Laptop: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i5-12500H / 16GB / 1TB NVMe / Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro / U-PHORIA UMC1820
Ancient/Legacy (still works!): PT 5 & 6 / OS9 & OSX / Mac G4 / DIGI 001
Click for audio/video demo
Click for resume
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-08-2021, 08:44 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 19,511
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Quote:
Originally Posted by richardgreen View Post
Hi I'm a Pro Tools 2020 (home studio) user. My workstation is getting a bit old and I'm getting a few dropouts lately from lack of computer resources. I'm going to invest in a new (Windows 10) workstation but want to understand the best Intel CPU & RAM configuration for best performance of PT 2020.
Good performance of Pro Tools is not just about CPU and RAM. There are many factors, including fast disk, I would not want to use a PC that did not have one or more M.2 PCIe/NVMe SSDs to start with.

How much RAM you should have nobody else can guess... I would not build a new system with less than 32GB, but RAM is cheap. We have no idea what you really need because we have no idea what you are doing with Pro Tools. You should have enough RAM to run the sessions you want to, with VIs being the typical large memory use, as well as support a Pro Tools disk cache big enough to fully cache the session. That memory should be properly balanced across memory channels fir performance and be listed on the motherboard compatibility list. (Exact DIMMs not just the specs, And all DIMMs identical).

CPU? Again no idea what you need. And no idea how to trade stuff off... because that comes down to budget, for everything not just CPU and memory. And we have no idea of your budget. Or any idea what connectivity to interfaces you need, or any useful level of detail what current limitations you are running into and no idea at all about your current computer.

The last thing I would do in PC land is buy an off the shelf PC to run Pro Tools, I would build my own following advice in this monster thread: https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=238426 or if not able to build a PC I would look for a professionally built Pro Tools PC from companies who do this or maybe exact model HP workstation recommendations. You will want a healthy budget for those. The Avid Pro Tools approved hardware list is so minimal and behind the times it is useless.

And finally a though optimization can be critical to Windows systems, including bios settings, and possibly CPU priority and affinity settings as discussed on many DUC threads. If you are having dropout issues now I hope you have worked through all that stuff. Starting with making sure ignore errors is not checked and seeing if you get AAE CPU errors. Trying to find what IO buffer size things behave at. And seen if dropouts might be caused by interface driver issues. No idea what your current PC is but if it is half decent I would be sure to optimize it properly, troubleshoot properly and maybe consider upgrading the hardware before jumping to a new PC... all depends on what you have now and your budget.

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 03-08-2021 at 09:15 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 03-08-2021, 10:07 AM
EGS's Avatar
EGS EGS is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Chicago
Posts: 3,691
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm View Post
... I would not want to use a PC that did not have one or more M.2 PCIe/NVMe SSDs...
Agree! If I was getting or building a new rig, I'd definitely go for M.2's.

But, I've never experienced Pro Tools performance issues caused by SATA SSDs (or 7200RPM spinners) being too slow. Plus, we have disk cache now... An underpowered CPU, however, causes performance problems and/or throws error messages.
__________________
Desktop build: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz / 64GB / 4TB NVMe PCIe 4 / Gigabyte Z590 Vision D / PreSonus 2626
Laptop: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i5-12500H / 16GB / 1TB NVMe / Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro / U-PHORIA UMC1820
Ancient/Legacy (still works!): PT 5 & 6 / OS9 & OSX / Mac G4 / DIGI 001
Click for audio/video demo
Click for resume
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 03-08-2021, 10:58 AM
musicman691 musicman691 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: The Sopranos State (NJ)
Posts: 19,136
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Quote:
Originally Posted by EGS View Post
Agree! If I was getting or building a new rig, I'd definitely go for M.2's.

But, I've never experienced Pro Tools performance issues caused by SATA SSDs (or 7200RPM spinners) being too slow. Plus, we have disk cache now... An underpowered CPU, however, causes performance problems and/or throws error messages.
Amen to that. Still running SATA ssd's and their performance is good enough for my needs.
__________________
Jack
See profile for system details
iMac dead & retired as of 11/4/17

QAPLA!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 03-08-2021, 11:10 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 19,511
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

... and for around the price of good SATA SSDs you can get good M.2 SSDs. So in any new built M.2 really is the way to go. It's not just errors, it's startup time, backup time and general fastness of doing stuff. And why pay around the same for something much slower? Or at the vary least make sure there are PCIe slots or M.2 slots free for future M.2 expansion.

But that was one example, it's not just CPU and memory. There is more to consider, which is why the i7 (which is a terrible name now) build thread is so useful.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 03-08-2021, 04:37 PM
richardgreen richardgreen is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 5
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Thank you so much everyone, you're very helpful with your advice
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 03-14-2021, 02:08 PM
EGS's Avatar
EGS EGS is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Chicago
Posts: 3,691
Default Re: CPU vs RAM (Windows)

Quote:
Originally Posted by EGS View Post
10th gen i9-10900K. At the end of March 2021, the 11th gen i9-11900K will be released. 32GB (or more) RAM.
Here's some 11th gen pre-release rumors... https://wccftech.com/intel-rocket-la...up-specs-leak/
__________________
Desktop build: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz / 64GB / 4TB NVMe PCIe 4 / Gigabyte Z590 Vision D / PreSonus 2626
Laptop: PT 2020.5 / Win 11 / i5-12500H / 16GB / 1TB NVMe / Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Pro / U-PHORIA UMC1820
Ancient/Legacy (still works!): PT 5 & 6 / OS9 & OSX / Mac G4 / DIGI 001
Click for audio/video demo
Click for resume
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Pro Tools tabbed windows in MacOs - Windows configuration not working hugocentrique macOS 3 11-06-2023 05:26 AM
Audio glitches with Fast Track Ultra on Windows 10 after updating Windows 10 GregS FireWire & USB Audio Interfaces (Win) 6 12-25-2015 03:40 PM
Windows Guide - Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting.[349411] cwsand 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 9 08-12-2010 01:46 PM
Is standalone Windows Audio Drivers v8.0.3 compatible with WINDOWS XP 64 ? VonHelvete 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 6 03-28-2010 10:01 AM
Windows server 2003+windows resource manager. odysseys 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 1 06-20-2003 10:02 AM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:23 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com